Bam bam coral

[Mjrenz]

Tank info and parameters :

32 gallon biocube with stock lighting, and 55 gallon both piped to a common 20 gallon sump with macro algae and a deep sand bed in the refugium. Reef octopus 120 protein skimmer & 18w uv sterilizer.

Salinity 1.025, I use Tropic Marin pro reef salt
Nitrate 0 (api test strip)
Ph 8.0 (api test strip)
Magnesium 1350(salifert)
Phosphate .1 (Hanna ulr)
Calcium 410 (salifert)
Alkalinity 7.6 (salifert)
Temp 78

Here's my question : I've had these bam bam corals for about a year and they've been in the same spot and always thriving and growing. I haven't changed my lighting schedule and the water parameters are always quite stable. The last few weeks I've noticed that they have lost some of the vibrance in their color, aren't extending as much, and are curling back a bit compared to what they used to do. I've always had some asterina starfish in the tank and I finally ordered a harlequin shrimp today to take care of them because I found some on my zoas. Between the two tanks I have several soft corals, lps, and sps and this is the only one that doesn't look as good as it used to besides one zoa colony that lost a few polyps I picked the starfish off of. I was just looking for some opinions as to why this may be, I was thinking the asterinas but they have always been there so I'm really not sure. The cleaner shrimp has been trampling them since day one so I don't think he's the cause either. They may not look bad in the pic but they don't look like they did

 

[BestMomEver]

I watched one of those little starfish mow a path up the trunk of an SPS colony. I thought about trying to remove them but they’re just too many. My harlequin shrimp has done a great job. Some people like asterinas and some don’t. No doubt there are many species. Some might not be as nice as others.

 

[Mjrenz]

I watched one of those little starfish mow a path up the trunk of an SPS colony. I thought about trying to remove them but they’re just too many. My harlequin shrimp has done a great job. Some people like asterinas and some don’t. No doubt there are many species. Some might not be as nice as others.

They've never seemed to bother anything before until I noticed that I lost a few polyps on my favorite bright orange zoas. Maybe there's just too many of them now?

 

[Hemmdog]

Do you add iodine ever? Zoas love Iodine. Oh also those are sweet agaves I believe.

 

[Mjrenz]

Do you add iodine ever? Zoas love Iodine. Oh also those are sweet agaves I believe.

I add 4 drops of iodine every week. Possible I could be wrong on the name, an employee at my lfs told me they were bam bams when I bought them

 

[DSC reef]

Those look like red people eaters. IME they liked some nutrients in the water column and they would actually catch pieces of meaty foods. You can overdose iodine if your not testing for it too. With regular water changes you shouldn't really need to dose iodine.

 

[Mjrenz]

Those look like red people eaters. IME they liked some nutrients in the water column and they would actually catch pieces of meaty foods.

For feeding my tank I broadcast feed brine shrimp, mysis, or pe mysis with 5 scoops of reef chili every other day and pellets on the days in between

 

[Mjrenz]

Those look like red people eaters. IME they liked some nutrients in the water column and they would actually catch pieces of meaty foods. You can overdose iodine if your not testing for it too. With regular water changes you shouldn't really need to dose iodine.

Do you think that I should dose nitrates? They dropped and stayed at 0 with the api test strips after I added the deep sand bed in my refugium. I also don't want to upset my other corals or my new maxima clam you helped me with

 

[DSC reef]

I would not dose just yet. A test strip isn't really that accurate to be honest. We grew them in pretty high lighting so they are pretty resilient.

 

[Mjrenz]

I'll probably go ahead and start testing for iodine, I do change out 10 gallons every week. Do you think it would be important to have a better quality nitrate test kit to detect lower ranges?

 

[DSC reef]

I liked salifert for nitrates, pretty easy too. Good idea for iodine testing, it's easy to overdose.

 

[Mjrenz]

I guess Amazon is my next stop, thanks for your advice

 

[Mjrenz]

I would not dose just yet. A test strip isn't really that accurate to be honest. We grew them in pretty high lighting so they are pretty resilient.

I knew the test strips weren't that accurate so I thought it would be important to mention that I used them

 

[DSC reef]

Your very welcome

 

[BestMomEver]

They've never seemed to bother anything before until I noticed that I lost a few polyps on my favorite bright orange zoas. Maybe there's just too many of them now?

Dunno but I pull them out when I see them and hand feed them to the shrimp.... the circle of life thing.

 

[BestMomEver]

I liked salifert for nitrates, pretty easy too. Good idea for iodine testing, it's easy to overdose.

Red Sea has a great iron/potassium/iodine test kit. The tests are time consuming but necessary, in my opinion, when you dose those things as I do. My corals are amazing since I started dosing Red Sea Colors!

 

[Mjrenz]

Dunno but I pull them out when I see them and hand feed them to the shrimp.... the circle of life thing.

I've pulled a ton of them out and just looking around the tank this morning I counted 18 more, I've finally had enough of them

 

[BestMomEver]

I've pulled a ton of them out and just looking around the tank this morning I counted 18 more, I've finally had enough of them

Me too. Now my problem is that I’ve ordered a few serpent stars that will be food for the shrimp unless I put them in a different tank. I actually didn’t think of that when I ordered them. I’m glad I have three tanks.

 

[Mjrenz]

That is a good thing! My lfs recommend I just buy two cheap stars and rotate them between my dt and sump before the harlequin kills one

 

[Mjrenz]

I just went starfishing and pulled out 25 asterinas