Leptastrea polyps gone. Predated or what?

[KonradTO]

Hi all ,
my leptastrea looked always great with a lot of polyp extension, nice orange under blue lights and always open.
Today I noticed that few polyps are gone and theres nothing were they were before

Sorry for the picture but basically the whole top corner of the plug is empty now, while yesterday there were polyps all the way till the margin. What could be?can leptastrea polyps move? The remaining ones look ok to me..

 

[shakacuz]

what are your water parameters? how far is the light from the frag? what is your lighting schedule? what fish do you have in the tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

This happens when there is change. If you did not change light or flow settings, then look at:
Temperature (warmer?)
Salinity
Ph
Alk
Calcium

 

[KonradTO]

what are your water parameters? how far is the light from the frag? what is your lighting schedule? what fish do you have in the tank?

I will test everything asap. Lately I had NO3 and PO4 slightly higher than normal (NO3 30-40ppm and PO4 0.5 ppm) so I set up a small fuge in the filter, and I am feeding a bit less than normal (I have lots of GHA). KH as usual, since I have the AWC my alk remains quite stable around 9.5..
Lights are as usual, the frag is in the middle/low part of the tank but was doing well till now. I have clowns, bicolor blenny, sixline, ywg and a chromis.

Edit. Now that I look better it seems that there is still some orange there but the polyps are retracted all the way inside the skeleton, under blue light its easier to spot the colors.
Can they close for one day for no reason?

 

[shakacuz]

I will test everything asap. Lately I had NO3 and PO4 slightly higher than normal (NO3 30-40ppm and PO4 0.5 ppm) so I set up a small fuge in the filter, and I am feeding a bit less than normal (I have lots of GHA). KH as usual, since I have the AWC my alk remains quite stable around 9.5..
Lights are as usual, the frag is in the middle/low part of the tank but was doing well till now. I have clowns, bicolor blenny, sixline, ywg and a chromis.

Edit. Now that I look better it seems that there is still some orange there but the polyps are retracted all the way inside the skeleton, under blue light its easier to spot the colors.
Can they close for one day for no reason?

high po4 can definitely kill SPS.

 

[KonradTO]

high po4 can definitely kill SPS.

Is leptastrea an SPS??

 

[shakacuz]

Is leptastrea an SPS??

i meant, LPS, sorry. but it also kills SPS.

 

[KonradTO]

i meant, LPS, sorry. but it also kills SPS.

Ok but I am not sure its water parameters. Euphyllias would be grumpy much worse than leptastrea right? I had the impression was an easy one compared to hammers for example. My other corals are doing well. Only one that did not make it is a zoa, which shrank in size day by day and lost all the heads. Also favia and mushrooms look ok..
Anyway I will check again all the parameters. Its a bit frustrating because every time things seems going well there is something happening and people ask me to test again an again parameters.. and I guess NO3 and PO4 can change quite fast so no guarantee that they are the same as last weekend right?

 

[shakacuz]

I guess NO3 and PO4 can change quite fast so no guarantee that they are the same as last weekend right?

this is correct. but, it only fluctuates if dosing something like vibrant or if you overfeed

 

[Opes]

Your phos is not high at .5.

 

[Just John]

Your phos is not high at .5.

do you mean .5 or .05?

 

[KonradTO]

do you mean .5 or .05?

I mean 0.5. Cannot even detect 0.05 without a URL Hanna.. I either have 0.1, 0.25 or 0.5 (all quite similar in color unfortunately)
https://www.aquariophiliefacile.com/gallery/Le-Materiel/Les-test-parametres/test-sera-pic_124.htm

 

[Opes]

do you mean .5 or .05?

Good catch! I was thinking .05.

 

[Just John]

I'm not trying to be critical, just some info for future reference. When you are ready for a new test kit, Salifert tests measure that low. An ideal parameters chart from Bulk Reef Supply is below.
Due to a test kit that went bad, I once dosed my tank up to 0.4 by accident. A significant number of my zoas died and some Ricordea became very sick, but my Leptastrea didn't care and continued to grow. So, I would guess that is not the problem.

View attachment 2503012

 

[KonradTO]

I'm not trying to be critical, just some info for future reference. When you are ready for a new test kit, Salifert tests measure that low. An ideal parameters chart from Bulk Reef Supply is below.
Due to a test kit that went bad, I once dosed my tank up to 0.4 by accident. A significant number of my zoas died and some Ricordea became very sick, but my Leptastrea didn't care and continued to grow. So, I would guess that is not the problem.

View attachment 2503012

Yes it might be the problem I agree. Some users here told me that they had PO4 up over 1ppm in lps tanks and said they did not even notice. Also my euphyllias look great. At the moment leptastrea, plate coral and monti seems not too happy. Monti actually is dying I think. Other corals seems fine. I doubled the WC frequency so it should go down, and in a couple of weeks I will set up a fuge with more macros and maybe an algae scrubber.
I just hope that PO4 is the only problem and I am not getting dinos again once nutrients decrease.

 

[KonradTO]

Also I will try the salifert test.

 

[Opes]

I really like my Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker. You can really get a good idea of what is going on with your phosphates using it. With numbers so small, I really like the digital readout vs. the color chart.