Corals wont open

[SCUBA_STEVE]

Hi All, we recently got a couple corals that should open but they stay scrunched up. We added a green candy cane with 4 heads about 9 days ago and a green open brain 4 days ago. Neither has opened or showed its tentacles at all. Our levels are as follows:
SG- 1.026 / Temp- 78.4 / KH- 10 / Calcium- 460 / Ammonia- 0 / Nitrite- 0 / Nitrate- 0 / Phosphate- 0.25

The tank is a 29 gallon, we have a Kessil 350W light, and one AquaClear 30 powerhead. We have turned the light to the lowest setting so it didnt overwhelm them. Any ideas?

[SCUBA_STEVE]

Here are some pictures of the corals. Any suggestions?

http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/s_snides/media/fish005.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/s_snides/media/candycane.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[reefwars]

thats alot of light for a 30g , prob even at its lowest setting.

the pics dont show so i really cant say say much else .

[SCUBA_STEVE]

http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/s_snides/media/fish005.jpg.html?sort=3&o=2

[SCUBA_STEVE]

There it is. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,

[reefwars]

the trumpet looks like it needs some more light, the brain doesnt look too bad just a little bit of skeleton showing through.

tank looks to be a bit to new and clean so that probably has a fair bit to do with it as well......stability

[SCUBA_STEVE]

and here is the candy cane.
http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/s_snides/media/candycane001.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

[ScubaSteve]

I'm with Denny here. Too new of a tank. Those rocks are sparkling clean!

How long has the tank been running?

You can try feeding the trumpet and brain to help them along. You can try some frozen mysis. Or go to the store and buy some assorted fresh seafood (clams, mussels, prawn, crab, etc). Using fresh caught seafood is better as it is typically lower in phosphates than aquacultured seafood. Give it all a rinse and toss the lot into a blender and give it a quick whiz to get a nice, stinky mush that corals love. Toss it into an ice cube tray and freeze it (canuckgod420 puts egg crate on a tray then fills the egg crate with the mush before freezing. He get's smaller cubes that way). Thaw a cube, mix it with with RO water and use a baster to feed the corals. Give them a tiny little squirt the let them sense it, then come back in a few minutes when they've got their tentacles open. They may open open at night initially.

Feed sparingly.

[mexxedm]

Hi I was on the same boat when I started my tank.
My suggestion is to buy Bio-Spira (benificial bacteria) that instantly cycle your tank. Poor the whole bottle in the tank. The first couple weeks, watch out for ammonia. After that, get Natural Nitrate Reducer to eliminate Nitrate. You can also buy sea water in cans to boost up the system.
I don't see enough lighting in the tank as well.
All the additives I said are available at PetSmart. They are cheaper than any other store.
Good luck!

[SCUBA_STEVE]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I have about 30 lbs of live rock from a established tank in there right now. What you are seeing is just a couple peices of base rock that i added to do some aquascaping. My tank went through its cycle a long time ago now. The levels in the tank are all right where they should be and have been for months now, so i don't know if that could be it. I have the lighting toned way down right now to see if that helps at all. I will try that feeding technique. I have tried some brine shrimp in a baster before but the corals werent going for it. I haven't even seen the tentacles from the brain or the candy cane yet....is that odd? They have both been in the tank for about a week now. Anyways thanks for the the input so far.

[ScubaSteve]

Hi I was on the same boat when I started my tank.
My suggestion is to buy Bio-Spira (benificial bacteria) that instantly cycle your tank. Poor the whole bottle in the tank. The first couple weeks, watch out for ammonia. After that, get Natural Nitrate Reducer to eliminate Nitrate. You can also buy sea water in cans to boost up the system.
I don't see enough lighting in the tank as well.
All the additives I said are available at PetSmart. They are cheaper than any other store.
Good luck!

Not to rag on you, but I have to disagree. At this point, now that there are corals in the tank, I wouldn't be going for the instant cycle. That's a surefire way to kill the corals. Adding bacteria can help speed things up, but do so slowly. I used Microbacter7 when I transferred my livestock to a new tank to help things along. While it did help shorten the cycle, it did also cause some issues and I lost a few huge, very helthy colonies that were a couple years old. Best advice I ever got in this hobby: Nothing good ever happens fast in marine tanks.

Also, he has a Kessil A350W LED over a 30g. You could BBQ your corals with that. I don't think too little lighting is the issue. Probably the opposite.

[ScubaSteve]

Just an idea but could there be any chemicals going into the system? It could be anything from the wrong type of silicone, copper meds used on an old tank to rusting shafts on pumps.

[SCUBA_STEVE]

Good thought but everything seems alright. I am using just a regular gel superglue for some of the other corals in the tank, could that be it? Thats really all I can think of at this point. Does it seem weird that even when I attempt to direct feed them they dont take it?