Is my coral dying?!

[reef dude]

Ok, I've had my frogspawn coral for about 1 and a half to 2 months now, in the first month, it did good and would fully expand. Also, durring the first month, i was working on raising calcium levels from 380 up to 450(currently). Now durring the day(photo period) the corals polyps tend to shrivel up like they would if it was night time and the lights are off. I never really did this before but now every couple of times a day my coral "shrinks" and all i see is the stony base with TINY little polyp heads coming out. The actinics come on at 11 am and shut off at 12 pm/am (13 hours) and the halides come on at 12 noon and shut off at 10:30 pm. Also i have been "experimenting" with my powerheads to find the best configuration. If my coral keeps shriveling up during the day time, should i put more or less current on it???? I also do not feed it, unless it catches something on its own. ANY suggestions welcome!!!!

 

[mlm]

Frogspanw like zero current to fully expand. Can you see any bone white color at the base of the polyp?

 

[reef dude]

what do you mean by bonewhite color? I can see the hard base(tan-ish color with purple coralline)and the part where the polyps are there is like a bunch of tiny slits that look like half circles, most of which are white but some have blackish,redish, brown covering them?

 

[mlm]

I am talking about where the skin of the polyp attaches to its skeleton is it white. From what you said abou the yellow and the white where the polyp retracts it sounds like it is dying.

 

[reef dude]

ohh no! can you send me a pic of the actual part you are talking about just so i know for sure that we're both on the same page!!!!! i cant afford to have this coral die, what would cause it to do this?????????????

 

[mlm]

most likely its caused by rising nitrates. I am sorry but I do not have a picture of what I am trying to explain.