Do you have long term success with brain corals?

[wpeterson]

What is your lighting cycle? My Favia will not open up to feed until 1-2 hours after dark and only if the light levels are low enough.

Do you have bright moonlights or background light that may be preventing a feeding response?

I'm only able to feed my Favia late at night due to this. Lights out at 9pm, Favia doesn't open up until 10:30-11PM.

 

[choff]

LEDs are 7.30 to 7.30 with long ramp up and down. Each pair of t5s are on for 4 hours staggered by an hour so I have peak intensity for 3 hours .

The tank is near my tv and does get a fair amount of ambient light until approx 10 pm. I have apex moons and don't consider them overly bright. The brain is farthest from the tv though. I also did this feed close to midnight and the tv had been off for quite some time.

 

[saltwaterB]

You know my take on this one....

These Corals like low light and nutrients in the water.

Just quickly looking at your posts I would say to keep Trachyphyllia happier add more Fish and increase the T5 lighting a bit and ramp down a bit on the whites on the LED.

This is a very typical response I have heard from MANY hobbyist that use LED's....they get about a year out of a lot of LPS and then they start to recede...maybe it is the lights?????

I have and do keep Trachys for 10+ years...under Halides and T5..with moderate direct feeding of meaty foods....but definitely not a low nutrient tank...if anything the exact opposite...

ALL Brains (Acans, Favia, Favites, Lobo, Symphyllia, Trachyphyllia) all need a decent amount of nutrients in the water to do well...and not a ton of light. these types of Corals can burn very easy, and are generally collected at 20-40 feet down in the ocean...so not a ton of white light blasts them...

Personally I have never found any difference with or without moonlights or other ambient light in the room.