a little help with my trach please

[jck9]

i got this new trachyphelia about a week ago. its pretty bleached and deflated. at night it seems to inflate more. ive tried to feed it but it dosent put out its feeder tentacles. right now i have it in a low light area of the tank. i only have 4x65 watt pc but t-5s are on the way. should i just keep it in the shady part of tank for awhile? are there any tricks to get them to eat? what are some other pointers?

first day
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...rain_1-med.JPG


now
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/...ch__Small_.JPG

it looks more bleached now than it did when i got it, but i think it could be because it is inflating a little more. what can i do? would it be a prob to leave it in the dark for 3-4 days? am selling my pcs and my my t-5s should be here on thurs?

[jck9]

anyone?

[Phyxius]

I usually find it easier to feed my trach and scolymia later at night when the lights have gone off. When my halides go off and actinics kick on they tend to swell a little more and then the feeders come out. I`ll mix up some brine and small mysis and spot feed some in. They grab ahold and suck them in. I rarely see the feeders come out during the day and the fish will usually pull the food out before they can react to any dropped in them. I was told they really dont need to be spot feed as they will feed on stuff in the water column but it has not hurt them.

Bleaching is usually caused from low light on LPS and keeping it in a shaded part probably isnt best. Keep it out in mid to higher light would be better. They also like med flow in the tank
Be sure to acclimate the whole tank to the T5s when they come or you will shock all your corals with the more intense light from the T5s over the PCs

[jck9]

how should i acclimate the tank to the new lights?

[rhythmicfire]

Shorter photoperiod, or even alternate the lighting


If you don't have many corals however, it may be easier to move everything to the bottom and slowly move them up closer to the lighting over the next couple months.

[jck9]

back to the trach. what else can i do to move it along? just wait and see?

[Phyxius]

Yeah its pretty much wait and see and some TLC. They are going to recover or not at their own pace. Just give it a little better lighting, some flow and like I said some TLC and see what happens.

When we first got ours we got it at discount since it had been torn on one side which is bad for trach. We babied it along and it luckily recovered and only has a small tell tale sign it had damage at one time. We just had to let it take its time to do so.
Bleaching will improve and lessen with the better lighting over some time.

[jck9]

k well wait and see wish it luck