corals all closing up half way through the day

[kozzy]

Anyone have any similar experiences/able to provide some help. Tank has been running since July'ish 2024. Basically over the past few weeks at around 4-5pm, all of my corals for the most part begin closing up. I haven't made any recent additions or changes to anything. Lights come on at 11 and off at 11 (no changes to spectrum or anything). Also all the corals have been in the tank for minimum 2-3 months (probably half of them ive had for about 5 months). I will show some photos below of what they look like in the morning/afternoon and then what they look like for the other half of the day. Also included parameters most recently taken. Thanks in advance!

 

[KrisReef]

Tank needs more water circulation, and the corals are exhausted and shutting down after a heard day of energy assimilation.

 

[kozzy]

Tank needs more water circulation, and the corals are exhausted and shutting down after a heard day of energy assimilation.

I have a spare nero 3 I could add, but I am not sure that the tank is lacking flow. Obviouslly I have the return nozzles but I also am running a the AI Orbit at around 30% which visually seems like quite a bit of flow of the types of coral I have. Not saying your wrong haha, just not sure if you noticed the gyre in the top right. Its also only 30ish gallons. Thanks for the reply ! Do you think maybe I need to shorten the photoperiod potentially?

 

[kozzy]

also do you think it would be fair to rule out any issue with the water quality as my testing seems to be within the desired ranges and is always consistent. Alongside the fact that everything is open and looking great in the first few hours of the day. I only ask because I was thinking of doing two large water changes over the next few days to see if that fixes anything.

 

[KrisReef]

I have a spare nero 3 I could add, but I am not sure that the tank is lacking flow. Obviouslly I have the return nozzles but I also am running a the AI Orbit at around 30% which visually seems like quite a bit of flow of the types of coral I have. Not saying your wrong haha, just not sure if you noticed the gyre in the top right. Its also only 30ish gallons. Thanks for the reply ! Do you think maybe I need to shorten the photoperiod potentially?

I 'm not sure I did see the gyre. Happy Day Two of St. Patrick's week. :face-with-hand-over-mouth: :cool:

 

[KrisReef]

I'm not certain, and was replying to get the conversation started and other people looking at the thread, and I did think it might be circulation. :cool:

 

[Science/G]

Alkalinity spike? Someone was cleaning the house and spraying something in the air around that time?

 

[BryanM]

Automation issue around that time maybe?

I have random corals do this, but not most/all of them at the same time.

Hope you find the cause!

 

[Lavey29]

I think your 12 hour light period is to long.

 

[Shirak]

Is this a new thing or have they done this for a long time? Your nutrients are dropping from pretty low on the 11th to really low to potentially 0 PO4 on the 17th. Test kits have a margin of error so a reading of .03ppm PO4 could really be 0

 

[Science/G]

Did you get to the bottom of this?

 

[kozzy]

Did you get to the bottom of this?

Some what. Sorry for the late response and thank you for checking in. I didn't wanna start messing with the lighting or doing anything crazy without knowing the actual problem. I just did two 40% water changes in the span of a week and that seemed to really improve things. I guess some trace element was out of wack or a contaminant in the water. weird cuz I never miss my water changes. Zoas are still all closing up mid day but there still growing all over the place so I am not too worried. I am curious tho that my light schedule decreasing whites from 30% to 10% triggers them to think its night or something. not sure lol

 

[kozzy]

Is this a new thing or have they done this for a long time? Your nutrients are dropping from pretty low on the 11th to really low to potentially 0 PO4 on the 17th. Test kits have a margin of error so a reading of .03ppm PO4 could really be 0

sorry for the late response - It started out of no where. Still not sure why everything at a certain time though. I do have p04 on a doser but sometimes things still swing downward. Dosing live phyto seems to slowly decrease my p04 so I have to to some manual adjustments every few weeks. Nutrients never bottom out in my tank, but they do swing a bit as I struggle to keep them say N above 10ppm. If im busy during the week and dont get to feed 2 or 3 times a day it really makes a difference.

 

[kozzy]

I think your 12 hour light period is to long.

I have though about making the adjustment, but just dont like messing with the lighting schedule that much. Seems to stress things out. Do you think it could have something to do with the whites significantly dropping after a few hours and becoming a bit more blue. I will say tho even after my whites drop, they are still at like 10-15% which I feel is higher than alot of people keep, especially in LPS dominant tanks

 

[Lavey29]

I have though about making the adjustment, but just dont like messing with the lighting schedule that much. Seems to stress things out. Do you think it could have something to do with the whites significantly dropping after a few hours and becoming a bit more blue. I will say tho even after my whites drop, they are still at like 10-15% which I feel is higher than alot of people keep, especially in LPS dominant tanks

Aren't your corals telling you they have had enough light by closing up in the afternoon?

 

[Science/G]

My whites back out significantly after the first few hours and my coral stay open and fluffy throughout the cycle.

I even have supplemental T5's that come on at 130 and go off at 830.

 

[kozzy]

Aren't your corals telling you they have had enough light by closing up in the afternoon?

strangely I adjusted the spectrum to have whites maintain a steady level throughout the day, but at a lower level rather than having it jump around throughout the day. They are still not starting till 2hrs into the light cycle and also taken out of the cycle 2 hours before lights out. I also increased the blues to make up for any par loss - used wattage out put as a measure for that since I dont have a par metre. But everything stayed open today. Still really dont understand what was wrong since that was the schedule they have been running on for months, but it worked i guess lol.

 

[kozzy]

My whites back out significantly after the first few hours and my coral stay open and fluffy throughout the cycle.

I even have supplemental T5's that come on at 130 and go off at 830.

I made some adjustments which I commented about above to Lavey, but lowering the whites and having them maintain a lower steady level seems to have helped. Although it is also likely that there was a water chemistry issue that a large water change last week fixed and the corals started perking up at around the same time I made adjustments to the lights.

 

[Lavey29]

strangely I adjusted the spectrum to have whites maintain a steady level throughout the day, but at a lower level rather than having it jump around throughout the day. They are still not starting till 2hrs into the light cycle and also taken out of the cycle 2 hours before lights out. I also increased the blues to make up for any par loss - used wattage out put as a measure for that since I dont have a par metre. But everything stayed open today. Still really dont understand what was wrong since that was the schedule they have been running on for months, but it worked i guess lol.

Blue and uv should be at 100% while red, green and white should be at 25%. Hope your corals continue to improve.