Polyp extension question

[COReefer]

Ok I have a red planet acro that was extremely bushy. Huge polyp extension. I just switched my reflectors from some really bad hamiltons that were in a fixture that I stripped out to some pfo reflectors. Now it has hardly any polyp extension at all. My clam which is at the very top of the rockwork (crocea) is also partially closed most of the time. Is this sorta behavior normal. The only other thing in the past 6 months that I have changed is a vodka dosing regimine and the lack of pe started a few days before hand. Oh and my lights are 400 watt sps 14k run on a pfo pulse start ballast. The bulbs are 10 inches or so off of the water and the clam and RP are both about 10 inches under.

 

[Sikryd]

Reflectors can change the par from 100-400 easily, depending on the condition of the old ones to the news ones. I would suspect it is from the new reflectors, but you should have other things going on with other corals in the tank - like browning up and stuff.

 

[COReefer]

I have a couple of burnt tips in places on certain ones. I didn't realize it was going to make this big of a difference. I have other colonies that seem to be loving it. My red planet doesn't look bad, i has always been way more bushy than the other ones i've seen. now it just has really short polyps but atleast I can see the green in it now.

 

[Sikryd]

I would check your alk just to make sure. High alk can cause the problems listed, including the lack of pe, clam closing, and burnt tips.

 

[COReefer]

alk is at 10, ca at 400, mag 1400ish

 

[Sikryd]

A swing is what I worry about on alk mainly, but if it has been at 10 for a while, then it is probably only due to the other thing you changed. (Kind of why I do a kind of log of tank stuff - so I can see where the changes were, and possible causes)

I run my alk ~7, so if it swung to 10, then I would probably have problems including what you listed above, with bleaching usually.

Sounds like you have answered it on your own with it being really the only change that you can identify. I run my RP about 14" down in my tank, to get the green and color up nice.

 

[COReefer]

I keep my alk and ca stable with a ca reactor and havent touched it in about a month since I put media in. I hope that's it. I may dial my lights back a hair.