Poor SPS polyp expansion?

G

GraviT

Premium Member
I know I'm going out on a limb on this one, but does anybody know what would cause all of my SPS to show poor polyp expansion? I used to take pride the fact that all of my montis looked fuzzy, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why that changed. My millipora look happy, but the rest of my acros rarely display polyps during the day. SPS color and growth is great, I would just like to see more polyp expansion, especially on corals like my Tyree Rainbow Danae.

Parameters:

SG - 1.025
Ph - 8.28
Temp - 80.9 F
NO3 - 0
NO2 - 0
Ammonia - 0
phosphate - undetectable w/ current kit

Working on these - tested 09/22
Ca - 370
Mg - 1140
Alk - 9.6

I've been raising the Mg with ESV suppliments. Once that's where I want it (1300), I'll work on the Alk and Ca. I also drip kalk 24x7. Water movement is provided by the Iwaki return and 2 MJ 1200s with the nozzles cut off on a Chauvet which switches once every 36 seconds. I run Purigen and Phosguard 24x7, but have since very early on. I do 25% water changes once a month w/ Kent salt. I'm stumped and haven't been able to find any useful info on the subject.
 
There are some good threads about this in the SPS forum on RC. One thing that has been noted is that just because the polyps are fully extended or not, that doesn't mean the coral is unhappy. Three people can have the same coral in similar setups, and one will have full extension, another medium and finally the third very little and yet all three corals will still remain colorful and healthy.

This is one of those areas that is kind of debated, and I don't know that anyone has the real answer. I've seen corals in Keith's tanks that are furry with polyps, but in my tank they aren't. Which is aggravating. :roll:
 
@Matt wrote:
Are you sure you don't have the dreaded red bugs? They don't seem to affect fuzzier corals such as Millepora's but seem to affect most others. They have a pretty dramatic effect on polyp extension and growth over all. Is this some that has happened as of late or have most of your SPS shown poor polyp extension all along? You don't have any Butterflies or other fish that might be nipping at them do you? said:
I'd say it started earlier this year, and has pretty much been the same for the past 5 or 6 months. I don't have any butterflies, but I suppose it's possible that my coral beauty is being naughty when I'm not looking. I haven't noticed any red bugs and my SPS growth has been great.

Thanks Marc, I'll browse through RC and perhaps just accept that at least they are colorful and growing.
:roll:
Click to expand...
 
I don't know if this will help but my husband hadn't added any strontium&molybdenum for like 2 weeks. The montipora started looking less and less fuzzy and the mili was looking more like the "stick" we nicknamed it.
Not too long after adding the elements they all came out. Now he never forgets.
Also, do you dose with phyto?

That's all I can input, good luck :)
-Catherine
 
As stated it is not a great indicator for health. When you look at night are the polyps fully extended?

As Matt stated red bugs could easily be the culprit.

Another thing that would definitely not hurt is to add more flow. With an Iwaki 30 and only 1 maxijet on at a time (due to the wavemaker) you are only getting 800GPH max and probably more like 700GPH. Less than 15 times in either case. You could easily double it and still not be in high turnover zone for an SPS tank.

Go ahead and raise your alk a little but there is nothing in your parameters that is off enough to cause an issue for sure.
 
Catherine, I haven't dosed strontium & molybdenum in quite a while as the strontium test is a pain in the backside. Talk about complicated..sheesh! Also, these elements are included in my Mg suppliment as well as in the Tropic Marin Bio Calcium that I started using yesterday..I wouldn't want to over dose anything! I'll break out the test and give it a check. On the topic of phyto, no, I don't dose. In my opinion, it's really just adding extra phosphate to the system and I stopped using it months ago. My zoas, clam and refugium critters all seem just fine without. I know others won't agree with my point of view, so don't jump me on this one! :lol:

Keith, I do get full extension at night from everything in the tank, from LPS to SPS. My Kh is up to 11 now, with Mg around 1200. I won't deny the red bug issue, but I can't remember the last time I added a coral to my tank without a Lugol's bath. On flow , I had more but a Seio 620 that lasted a couple of weeks died on me. I haven't rushed out to do anything about it as I'm trying to get my other tank up and running.

It could be my imagination, but I think this 55 is getting a little crowded and I just seem to keep adding more. Here is about 1 1/2' of the left side:

crowd.sized.jpg
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I have not dosed any phytoplankton in almost 10 months, so that is almost certainly not the problem. If you are using a good salt mix, then you should be getting the strontium there. Your magnesium is pretty much inline, at least times the calcium levels. You have a mixed tank, may be some coral that close by is a big irritant. The way that Bill showed how that leather completely turned around after removing a mushroom is proof that neighboring corals can have a big effect if they are close enough.
By the Lugols does not effect those red bugs in any way, so that would not have stopped them form entering your tank. Eric Boerneman did a test with Lugols on an acro with redbugs. He had to dose the Lugols in so high a concentration to kill the redbugs that it killed the coral.
If like you say those corals have good polyp extension when the lights are out, maybe they are too close to the light. In all honesty though, I would also lean toward those particuliar acros being affected by red bugs.
 
If they extend at night and not during the day time, it is also quite likely that the fish are snacking on polyps occasionally. Fish tend to rest at night. I can shine a flashlight on a coral for a few minutes, and it'll retract its polyps. Once it sense total darkness for a while, they re-extend again.

With the amount of fish I have in my tank, polyp extention only occurs at night.
 
Just doing some research because I'm looking into polyp extension. I was in Plano Pets yesterday and their display across from the coral tanks has a lot of SPS and the polyp extension is crazy. They have a tort that looks like a bush and some milli's that are just plain hairy.

After seeing this I'm trying to figure out why my SPS have very minimal polyp extension.... :sad:

I added a another Tunze stream yesterday to eliminate flow and I only have a tang, 6-line, and clowns, so I know it's not the fish.
 
You too huh? I stop by there at least once a week and stare in wonder (it's about 3 minutes from my house). I'm still trying to figure it out. I even switched salt to Reef Crystals to mimic what they use. One guy did say that they started using AragaMight! in the top off water to control Alk and Ca, but I doubt that's the secret.

I did battle red bugs already, but even my montipora look way less bushy than in the past.
 
I lean towards the amount of light blasting down on them and maybe the amount of available plankton in the water for the polyps to feed on.
 
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