bubble trouble
 

Having trouble with a bubble coral, somehow it has not fared as well as the rest of the corals in my tank. I have a frogspawn, glove coral, a toadstool, and several zoo's, and all of them are showing rapid growth. The bubble, however, it doing the opposite. I have 4 54w T5's, and the coral is at the top of the tank, could too much light be enough to cause discomfort with the coral?I've had the coral for about 2 months now. It is at a good distance away from other corals. CA = 430, hardness =9.5

Bubbles seem to like a lot of light IME. Mine was small and started out in my nano cube. When I moved it to the big tank under XM 250 MH it really started growing and now it expands to 12" or so across and 6-7" vertically. It is middle to high in the tank. They like a lot of food so make sure it has the opportunity to catch it.

Lisa

From what I have read, in their natural environment, bubble corals are found under overhangs or in protected caves, so they do fine with lower light. But they can adjust to most lighting situations. They also prefer low to medium flow. My bubble coral is in a slightly shaded area under PC lighting and does very well. I feed it several times a week with mysis. Maybe you could try moving your bubble coral and see if it does better in a different location in your tank.

Yes, not having too much flow is very important...It seems to me that the more light you give it the less you must spot feed this coral.

OK, thanks. Whenever I feed the fish, I always try to aim at the bubble coral, I usually feed brine shrimp and phyto-plankton, think the coral can eat some of this or should I try mysis? I just moved it to a lower spot, I'll check once I get home the the powerhead's flow does not go near the coral.

Brine is a terrible staple for fish (and coral). You need to get a lot more variety in diet into the tank. You should be feeding a wide variety and get rid of the brine and use mysis instead. Brine is a treat but not a dinner. Feed lots of different foods to your reef.

Lisa