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WDKegge
Well-Known Member
Pretty much, nothing I did seemd to bring it back to how it once was.
Calling all SPS experts! Cracking the case of the missing polyp extension and stalled growth!
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Pretty much, nothing I did seemd to bring it back to how it once was.
biecacka
Valuable Member
Interesting. I just see it get mentioned a lot as you said you do too. I never get PE either but I don't have a 100x turnover either. But I do have dwarf angel fish which could be responsible
Pests were ruled out??
I didn't realize it was a revived thread/post, I was going to say to add some ME Polyp extender and sit back while the polyps blow up LOL
My acros (polyps) went insane when I first gave it a try but gradually acclimated to the new nutrients and subsided a bit.
Sorry to read things never turned around-
Pests were ruled out??
I didn't realize it was a revived thread/post, I was going to say to add some ME Polyp extender and sit back while the polyps blow up LOL
My acros (polyps) went insane when I first gave it a try but gradually acclimated to the new nutrients and subsided a bit.
Sorry to read things never turned around-
What’s this polyp extender?
Keeping nitrates in my tank and dosing trace elements has changed my SPS keeping life for the better!
I never ever saw any benefit to keeping my nitrates super low other than worrying about my alk jumping and burning my sps.... never ever again. My fish love me for it because they are going to need jenny craig before you know it!
Its a product by "ME Corals" not to down play it, but its "another" amimo acid.
Over the years every amino Ive tried has great results initially but over time the corals(acro's that is since that's all I do)just seem to revert to the same as they were before.... gorgeous
Every 1-2 years a new kid moves into the neighborhood and tauts to be the newest greatest elixer so I gotta try it.
Some use the term "snake oil" LOL but if you're lacking some polyp extension give it (ME Corals) a shot, or acro power, or Elos, or Red Sea or, or, or.......
Sorry for the long answer
Sabellafella
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Have you had any unexpected temp swings in the past?Hello Reef2Reef! I have had quite the conundrum lately and I am hoping to possibly find my answer here.
LONG READ, PICTURE HEAVY!
A little about my system:
Tank: Elos 70, 55 gallon display, roughly 70 gallon total water volume
Flow: Mp40 (reefcrest 60%) and RW-8 (50% random mode) Ehime 1260 return pump
Lighting: two xr15 pros with wide angle lenses running coral labs SPS AB+ schedule at 70%
Filtration: SWC 160 cone skimmer, refugium with chaeto
Tank paramaters
ALK: 9.0 DKH
CALC: 450
MAG: 1360
Temp: 78
Dosing is done automatically VIA BRS dosing pumps through my apex with ESV 2 part. Alk and calc are checked weekly, mag once a month.
Salinity: 1.025 (calibrated refractometer) Never fluctuates via auto top off
Phosphate: 0.02 (Hannah)
Nitrate: not tested
Tank inhabitants
Pair of clownfish
Kole Tang
One spot foxface
Mystery wrasse
Starry Blenny
Misc snails and hermits
Weekly maintenance
10% water change (Red sea coral pro)
Weekly dosing of Acro power
The Problem
The tank has been up for close to a year now an up untill about 3 months ago everything was doing stellar, I was having excellent growth, polyp extension and color on all my SPS, I would get a frag from a friend, dip it, and throw it in my tank and I would start to see growth within a few days. Coraline was a borderline nuisance and I was scraping it off the glass DAILY.
Over the course of the past 3 months things have begun to show some issues, SPS that were previously beyond fuzzy with PE started to recede and lose color. They wouldn't quite die, and would very slowly keep encrusting, but never seemed to bounce back.
For instance:
Red planet, previously a giant fuzzball:
No namer Before picture:
After:
Here are closeup pictures I took of this coral to check for bugs: http://imgur.com/a/fi4M4
Other things losing skin/ no PE:
Pac Man:
Myagi tort, losing skin from base up, no PE:
Before:
Pearlberry, no PE lost the main part of it, cut it off to stop STN, base still alive:
Purple Stylo: no growth in months, STN on bottom:
In this time frame I also lost a very large colony of bird of paradise, it seemed to begin to lose its polyps and turned into a skeleton slowly over the course of a month. I also lost several other nice reef raft pieces that were given to me from a friend within a week of getting them, when I received them they had crazy PE while even in the container, and had great PE for about a day in my tank before losing all PE and then slowly melting over the course of a week.
All these pieces are scattered across my tank and not located in one spot either.
I still have other acros and SPS in my tank that seem to be doing just fine with fantastic PE and color but I have noticed their growth has slowed to a crawl. Coraline has also come to a standstill, and am noticing it actually receding in some places, as if it's being eaten away by something.
Things that have changed in the tank since this all has started:
Removal of sandbed, I had a VERY shallow sand bed of a heavy grain that I slowly removed over the course of 2 months during water changes.
Switched the radion lenses from narrow to wide angle, I upped my lights output by 10% to compensate for the loss of power, I got an overall better spread with the lights, so I cant imagine it was a huge shock.
If there is any other information I can provide please let me know, my friends in the hobby and local reef club seem to be at a loss so I am hoping the experts here on R2R can possibly shed some light on this mystery!
Its a product by "ME Corals" not to down play it, but its "another" amimo acid.
Over the years every amino Ive tried has great results initially but over time the corals(acro's that is since that's all I do)just seem to revert to the same as they were before.... gorgeous
Every 1-2 years a new kid moves into the neighborhood and tauts to be the newest greatest elixer so I gotta try it.
Some use the term "snake oil" LOL but if you're lacking some polyp extension give it (ME Corals) a shot, or acro power, or Elos, or Red Sea or, or, or.......
Sorry for the long answer
Ahh. Aminos. I’ve been dosing Acropower with zero observed results. I keep dosing because, I have it sitting there.
biecacka
Valuable Member
Matt,
I am not saying for sure that the fish doesn't nip at the coral. I'm just saying if they do, hey don't when I'm around :mad:. Either way, I seem to get decent growth and have began to feed more to appease the fish, and in return, I seem to see some polyps showing up. They aren't fully extended, but seem to be more present than previously.
Corey
I am not saying for sure that the fish doesn't nip at the coral. I'm just saying if they do, hey don't when I'm around :mad:. Either way, I seem to get decent growth and have began to feed more to appease the fish, and in return, I seem to see some polyps showing up. They aren't fully extended, but seem to be more present than previously.
Corey
When corals are happy, 2-3% can be an insane and sudden change. 10% at once? That's crazy. It could be a lot of other stuff, and maybe this was mentioned before in the three pages.. But flags don't come more red than this.
You should be doing no more than 1-2% per week man. And some corals can't handle that 1% at once either.
I would check you Nitrates, because O ppm is not really a good thing. After a time I recently did a dosing process of Nitrate for an experiment. I added Nitrates for a 1ppm/60gallons dose every other day or two. Am now getting polyp extension improvement. exp/ still in progress 5 days so far. Will do a battery of tests this weekend. I'm using sodium nitrate(Reagent Grade) I get it off Amazon. Solution Mix for .8ppm/gallon concentration : 8oz. RODI Water + 2.5g Sodium Nitrate(Mix till crystals are all gone) ( Did the math for 60g single dose (1ppm) 37.5ml) Now remember this 1ml solution/2 gallons water = .8ppm Also 10grams of sodium nitrate will make 1 liter of solution Good luck
Plenty of people increase lighting by much more than 1-2% per week.
When acclimating new frags by moving them up the rock work, who is able to move them by 1/4in at a time so as to not go up by more than 1-2%?
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