candy cane

My GF has a problem with her candy cane coral. I am too far from her to test everything. She can only test three things.
Ammonia-o
PH-8.3
salinity- 1.024
Has led Par30 bulbs
She has no fish and various zoas and palys. Those are growing and doing well. Multiplying quickly.
Well the problem is that her candy cane is turning a lighter color on two of seven heads and doesn't look good. The largest two heads have great color and seem to be getting slightly bigger. The other haven't changed.
I can't figure out what is going on. She hasn't seen feeding arms either.
Any guess on what is going on?
If the candy cane doesn't improve I will be taking it in nurse it back up.
Thanks guys.

 

Could placement in the tank be the issue, with respect to lighting?

If it is turning pale she might consider moving it down in the tank for awhile and see if it improves.

Another thought would be is it being stung by a near by corals such as euphyllia.

 

No there is no coral near it. I told her it could be bleaching out, so she moved it down today. I guess we will see how it goes.

 

What are the other parameters? Did she change the light, or always have it? It could certainly be a light acclimation issue. They do not need much light and can be tricky to acclimate to light IME. How are other corals?

 

Aggreed with the above posts, i have had 3 types of candy cane in the past, and IME they all like the same conditions..I keep them in higher flow and in about medium to high lighting area...Mid way to top of the tank..

What is her lighting? Compared to zoas and palys, candy cane needs a little more lighting, so if she has some crappy lighting then that could be a problem..And also, get her to test those other params ASAP.

 

Like stated above, she can't test anything else. I usually test her stuff and make sure it's running smooth. It was a week ago. She has always had the light. The others are growing great and always open. I told her to put it lower in the tank as of today and put more current on it. Now it was medium light and medium flow. I thought it could be a light issue.

 

She has the Par30 BoostLED bulbs over it, same as my tank. It was high in the tank closer to the light, so I told her to move it down a bit.

 

Alright, what about flow? They like higher flow IME. I tested this with two of the same type of them..One if low light and low flow, the other the complete opposite high flow and high lighting(top of the tank) and the one in the higher situations looked better and opened better. And also what about temp? mine bleached in temps above 84 degrees F. I was gone in LA for the vacation and had a tank crash a while ago(Just so you guys dont think i have bad husbandry! haha)

But since there is no params that we can tell if something is out of whack, then what im saying might not help.

 

Why can she only test 3? I'm guessing you know most LFSs will test for you, but maybe it isn't convenient? You may not realize some big chain stores will test the others for you as well, if they are more convenient may be worthwhile... just a thought.

Anyways, if everything else is looking good, I'd still guess lighting. Or predators/irritators, I'm not sure what predators/irritators would be other than brown jelly or possibly protozoans. Could try a coral dip I guess if the lighting dosn't seem to help. Also, is she running carbon. candy canes may be somewhat more sensitive to toxins than some other corals.

 

The temperature is 80 degrees and I told her to up the flow near the cane yesterday. I thought if the params are out of whack, I would think the whole coral would be affected not just two heads. I hope to go there this weekend to test all I can and figure out what is out of whack.