All of a sudden, no polyp extension?

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 09:19 AM

About a week ago, most of my acros started having almost no polyp extension, and I really don't know why. They still seem to be growing and overall fine, but they're not as fun to look at. I really don't know what has happened. I can think of three things that changed;

- I turned my lights up a very small amount, about 2 or 3%. I have since turned them back down and waiting on results.

- I dose aminos/trace elements in small amounts, once a week. I did this a day or two before the extension went away

- New batch of salt seems to have higher mag than the old one, and my mag is about 80 - 100 ppm higher than I had it before (it's now at 1440).

All my other parameters are stable and in normal range.

Does any of this sound like it would cause it? I don't have any nippy fish either.

vinhle00 · 09/15/2016, 09:29 AM

Have you gotten new corals in the past few months? I would check for bugs, aefw.

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 09:36 AM

I forgot to mention I have done that too

. I will keep checking but I don't see anything in there. One of the corals that actually hasn't changed much is a mille and I hear those are bad for bugs.

SPS911 · 09/15/2016, 10:03 AM

So odd, because I was about to post the same thread. My initial thought always goes to pests but I QT and have inspected them with a ogles mesoscope and they are clean. Looking forward to others ideas

vinhle00 · 09/15/2016, 10:07 AM

What kind of lighting do you have? What about recent change out or addition of GFO?

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinhle00

What kind of lighting do you have? What about recent change out or addition of GFO?

LED/T5 setup. I have been running the LED's (AI's) at about 75 - 80% for a while, I felt the tank was too dim and shimmery and some acros were brownish so I added the T5's maybe six weeks ago and have been turning them up about ten minutes every 3-4 days. Right now I am at 2 3/4 hours with them. I have no signs of bleaching, and color is better. I have been running GFO on the tank since day one, phosphate is typically in the .01 - .04 range depending on how much I feed.

Temp - 78
Ph 8.0 - 8.2 depending on time of day
Salinity - 1.0255
Calcium 420 - 430
Alk - 8.0 - 8.1 (I test this 5-6 times a week and it's always this amount, to the point I thought my Hanna was fubarred but I double checked it last night against a know sample at 6.8, and it was correct. In the last two months I may have had two or three tests at 7.8 - 7.9). I'm using kalk in my top off at 1/2 saturation.
Mag - 1440
Nitrate - 6-8
Phosphate - last night was .042 one hour after I fed pretty heavily.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

vinhle00 · 09/15/2016, 11:08 AM

At this point i would assume its the light. i would go much slower on the changes.

dieselkeeper · 09/15/2016, 11:17 AM

Any angel fish? I have an acan colony that had polyp extension 24/7. Until I added a swallowtail angel. Which is supposed to be reef safe. A day or two after adding her, the acan colony had no more polyp extension. Only coral in the tank that lost it. I watched for a week until I caught the angel in the act.

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinhle00

At this point i would assume its the light. i would go much slower on the changes.

OK, I'll scale it back a bit more and go slower. I thought I was going pretty slow already

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dieselkeeper

Any angel fish? I have an acan colony that had polyp extension 24/7. Until I added a swallowtail angel. Which is supposed to be reef safe. A day or two after adding her, the acan colony had no more polyp extension. Only coral in the tank that lost it. I watched for a week until I caught the angel in the act.

Nope. Two clowns, six line, azure damsel and that's it. All my LPS are still opening like normal.

markalot · 09/15/2016, 11:38 AM

Spy on the tank at night, or very early in the morning and see if you have polyp extension. If so then someone or something is nipping, otherwise keep looking for a source. If everything lost extension at once I might suspect either a contaminant or possibly electrical. Any cheap pumps you can afford to unplug for a few days to see if anything changes?

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 12:37 PM

I have a good multimeter, if I check the water for voltage, is there normally any at all? What number would be considered maximum?

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 01:31 PM

Doing some reading it looks like if there was stray voltage, the GFCI would trip (which I do have my tanks on). I also put my hands in the tank a lot to get test water and never had a problem. I'll try lowering the light levels and bringing them up more slowly.

bobssecrtsn · 09/15/2016, 06:50 PM

Have you recently replaced carbon? That may be something to consider

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobssecrtsn

Have you recently replaced carbon? That may be something to consider

No it's about three weeks old

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 08:13 PM

I don't know what is going on. I have a purple efflo and a green birdsnest side by side, and some brown algae has started growing on the tips I know is a bad sign. I just tried to blow it off with a turkey baster and tissue/polyps came off of them. Just a week ago they were doing (what seemed) great.

Potatohead · 09/15/2016, 09:59 PM

Talking to myself (lol) but I decided to turn everything down for a couple weeks and see what happens. Turned my LED's down 7-8%, cut the T5 photoperiod by 30 mins, and raised them a couple inches. I guess now we wait and see.

bps619 · 09/16/2016, 12:35 AM

This might now be it but recently I had no PE and rtn/stn on my acros. Come to find out it was because of my rodi. My membrane was toasted. I did some Water changes with the LFS rodi and it seemed to bounce back. Got my color and PE back. Something to think about it and good luck.

Grant W · 09/16/2016, 01:19 AM

Mag over normal range can give a bit of a burn. Maybe drop back to 1350 range.

Potatohead · 09/16/2016, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bps619

This might now be it but recently I had no PE and rtn/stn on my acros. Come to find out it was because of my rodi. My membrane was toasted. I did some Water changes with the LFS rodi and it seemed to bounce back. Got my color and PE back. Something to think about it and good luck.

Checked that, it's ok, still testing zero. My tap is only 14 to begin with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grant W

Mag over normal range can give a bit of a burn. Maybe drop back to 1350 range.

In the process but it's a bit tough since the salt is mid 1400's when mixed. I could mix in a lower mag content salt I guess.

I do think it was lighting for two reasons - Any of the damaged polyps on my birdsnest are on the top side, and my red planet had some green on the base until a couple weeks ago when it started to turn lighter red, and then a few days later the polyp extension stopped. I have a green monti cap that is a little faded also. My tank doesn't look at all that bright but I guess LED's are pretty strong. I am going to leave at the new lowered setting are for at least two weeks and observe, and then increase my T5 photoperiod slowly without touching LED intensity.

Reel North · 09/17/2016, 05:42 PM

Nitrates and po4 are low too. I run my sps like a dirty pig lol.

I haven't really tested po4 for a long time, but I clean the glass maybe every 5-7 days! I have chaeto in my fuge that isn't actually doing very well right now ( no nutrients) but my sps is lit right up and I can literally see the growth daily.

I feed a TON. Equivalent of 4-5 cubes of mysis, a clip of nori, and 4 feelings of pellets.

If you have changed salt (why?) and your mag jumped, odds are there are some minerals or other inclusion in the other salt that is now missing and the corals don't like it.

I used to mess around with my tank a lot.

I went back to radiums with a reefbrite xho and everything took right off.

Stop adjusting and changing, and feed feed feed.

I don't even use carbon or gfo.

Take the carbon off. Difference might surprise you

Potatohead · 09/17/2016, 10:26 PM

You're not the first I've heard that thinks dirty is better. The ULNS movement that has been popular seems to be being challenged lately. I'm trying to stay somewhere in the middle.

My problem was/is definitely lighting. Thinking back there were some signs that I attributed to something else at the time, and was simply wrong. I also thought if it was too much light the corals would be turning white but with LED that doesn't seem to be the case. The tank also looks quite dim so it's really deceiving. I don't know if there's any way to brighten a tank without adding par, that may be a dumb question. About half my acros now have at least one burnt tip or small spot of stn

. A few were throwing mesenterial filaments today also. I have a bit of brown algae on a few tips, should I just let them do their thing or should I cut the tips off? I don't want to stress them any more.

I tested my water again today and everything is basically the same, but alk went to 8.3 for the first time in forever I am assuming because nothing is growing anymore, so I took the kalk offline for now. I set the LED's about 15% lower now and reduced the T5's to two hours, and also raised them.

Right now kinda bummed and ticked at myself, but I'm not going to give up... I think most of them still have a fighting chance.

andy67 · 09/17/2016, 10:44 PM

At this point I think I would wait it out for a couple of weeks and see if you see any changes.

Potatohead · 09/18/2016, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andy67

At this point I think I would wait it out for a couple of weeks and see if you see any changes.

Ok, I'll leave them alone. Thanks

Potatohead · 09/30/2016, 09:44 PM

Well, here we are almost a couple weeks later... About half my SPS is slowly crashing, I can't figure out why. I reduced the lights even more but I'm starting to wonder if that was even the issue because things are not slowing down. I have four or five corals that seem to be doing fine , but the other day it was seven to eight and now a couple more are stn'ing from the base. I have checked for pests and don't see any, only thing I see at night are snails and pods, and I have four millepora which are apparently bad for pests, and all four are among the corals that are seemingly doing ok. I doubt it's related but I'm getting some brown turf algae growth on the back glass I never got before also. I have been feeding more in an attempt to help the corals heal, so I guess that's probably why.

I'm really at a loss and will probably end up removing a bunch of corals this weekend. My euphyllia, acans and zoas all still appear to be basically normal.

09/15/2016, 09:19 AM	#1
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	All of a sudden, no polyp extension? About a week ago, most of my acros started having almost no polyp extension, and I really don't know why. They still seem to be growing and overall fine, but they're not as fun to look at. I really don't know what has happened. I can think of three things that changed; - I turned my lights up a very small amount, about 2 or 3%. I have since turned them back down and waiting on results. - I dose aminos/trace elements in small amounts, once a week. I did this a day or two before the extension went away - New batch of salt seems to have higher mag than the old one, and my mag is about 80 - 100 ppm higher than I had it before (it's now at 1440). All my other parameters are stable and in normal range. Does any of this sound like it would cause it? I don't have any nippy fish either.

09/15/2016, 11:17 AM	#8
dieselkeeper Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Down south Posts: 198	Any angel fish? I have an acan colony that had polyp extension 24/7. Until I added a swallowtail angel. Which is supposed to be reef safe. A day or two after adding her, the acan colony had no more polyp extension. Only coral in the tank that lost it. I watched for a week until I caught the angel in the act. __________________ 210 gallon, 75 gal sump/refugium, 3 Tunze 6105 on 7096 controller, AT I Sunpower 8 bulb T5 lighting, Apex controller. 40 gal breeder/20 gal sump frag tank

09/15/2016, 11:38 AM	#11
markalot ... Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Florence, KY Posts: 3,806 Blog Entries: 3	Spy on the tank at night, or very early in the morning and see if you have polyp extension. If so then someone or something is nipping, otherwise keep looking for a source. If everything lost extension at once I might suspect either a contaminant or possibly electrical. Any cheap pumps you can afford to unplug for a few days to see if anything changes? __________________ -- Mark 150G (72x18x27) \| 35G sump \| SRO-XP2000INT Skimmer \| ATI SunPower T5 / NanoBox LED hybrid 60" x 4 + 8 NanoBox v3.1 arrays

09/15/2016, 06:50 PM	#14
bobssecrtsn Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 686	Have you recently replaced carbon? That may be something to consider __________________ 130G Leemar 36x36x24

09/16/2016, 01:19 AM	#19
Grant W Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Petaluma,Ca Posts: 2,840	Mag over normal range can give a bit of a burn. Maybe drop back to 1350 range. __________________ Really honey, I'm not going to buy anything at the fish store I'm just going to have a look. The Other Pres. at Wine Country Reefers. Current Tank Info: 120 gallon SPS dominant tank, custom lighting, etc, etc

09/15/2016, 09:29 AM	#2
vinhle00 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 201	Have you gotten new corals in the past few months? I would check for bugs, aefw.

09/15/2016, 09:36 AM	#3
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	I forgot to mention I have done that too . I will keep checking but I don't see anything in there. One of the corals that actually hasn't changed much is a mille and I hear those are bad for bugs.

09/15/2016, 10:03 AM	#4
SPS911 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Westchase Posts: 302	So odd, because I was about to post the same thread. My initial thought always goes to pests but I QT and have inspected them with a ogles mesoscope and they are clean. Looking forward to others ideas

09/15/2016, 10:07 AM	#5
vinhle00 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 201	What kind of lighting do you have? What about recent change out or addition of GFO?

09/15/2016, 11:08 AM	#7
vinhle00 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2010 Posts: 201	At this point i would assume its the light. i would go much slower on the changes.

09/15/2016, 12:37 PM	#12
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	I have a good multimeter, if I check the water for voltage, is there normally any at all? What number would be considered maximum?

09/15/2016, 01:31 PM	#13
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	Doing some reading it looks like if there was stray voltage, the GFCI would trip (which I do have my tanks on). I also put my hands in the tank a lot to get test water and never had a problem. I'll try lowering the light levels and bringing them up more slowly.

09/15/2016, 08:13 PM	#16
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	I don't know what is going on. I have a purple efflo and a green birdsnest side by side, and some brown algae has started growing on the tips I know is a bad sign. I just tried to blow it off with a turkey baster and tissue/polyps came off of them. Just a week ago they were doing (what seemed) great.

09/15/2016, 09:59 PM	#17
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	Talking to myself (lol) but I decided to turn everything down for a couple weeks and see what happens. Turned my LED's down 7-8%, cut the T5 photoperiod by 30 mins, and raised them a couple inches. I guess now we wait and see.

09/16/2016, 12:35 AM	#18
bps619 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2014 Posts: 60	This might now be it but recently I had no PE and rtn/stn on my acros. Come to find out it was because of my rodi. My membrane was toasted. I did some Water changes with the LFS rodi and it seemed to bounce back. Got my color and PE back. Something to think about it and good luck.

09/17/2016, 05:42 PM	#21
Reel North New King of Quarantine Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Hammertown, Canada eh Posts: 1,175	Nitrates and po4 are low too. I run my sps like a dirty pig lol. I haven't really tested po4 for a long time, but I clean the glass maybe every 5-7 days! I have chaeto in my fuge that isn't actually doing very well right now ( no nutrients) but my sps is lit right up and I can literally see the growth daily. I feed a TON. Equivalent of 4-5 cubes of mysis, a clip of nori, and 4 feelings of pellets. If you have changed salt (why?) and your mag jumped, odds are there are some minerals or other inclusion in the other salt that is now missing and the corals don't like it. I used to mess around with my tank a lot. I went back to radiums with a reefbrite xho and everything took right off. Stop adjusting and changing, and feed feed feed. I don't even use carbon or gfo. Take the carbon off. Difference might surprise you __________________ It takes a very rich man to buy cheap things Current Tank Info: frag tank. Lame

09/17/2016, 10:26 PM	#22
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	You're not the first I've heard that thinks dirty is better. The ULNS movement that has been popular seems to be being challenged lately. I'm trying to stay somewhere in the middle. My problem was/is definitely lighting. Thinking back there were some signs that I attributed to something else at the time, and was simply wrong. I also thought if it was too much light the corals would be turning white but with LED that doesn't seem to be the case. The tank also looks quite dim so it's really deceiving. I don't know if there's any way to brighten a tank without adding par, that may be a dumb question. About half my acros now have at least one burnt tip or small spot of stn . A few were throwing mesenterial filaments today also. I have a bit of brown algae on a few tips, should I just let them do their thing or should I cut the tips off? I don't want to stress them any more. I tested my water again today and everything is basically the same, but alk went to 8.3 for the first time in forever I am assuming because nothing is growing anymore, so I took the kalk offline for now. I set the LED's about 15% lower now and reduced the T5's to two hours, and also raised them. Right now kinda bummed and ticked at myself, but I'm not going to give up... I think most of them still have a fighting chance.

09/17/2016, 10:44 PM	#23
andy67 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: Discovery Bay Ca Posts: 147	At this point I think I would wait it out for a couple of weeks and see if you see any changes.

09/30/2016, 09:44 PM	#25
Potatohead Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Vancouver Posts: 1,596	Well, here we are almost a couple weeks later... About half my SPS is slowly crashing, I can't figure out why. I reduced the lights even more but I'm starting to wonder if that was even the issue because things are not slowing down. I have four or five corals that seem to be doing fine , but the other day it was seven to eight and now a couple more are stn'ing from the base. I have checked for pests and don't see any, only thing I see at night are snails and pods, and I have four millepora which are apparently bad for pests, and all four are among the corals that are seemingly doing ok. I doubt it's related but I'm getting some brown turf algae growth on the back glass I never got before also. I have been feeding more in an attempt to help the corals heal, so I guess that's probably why. I'm really at a loss and will probably end up removing a bunch of corals this weekend. My euphyllia, acans and zoas all still appear to be basically normal.