Crown leather will not open.

[Lisaod12]

I have had this leather for several months, at first it did really well.
Than about a month ago it decided to shed, which is normal. The problem is that since than, the coral has not opened. It looks to be alive, al though I did see some brown stuff on the base of it.

I did just put in some new lights about 10 days ago and I was hoping that the coral would be happy and open. So far nothing.

I'm worried about it. The rest of my tank is so happy. The Xenia looks like it never has, and is pulsing like crazy. My Phos and Nitrates are 0, my cal is a bit low, but dkh is 12. I am also getting some algae growth, which I can not understand. I cut back on my feeding and just added crabs, snails and hermits.

I have no idea how to make this coral happy, and it's making me sad :cry:

Any help would be great. I did go from 220 watt to 430 watts of light.
Could it be it's just adjusting?

[matt]

Have you noticed anything different in your stony corals? Is your leather a sarcophyton? If yes to both, you could be witnessing chemical warfare. That's just a guess, there are all sorts of possibilities. Could be adjusting to the light.

Your algae is almost certainly related to the light increase. I'd cut back on the photoperiod and get the siphon out to remove what you can. Probably the hermits won't do much except get whatever they can from your sandbed:> Try a diadema urchin to graze on algae, although that really only works for some types of algae.

HTH
Matt