PE extention

[Saltgator]

Dips are done and all seem to be ok. No red bugs that I could see, no AEFW either. About 20 bristle worms and 3 stars were all I could make out. The stars were on the monti and the bristles were on all. Maybe a 100% GSP tank so no worries is more my style (LOL)!

 

[Chameleon]

It wasnt a monti eating nudibranch was it??

Dip started (we'll see what happens). Something already has come off my monti cap (whitish looking, spiked thing. Sorry, can't see or tell exactly what or how to describe it yet).

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[Saltgator]

It wasnt a monti eating nudibranch was it??

Not that I'm aware of.




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[Saltgator]

Well, 24 hrs after the dip and nothing new other than more losses. Tri color looks fine, monti cap looks faded, RP lost some color. Guess it's back to the drawing board and looking at my numbers again. GSP is looking like a winner winner to me right about now (lol).

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[arotbart]

Pe extension

You mentioned that you had some star fish that dropped off when you dipped. If they are the asterina variety, this could contribute to lack of PE. I have heard/read mixed things about these. Anything from they eat Acropora, to they don't eat the tissue, but bother the acro enough to cause problems. If you don't have any "killer" wrasses, you may want to add a harlequin shrimp or two (if you dont have any star fish you want to keep alive). they do a good job of controlling the Asterina population. I have a 180 and put three in there and in about a week to 10 days they took care of the problem.

 

[Pkunk35]

Well, 24 hrs after the dip and nothing new other than more losses. Tri color looks fine, monti cap looks faded, RP lost some color. Guess it's back to the drawing board and looking at my numbers again. GSP is looking like a winner winner to me right about now (lol).

Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

Maybe run some polyfilter and see if anything shows up? The discussions about salt mixes on the boards has me looking at every little thing these days...maybe polyfilter can help distinguish if something is in the water that shouldn't be.

 

[zemuss]

Is it just a PE issue? Are there any color loss? Possibly a ALK swing?

 

[Saltgator]

You mentioned that you had some star fish that dropped off when you dipped. If they are the asterina variety, this could contribute to lack of PE. I have heard/read mixed things about these. Anything from they eat Acropora, to they don't eat the tissue, but bother the acro enough to cause problems. If you don't have any "killer" wrasses, you may want to add a harlequin shrimp or two (if you dont have any star fish you want to keep alive). they do a good job of controlling the Asterina population. I have a 180 and put three in there and in about a week to 10 days they took care of the problem.

Thanks. The stars were asterina (2 of them). I'm looking at a few wrasses now for issues like these.


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[Saltgator]

Maybe run some polyfilter and see if anything shows up? The discussions about salt mixes on the boards has me looking at every little thing these days...maybe polyfilter can help distinguish if something is in the water that shouldn't be.

Thanks. Will do.

Country Boy using tapatalk on his EVO

 

[Saltgator]

Is it just a PE issue? Are there any color loss? Possibly a ALK swing?

No color loss just PE and RTN. My Alk is brs 2 part and hasn't changed a bit. The only thing Alk related is a month ago I reduced the amount of Alk 2 part to adjust to my likings and lower my Alk reading (a month a go it was 11). I'm double checking my #'s again tonight.



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[Chameleon]

He wasnt saying et wrasses he was saying get harlequin shrimp. he mentioned wrasses because some will fuss with shrimp and kill them

Thanks. The stars were asterina (2 of them). I'm looking at a few wrasses now for issues like these.


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[bmac16]

when i was running biopellets i kept my alk at 7ish. i thought you were suppose to keep a low alk with ulns? i had a similar prob but, i also had color loss in most sps. since i have removed biopellets and returned my alk to 10-11 and my tank has never looked better. Colors are just about back to normal and PE is great. did you have a problem before to add biopellets? ....are they really needed in your tank? ....just some questions i asked myself when trying to figure out what was wrong with my tank.

 

[Saltgator]

when i was running biopellets i kept my alk at 7ish. i thought you were suppose to keep a low alk with ulns? i had a similar prob but, i also had color loss in most sps. since i have removed biopellets and returned my alk to 10-11 and my tank has never looked better. Colors are just about back to normal and PE is great. did you have a problem before to add biopellets? ....are they really needed in your tank? ....just some questions i asked myself when trying to figure out what was wrong with my tank.

Thanks. The lack of PE was present prior to the biopellets. I started biopellets due to how often I feed my system. My regal angel eats twice a day minimum and the amount of tangs love the feedings too. Other than a lack of growth and PE on my sps frags, my system looks awesome. My ritteri took a bad cut that caused a severe gash leading to 2 nems (I lost the smaller half) has already got size back plus some.

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[Saltgator]

Update: Had the numbers checked against the LFS store ( a certain guys there does a aquarium maintenance there that I trust with numbers). As follows:

Nitrates: .02
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0
Phos: 0
PH: 8.1 (water test was a few hours later, so)
Cal: 430
Alk: 9
Mag: 1600 (need to be brought down)
Salinity: 1.032 (my refractometer was off, I thought I was at 1.028. Will be dropped over the next few days, little by little).

Any thoughts?

 

[CUNAReefer]

Hi Saltgater,

Sorry to hear of your issues. If you can confirm that your PE issue is not due to a pest, then there are three issues IME that can/will cause a lack of PE.

1) low flow. If your flow is not sufficient to constantly move all of the polyps, then you can have issues with PE. The goal is to have flow strong enough to ensure polyp movement, but not strong enough to make the polyps look like they are in a wind tunnel. I have experience with stunted growth due to over powering laminar flow.

2) lighting. As a previous poster stated, you can place a coral in lower light to see if it will improve. I have a echinata in my tank that will show PE on lower shaded branches, but will not show PE on the brightly illuminated branches. At night, all polyps are extended.

3) starvation. A lack of nutrition (such as 0 phates and trates for an extended period of time) can cause lack of/no PE.

one additional possibility, but I doubt that it is impacting your PE

4) low potassium. As a ZEO user, I experienced this first hand. The ZEO media removes potassium along with ammonium. When my K+ levels were close to 320, I experienced slow to no growth and retracted PE. Of course my tank was being starved at the same time, so that also didn't help any.

Good luck with your issue.

James

 

[Saltgator]

Hi Saltgater,

Sorry to hear of your issues. If you can confirm that your PE issue is not due to a pest, then there are three issues IME that can/will cause a lack of PE.

1) low flow. If your flow is not sufficient to constantly move all of the polyps, then you can have issues with PE. The goal is to have flow strong enough to ensure polyp movement, but not strong enough to make the polyps look like they are in a wind tunnel. I have experience with stunted growth due to over powering laminar flow.

2) lighting. As a previous poster stated, you can place a coral in lower light to see if it will improve. I have a echinata in my tank that will show PE on lower shaded branches, but will not show PE on the brightly illuminated branches. At night, all polyps are extended.

3) starvation. A lack of nutrition (such as 0 phates and trates for an extended period of time) can cause lack of/no PE.

one additional possibility, but I doubt that it is impacting your PE

4) low potassium. As a ZEO user, I experienced this first hand. The ZEO media removes potassium along with ammonium. When my K+ levels were close to 320, I experienced slow to no growth and retracted PE. Of course my tank was being starved at the same time, so that also didn't help any.

Good luck with your issue.

James

Thanks James. I've dropped them to the sand bed and my LEDs are 13'' over the DT (24'' tall), redirect the flow several times, and checked at night for PE. All these and nothing. I'm just going to watch them I guess 4 now.


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