clavularia not opening what conditions does it prefer?

[dido]

Hi, I recently purchased a nice colony of Clavularia at my LFS. It was fully open in the store and was fully open for the first day in my tank. It has since mostly retracted, a few partially open. I have it placed fairly high in my tank, could it be getting too much light? It is just getting slightly blown upon by my "hydor" rotating water nozzle. See attachment for picture (clavularia is above tangs head). As you can see, I am having a problem with some kind of algae as well. It is not normal hair algae, it looks like feathers close up and is very strongly attached to the rocks. Everything else in my tank is doing well: mushrooms, candy coral, zoanthids, all growing well. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

my pH is 8.0, alkalinity 3.5 DK, Phosphates 0.2, calcium 700 (too high from what I understand) I am running carbon and phosguard. It is a 95 gallon bowfront Oceanic tank.

 

[Len]

Try moving it down. They are not high light corals, so that may be it. They also usually take several days to weeks to acclimate, so patience is probably the virtue of the day.

 

[Len]

BTW, I'm surprised Dido was an available username I was infatuated with her voice for a long time (unless, of course, your name references the mythical dido which I have no idea how she sounds )

 

[Anonymous]

I would either move it down or give it a week or so.

 

[Anonymous]

How are you dosing your calcium? A decent calcium test kit will help you keep it in the right range. It's a wee tad high, yeah

 

[dido]

Should I do some water changes to bring the calcium level down from 700 or let the organisms use it up? Incidentally, Dido is the name of my dog, I had no idea that there was a singer using the name.

 

[Fozza]

Anytime I've run carbon with xenia's, clavularia or the sort, it seems to have a bad effect on them. As soon as I remove the carbon they spring to life.

Not saying this is the answer, just another thought.