Polyp ID please and care? Pic included! They are diminishing.

[cirionrc]

The orange polyps are diminishing. The whole rock was covered with these. Was thinking maybe too much light? Am running 5x54w 48" HO, all actinic except 1 10000k bulb. The whole rock is turning white. When I do a water change and use turkey baster and blow rock, the purple coralline flakes off. Any cause of this?

Salinity: 1.024, Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite - all zero, Alk: 3, pH 8.1, CA: tester says 520 but determined that tester is faulty and sending back to lfs.

The green polyps are doing great, but they also diminished like 1 months ago and no new polyps have formed.

For both of these, are there additional additives I need to add. I supplement coralvite and iodine.

[thebkramer]

I'm sorry for your issues :(
My first thought is your ALK.. is that meq/L or dKH?
Also your salinity is on the low side.. it should be up to atleast 1.025 to 1.026.. that resembles closest to real ocean waters. Corals and anemones do better in the higher range. I personally don't recommend adding anything unless you know your tank is depleted of something.. especially if you can't test for it! I only say that because of your Ca being high possibly.

[cirionrc]

Alk is 3 meq/L.

[thebkramer]

I am dealing with the same issue with my BTA.. exact same! In my case though... I was given my BTA because he was knocking on deaths door and I am now bringing him back.
I'm stumped for you because you water chem seems fine besides possibly the Ca.. have you tested you Mag? Are there any other issues? I'm running more light than you are and I only have a 55g.. so I don't think that is the issue

[Sharpie_]

It certainly looks like a water quality issue, coraline is hard to kill unless your alk/ca/ph is way off. I suggest getting your water tested by a secondary source to confirm that your water is in fact good.

Those are just zoos which shouldn't be hurt by too much light (I have a colony 6 inches from the surface with a 400W 14000K XM bulb right above it) you don't have any pests that may be eating them do you? or a

[SMT6h]

many polyps need a bit of iodine in the water. Skimming takes that out readily, as do all other corals and algaes as well. Are you adding any amount of iodine?

[Mish1]

I can vouch for the iodine. My zoos were doing so so and then I started dosing iodine once a week and the difference is amazing.

I should also add that I had orange zoos that did the same as your and eventually died. My green zoos were doing okay. I started dosing the iodine once a week and my green zoos really responded well and I added orange zoos two weeks ago and they are responding well.

Here are some pics of my zoos.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/mish79/IMG_0262.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v386/mish79/IMG_0263.jpg

[cirionrc]

Ok cool. I need to get iodine test. So how often do they reproduce? Just want to monitor them. Like 1 a week, or 1 every 2-3 week?

[tanan]

Feed them and they ll get out of control!