Red People Eaters look poorly

tinctorus · Sep 2, 2012

Hey guy's I cant seem to figure out why my RPE's look TERRIBLE!
They had been doing great for 4 months and added about 7 new polyps to my colony and then randomly 3 weeks ago they stopped opening up 5 polyps died and they have shriveled up to about 1/4 there normal size and none of it makes any sense to me at all

All of my other corals are doing fantastic and growing like crazy, My duncans have added 6 new heads in a month or so, my frogspawn just split, my mushrooms and 8 other zoa colonies ALL look great and are growing, my GSP has been fragged 4 times in a month and a half but my RPE's are doing awful

It's driving my nuts because I REALLY like them alot, I tried moving them to higher light, lower light, more flow and less flow and nothing seems to work, I do a 10-15 gallon water change every week or every other week and my water tests perfect

I have 4x24 T5HO's and I dose B-Ionic 2 part and Vinegar daily and nothing else
I have been dosing Vinegar for around 2 months now and noticed a big improvement in the tank from doing so and I know the Vinegar dosing is not the issue

Any help would be appreciated
Thank you

Loki · Sep 2, 2012

When things start to look bad the first thing I do is put them into the shade. It usually helps.

thewackyreefer · Sep 2, 2012

Have you given them an iodine dip? Always seems to cheer up my z's and p's.

blaten · Sep 2, 2012

I don't have anything to add other than to agree that iodine dips have helped me in the past. Palys especially can be very finicky and a lot of the best reefers on this site have had them melt for seemingly no reason whatsoever. Good luck, I wish you the best.

tinctorus · Sep 2, 2012

Does it need to be a dip in something like Lugols iodine or would something like the bright well aquatics iodine work?
I only ask cause I have a half a bottle of the bright wells that I was using before I switched over to just dosing 2 part and vinegar "which works way better BTW than adding 15 different things" if I needs to be lugols I will go pick some up
Or would the coral Rx dip work better?

tinctorus · Sep 3, 2012

BUMP, does anyone else have any advice?
I am going to the store in a few minutes and I will pick up some lugols iodine to make a dip, I may also pick up some specific coral dip as well just to have on hand

I dont currently dip any of my new corals anyways because I know where they come from are all disease/pest free tanks and after 15 years of doing this I have never had a single problem doing things the way I do

Tenor · Sep 3, 2012

That is typical reaction from RPE. Lugol will not helpful. You need to find the source of the problem. Did you add any corals or frag next to it laterly? or do something

different laterly?

tinctorus · Sep 4, 2012

Tenor said:
That is typical reaction from RPE. Lugol will not helpful. You need to find the source of the problem. Did you add any corals or frag next to it laterly? or do something

different laterly?

I have added new frags to the tank but nothing close to them that would be hurting them at all, nothing has been fragged in my tank at all, And like I mentioned I only dose 2 part and vinegar to the tank but they were doing great with that dosing regimin and then just took a nose dive for the worst, Im really bummed cause these were some of my favorite zoa's

Tenor · Sep 4, 2012

tinctorus said:
I have added new frags to the tank but nothing close to them that would be hurting them at all, nothing has been fragged in my tank at all, And like I mentioned I only dose 2 part and vinegar to the tank but they were doing great with that dosing regimin and then just took a nose dive for the worst, Im really bummed cause these were some of my favorite zoa's

You could move it to the place with moderate flow (away from power head) and medium lighting (middle of your tank) and leave it alone. It might recover. Good luck

tinctorus · Oct 10, 2012

Tenor said:
You could move it to the place with moderate flow (away from power head) and medium lighting (middle of your tank) and leave it alone. It might recover. Good luck

I moved both of my 12-15 polyp colonies into a medium/higher low light area "I dont know if that makes sense to anyone but its basically a low light area that isn't in complete shade, I also have a nice moderate flow going over the mini colonies and they just look like straight up DOOKIE!!

I am at a complete loss because all of my other zoa's in that tank are doing great and spread VERY fast but with these I have ALWAYS had a problem with them opening up, then when they do "open" its like a flag at half mast kinda open...

I know that RPE's are typically one of those zoa's that either do great or slowly dwindle away and I would REALLY hate to lose either of these colonies as they are some of my favorite types of zoa's...I just dont know what else to do...Like I said ALL my other zoa's and paly's do AMAZING!!! I have eagle eye's, cinnamon grandis paly's, nuke green paly's and they all do AMAZING and have ALL added 5 new polyps each in the single month they have been in the tank..Also FWIW ALL of my other corals in the tank to AMAZING and grow like wildfire

my Rose mille has grown 1/2"taller in a month, ORA bird of paradise has added 4 new stalks in a month, 50+ head acan colony has added 9 new heads in 2-3 months, duncan coral went from 2 heads to now 12 heads in less than 3 months

I was debating on starting to add some type of Amino acid supplement to the tank, something like the salifert "if you can find it" or possibly the new amino acid suplement called "acropower" from TLF that will be out shortly...BUT apparently the the salifert coralline Amino Acid supplement is the best on the market according to the blogs I have read as well as a few other websites

Acro power
AcroPower is a new amino acid supplement to turbocharge stony coral growth

Salifert Coralline Amino Acid supplement
Salifertâ€™s Coralline AminoAcids is a well-kept secret for encouraging stony coral growth

Also FWIW the the Salifert has an AMAZING growth/color effect on SPS corals