open brian help please

[brody98]

I have had 3 open brain corals in the almost 5 yrs I have had a reef tank and none of them would ever "open up" very well. All my other corals have always done well and spread. I have no idea what I'm not getting enough of or too much of. My water is as close to perfect as I can get and the only thing I can think of is the lighting. I have 10,000k 175 watt mh and 7100k blue bulbs and I have tried all three on the floor and almost every height and it makes no difference, are the 175's not bright enough or do I need to change to vho actinics? I have never killed one but I just can’t seem to get one to open up. I have a 75g that is 20in deep and the lights are 7in off the top. Any ideas welcome.

[KillBill75]

Brody, I have a friend with a 55 gallon 18" deep by 48" wide and he only uses Powercompacts and he has great sucess with them, I also know that he is not a stickler on his dosing regimen and may have less than perfect water parameters. So maybe there is something else going on.

[brody98]

I thought it might be too much light in the beginning but I have seen them under 400 watts before and doing well. Don’t know I’m stumped on that one

[SEAWORTHY]

I use orbitz lighting on my 125 g. and feed with cyclopeze one a week, our green open brain coral is almost constantly open and is on a rock about 12" away from lighting. I also feed a mixture of both live and frozen (defrosted of course) w/ turkey baster every other day over the corals.

Could it possibly be the water temp.? Sal. level?

[brody98]

Temp is constant @ 78-79. sal @ 1.025 it does open at night to feed but closes up again in the morning.

[seedyn]

I find my Open Brain does best around 75-77 Deg. F. They are funny creatures. I have had mine for Nearly seven years with various lighting. I started with 4 florescent tubes (2 daylight, 2 actinic). I nearly quit the hobby and let my tank deteriorate, but the Brain lived on. I was beginning to think this animal was indestructable. I replaced the lights with 4 PCs, cleaned it up, but I then had a heater problem, and the temp got quite high (83+). It really damaged the brain. It has taken quite a while for it to recover, but it is almost back to normal now.

[brody98]

so do you think 78-79 is just a bit too warm for it?

[seedyn]

I don't think that range is catastrophic, but my experience has been that the animals look better at a range of 75-76.

[brody98]

I think I might try to lower it a degree or two over the next few weeks to see if it makes any difference. I just have never had any luck with open brains for some reason. Thanks Ill let you know if it makes any difference.

[Chuck S]

Actually just my 2 cents here

Open Brains are from Lagoon area and inner shore sandy bottom areas.

In general the temperature of these waters would be WARMER than the surrounding reef by a bit so I would have to seriously disagree with the validity of the observations in this thread. They are not use to cooler waters and in general the reefs range from 78-85 as a norm looking at records for the past 20years or so.

You might want to rather make sure that the Trachyphyllia is in a spot suited to its needs. Water flow although not direct and plenty of light.

[brody98]

My tank is roughly 18-19 inches deep with the sand and I have my lights 6 inches off the tank with an open top, but it has the 10 inch wide center brace. I have moved it 4-5 times and never have had it open up except at night to feed. Where do you think you would place it? I haven’t changed the heater yet so my temp is 78 in the morning and 79 when the lights shut off. I have 175w halides, would you put it directly under the bulb or off to the side? Giving the tank depth and the light situation with height and wattage how high would you guess it needs to be to get the correct amount of light? I would just like to see it open, I don’t think I'm killing it or anything I’ve had it for 2+ yrs and it never opens unless it is dark. Do you think I need stronger lights? Or maybe move my lights down an inch or two? If you have any ideas Chuck that would be great. Thanks