Why are my clove polyps drooping?

zgolego

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I have some firework clove polyps that have gone really droopy and the stalks are thin and can't seem to support themselves upright. The bases of the adult cloves seem to be wasting (?) almost. This has been going on for about a month.

They have been sprouting new heads every so often which look healthy and strong but all the adult polyps are all wilty and droopy, and I think some have died as well. When I had them near the top of the tank they were a bit shriveled so I moved them into a lower light, slightly shady area where they opened well but went droopy.

Salinity stable 1.026 sg, lid for evaporation, top off with RODI
pH ~7.5
Nitrate ~3 ppm
Temp stable 77-78 using inkbird

I only run carbon and filter floss. Phosphates/calc/alk I haven't checked (do softies care?), but I don't run a skimmer/chemical filtration (other than carbon) and feed my fish and coral regularly and only have 2 fish, 3 snails, zoas, leather, GSP, mushrooms, RBTA and even a goni which are all doing fine, so I would think my water is fine.

The cloves act normal, opening during day and mostly closing at night, and even respond to feeding of small foods. Checked a few times for pests like clove-eating nudi and have basted the plug but haven't seen anything. I did run a light dose of chemiclean for a small chronic cyano problem about a month ago, but no casualties.

What could be causing this? Has anyone seen this before? Should I look into my calcium/alk? I got cloves because they were supposed to be easy and low-tech, and at the LFS they looked fine.

clove.jpeg tank.jpeg
 

TX_REEF

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I'd get that PH up (SLOWLY) to 8-8.4 if you can. This will go along with raising ALK which I'm gonna assume is quite low given your Ph. It can't really hurt to give them a coral dip as well to eliminate the possibility of pests.
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

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