Polyp extension on SPS

[04V10]

Hey everybody,

 

I was just looking for some recommendations as to helping out 2 of my SPS corals. Here's some history on the tank.

 

It is 9 months old.

20 gal high

Running an AC70 with fuge mod with Live rock, chaeto, and chemi pure elite.

1 koralia 240

1 hydor 180

Eshoppes HOB skimmer

Radion LED's

 

I have a variety of LPS, 3 SPS, and a clam in it for coral. I have 2 clowns and a six line wrasse in it for fish. Then the normal cleanup crew (Snails, hermits).

 

Recently I moved my tank back in July and had an issue with Cyano due to disturbing the sand bed. That however has been gone for about 2 weeks now. To combat this I had added the skimmer and the AC70 with Chaeto, live rock , and added chemi pure elite. I was running a marineland penguin filter without the bio wheel prior and it had the carbon in the filters at the time.

 

What is going on is I have a slimer that has crazy polyp extension and looks great, however my tri colored acro recently has not had the extions it had before and it looks like some of the polyps are gone, just a small hole in it's place. The other Acro that I have used to have some small polyp extension, but they are completely retracted now. The color on the acro looks like it is browning a bit, and the tri colored acro still looks nice and pink.

 

Everything else looks great and the clam is definitely growing as I can see new shell development.

 

I am using Red Sea Coral Pro salt.

 

My params are as follows:

Ca 410

Mg 1280

dkH 7

pH 8.2

Nitrates 0 (yes I know there probably is some, but my test looks good..lol)

Ammonia 0

Phosphates 0 (though there is a slight color change so there is definitely residual)

Temp 78

 

One thing that I also noticed is that my hammer doesn't look like it is as full as usual either.

 

Just looking for any suggestions as to what could be my issue, or to help point me in the right direction. Do you think that I should run my skimmer on a timer rather than 24h? Should I get rid of the AC70 and put the marineland penguin back on there? ( I didn't run the bio wheel).

 

Am I able to dose buffer ( I have red sea buffer) to raise the dkH without dosing for Ca and Mg? Some buffer came with a dkH test so I have it, just not Ca or Mg (I live in a small town around 3hrs away from a saltwater store..lol. However I could order some in)

 

Thanks a bunch.

[Mitch619]

You might be bleaching them with the radion. What setting do you have it on?

[04V10]

You might be bleaching them with the radion. What setting do you have it on?

 

I have it on the artificial setting. I did have the lighting max at 35%, however I did bump it up to 40%. I never even thought of that. Maybe I should cut back the lighting!!! Come to think of it, things were really good up until around that time, which was around a week or so ago.

 

Any other ideas would be great guys. Mitch, I am going to reduce the lighting back to 35% at the brightest time of day and reduce the rest of the curve back to where they were. That would be weird to have my 1st choice as the best setting for everything.

[21093r53]

alk and mag are low, how about flow?

 

so is ca though and at 40% power in a 20h i doubt youre bleaching i have sps six inches below the water under a 250wt halide in a 25 cube. and my reflector is only about a foot above the water.

[04V10]

alk and mag are low, how about flow?

 

so is ca though and at 40% power in a 20h i doubt youre bleaching i have sps six inches below the water under a 250wt halide in a 25 cube. and my reflector is only about a foot above the water.

 

The flow is pretty good where they are located. Not laminar and nice and turbulent, but not too much. Maybe the hammer is not looking too good because it's getting too much light. It's on top of another piece of LR getting alot of light, I might have to relocate it. I just find it funny that after the most recent addition of SPS, the older tri colored accro is having issues.

 

I do need to get some suppliments going as I already do a 20% water change every week. I'm probably going to order tomorrow.

 

Can I add some buffer alone to bring up the alk a bit withouth working with the mag and cal?

[21093r53]

The flow is pretty good where they are located. Not laminar and nice and turbulent, but not too much. Maybe the hammer is not looking too good because it's getting too much light. It's on top of another piece of LR getting alot of light, I might have to relocate it. I just find it funny that after the most recent addition of SPS, the older tri colored accro is having issues.

 

I do need to get some suppliments going as I already do a 20% water change every week. I'm probably going to order tomorrow.

 

Can I add some buffer alone to bring up the alk a bit withouth working with the mag and cal?

 

 

i wouldnt because then your pH is going to be affected, work on them together and slowly

[NanoTopia]

Corals have to be acclimated to new light sources.

[04V10]

Corals have to be acclimated to new light sources.

 

 

You bet. It was acclimated to the radions at the previous settings and looked okay.

 

Update though, as soon as I got home from work I cut back the lighting back to it's previous settings and the polyps came out slightly within about a 1/2 hr. I'm going to leave it where it is until I can get some Ca and Mg suppliments to begin dosing and raising params where they would be optimal. I'll let you guys know when I start to increase everything and let you know how it goes.

[04V10]

Well here's an update of my current issue. I have raised my lights in output to 48% at their maximum during the day. I have also lowered them to 8" above the water as to where they were supposed to be hanging. Mine were quite high before.

 

Things were looking pretty good and I have to say my LPS are freakin huge now...lol. I think everybody is liking it. I did see some more polyp extension off of the sps that I was concerned about. However not too much increase in colour, although I know it will take a bit of time with that. Though one is really looking nice and pink like it did in the store and is losing it's brown colour.

 

Second to that. I did a test on how much elements were being used in the tank, as well, I thought I would increase the elements back to where they were when I started the tank with my Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. So far I have upped the Ca to 445ppm, the Mg is at 1340ppm, and the dKh is up to 8.4.

 

On that note, as soon as I hit the 8 mark with my dKh the colours all of a sudden popped on the sps that I have been concerned with. I am going to be bringing the dKh up to 11-12 as per the red sea suppliment program that I am using, as well the Ca will be 460, and the Mg will be 1390. I am currently in the process of upping these throughout this week. If things look good I will increase the light slightly after I get my params where I want them. I did notice that I have a high use of alk in my tank throughout the week as it dropped from 8 to 6.4 over the week (this was when I did the test over 7 days to figure out my dosing regime).

 

Anywho, just thought I'd let you guys know things are looking a bit better and I am hopefully on the road to recovery!!

[uglyfish]

Good to hear. It's amazing how small changes can make a big difference.