Pink Lemonade Polyp Extension Issue

[M3P]

I have had a pink lemonade colony for several years. it is about 6-7 inches long and a few inches wide. Recently I have noticed that only the front edge has new growth tips (yellow) with long polyp extension. About 90% of the coral has become a dark color and has no PE or new growth tips. It's almost like the rest has gone dormant. There is no algae or dead spots on it, so I know it's alive, but I don't know what may be causing this.

I will run labs and get some pictures later this week, but was wondering if anyone else has experienced this with an SPS colony? For what it's worth, a second piece I'm growing in my frag tank on a frag plate has also done a similar thing, so it may be a phosphate issue or something else? All other corals (95% SPS) in the tank are doing great.

Thanks!

[CoralNerd]

What's your p04 at? My p04 is .20 something and it's a big colony and it's pe is not what it use to be either.

[M3P]

PO4 is high last time i checked. Will check again later this week. I have a few extra take offs from my manifold to add a GFO reactor if needed.

[rvareef]

mine likes a lot of light and flow, when its happy youll get sky blue new growth and should have excellent polyp extension

[CoralNerd]

Originally Posted by rvareef

mine likes a lot of light and flow, when its happy youll get sky blue new growth and should have excellent polyp extension

Huh, I get sky blue growth on other corals. I have a large colony of Pink Lemonade and I'm pretty sure the new growth on this coral is not sky blue....it's yellow

[rvareef]

Originally Posted by CoralNerd

Huh, I get sky blue growth on other corals. I have a large colony of Pink Lemonade and I'm pretty sure the new growth on this coral is not sky blue....it's yellow

if youre running leds you can achieve this, very easy to see sometimes on smaller frags where the outer encrusting rim on the base will get sky blue

[CoralNerd]

I've ran leds, then t5s, now back to leds.
Maybe you're thinking of Pink Floyd or another acro.

[jda]

This coral is a magnet for pests. I know that nobody thinks that they have pests until they look REALLY hard, but I do suggest that you do. Pink Lem and Tricolor Valida are AEFW magnets.

It also could be phosphate. I find that yellow acros struggle with P over .1 for most folks - not all, since there are always exceptions.

[rvareef]

Originally Posted by CoralNerd

I've ran leds, then t5s, now back to leds.
Maybe you're thinking of Pink Floyd or another acro.

nope, if youre having trouble with polyp extension I doubt youre able to get those colors, i've got the blue rim under t5/reefbrites before and also under strictly led

[rvareef]

its easy to see on frags, once the branches start shading the rim it goes away, mine gets a sky blue outer rim, then sometimes gets purple/pink before going to the bright yellow/green. I've only seen it do this when its getting blasted with light. not my pic of one thats all blue

[Kattkrazie]

I had the same issue with a shortcake acro that I've had for 2 years. During the first year, some of the branches turned a darker color and the corallites looked almost closed up, so no PE of course. I'm fairly certain it was caused by high phosphates since I wasn't checking them at that time (too busy with other things). I did keep up with water changes and just let the corals fly by the seat of their pants. The good news is that once I got phosphates down to an untraceable amount, the shortcake regained its deep green color with great polyp extension and has doubled in size. Wish I could post pics of before and after but I'm new to the forum and haven't mastered that yet.

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by jda

This coral is a magnet for pests. I know that nobody thinks that they have pests until they look REALLY hard, but I do suggest that you do. Pink Lem and Tricolor Valida are AEFW magnets.

It also could be phosphate. I find that yellow acros struggle with P over .1 for most folks - not all, since there are always exceptions.

mine were at .47 the other day before doing some water changes and its never been happier and harrier. This hobby never seems to make any sense to me.

[M3P]

Glad to hear that others have seen similar issue with high phos. will work on getting them down. still need to get a test kit.

I did find that my alk had drifted down to 5.1 on a salifert test kit, so I started increasing my Ca reactor effluent and testing daily alk and calcium. alk up to 8.0 now and calcium has remained stable between 450-500. i really haven't seen a difference in the pink lemonade yet, so my guess is the phos is the issue.

Side note, I did have a salt bucket that was nasty (tons of brown residue from Reef crystals) that may have been causing high phos? I have since cleaned that container as well.

[jda]

Hannah Ultra Low Checker HI736 is a good phosphate test kit.

The precipitate from the RC is inorganic... not phosphate.

[M3P]

Just got my Hanna phosphate meter and rechecked level. It read as 0.00. The only thing i've done since my friend visited and checked with the ultra low checker was 3 water changes. At this point I'm thinking either the low alk caused it do get angry or there is some contaminant in the water. I plan to send off an ICP test. The pink lemonade is still alive, but appears to have some recession at the base. I'm not convinced fragging it will help as the frags of pink lemonade I made previously look the same and don't have PE either.

[tmantaylor18]

start with dry rock? how long has the tank been up?