Show & Tell, the Hairiest & colorful Acro

[Charlie’s Frags]

What is the secret in having these great PE's? I have good water parameters and good flow and not even close to these good PE's. Just for reference, this is my HW and the PE sucks

My PE went crazy when I got rid of gfo, carbon dosing and my skimmer.

 

[29bonsaireef]

One of my favorite Indo finds in all it's hairiness, sorry for the grainy cell pic.

 

[RussiReef]

I will play.
Hugo rainbow stag.
ASD rainbow milly.
Sapphare milly.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

One of my favorite Indo finds in all it's hairiness, sorry for the grainy cell pic.

@29bonsaireef I just set up my old oceanic 29 gallon biocube as a frag tank. I was a little surprised that with no rock it only holds exactly 25 gallons of water.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

@29bonsaireef Wait....Do you have a 29 gallon or am I thinking of someone else?

 

[MrObscura]

I've noticed that i get more PE with more nutriwnts/food in the water.

But with that said, if it ain't broke don't fix it. If your corals are healthy and happy let em be. PE alone isn't indicative of health, nor is a lack thereof indicative of a lack of health.

But if your nutrient levels are very low, it could be a sign and you could definitely try bringing them up.

 

[MrObscura]

@29bonsaireef I just set up my old oceanic 29 gallon biocube as a frag tank. I was a little surprised that with no rock it only holds exactly 25 gallons of water.

It is weird how these manufacturers come up with the size/name of their tanks. The nuvo 10 for example holds 7.5g I believe.

 

[Guttersnipe]

I always see post about polyp extension not being a sign of good health but from looking through this forum all I see are nice acros with full polyp extension. I have never seen a nice sps tank where there is no polyp extension. All the acros in my tank have full polyp extension all day and even more at night. I don’t really agree with the whole idea of polyp extension is not a sign of a healthy acro. IMO I think polyp extension is a sign of a healthy acro.
If my acros stopped showing polyp extension I would be worried.

 

[MrObscura]

Who told you it's a sign of poor health? ive never heard that, and I've come across some terrible advice. frankly anyone who told you such a thing is full of it, or simply doesn't know what they're talking about.

Now some people think throwing out filaments is as bad thing, but even that's open for debate.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I always see post about polyp extension not being a sign of good health but from looking through this forum all I see are nice acros with full polyp extension. I have never seen a nice sps tank where there is no polyp extension. All the acros in my tank have full polyp extension all day and even more at night. I don’t really agree with the whole idea of polyp extension is not a sign of a healthy acro. IMO I think polyp extension is a sign of a healthy acro.
If my acros stopped showing polyp extension I would be worried.

I couldn’t agree more. If one of my acros has retracts its polyps for more than a couple hours, rtn follows 10 times out of 10. It’s the first thing I look for every single day.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Who told you it's a sign of poor health? ive never heard that, and I've come across some terrible advice. frankly anyone who told you such a thing is full of it, or simply doesn't know what they're talking about.

Now some people think throwing out filaments is as bad thing, but even that's open for debate.

I’m sure he’s talking about the idea that PE is just a sign of gas exchange and not good health.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Who told you it's a sign of poor health? ive never heard that, and I've come across some terrible advice. frankly anyone who told you such a thing is full of it, or simply doesn't know what they're talking about.

Now some people think throwing out filaments is as bad thing, but even that's open for debate.

I never said it’s a sign of poor health. What I’m saying is people who say things like,”don’t worry about polyp extension, it is not a sign of a healthy acro. As long as it is growing I wouldn’t worry.”
I don’t agree with what I just quoted.
I think polyp extension is a good sign and no polyp extension is definitely a bad sign.

 

[MrObscura]

I miss understood your opening Line of... "I always see post about polyp extension not being a sign of good health." Which, to me, made it sound like they were a sign of poor health.

Anyway, I wouldn't say a coral lacking PE is necessarily unhealthy. Not only does it depend on species, since some display PE far more than others, but also the environment it's in. I've seen plenty of large healthy colonies with little PE.

I also think there's a bit of crazy talk going on with talk about lack of PE indicating TN is inevitable. That's just going to make people think their acros are doomed. It's not a either/or, one Size fits all situation.

But enough of that, let's get back to the pictures.

 

[brian moran]

Very Hairy Milli...

 

[hatfielj]

I never said it’s a sign of poor health. What I’m saying is people who say things like,”don’t worry about polyp extension, it is not a sign of a healthy acro. As long as it is growing I wouldn’t worry.”
I don’t agree with what I just quoted.
I think polyp extension is a good sign and no polyp extension is definitely a bad sign.

In the wild, during the day, corals don't extend their polyps much at all because they have to protect against predators. Angels, butterflyfish, etc would eat the crap out of their polyps if they stayed extended all the time like they do in the aquarium environment. Polyp extension is a phenomenon of captivity. Yes, when corals are sick and dying in an aquarium, they typically retract their polyps and look bad overall. But, just because you don't have excessive polyp extension doesn't mean you have sick corals.

 

[FMF0331]

;Woot

 

[P-Dub]

In the wild, during the day, corals don't extend their polyps much at all because they have to protect against predators. Angels, butterflyfish, etc would eat the crap out of their polyps if they stayed extended all the time like they do in the aquarium environment. Polyp extension is a phenomenon of captivity. Yes, when corals are sick and dying in an aquarium, they typically retract their polyps and look bad overall. But, just because you don't have excessive polyp extension doesn't mean you have sick corals.

This is VERY true. As well, wild collected acros will not always extend polyps in the captive environment. Sometimes they will extend when they finally figure that there is nothing going to eat them during the day. I have one acro that refuses to take that chance. Full extension during lights out. I don't worry. If you want to see if you have polyp extension, look during lights out. If there is consistent polyp retraction whenever you check after lights have been off for a number of hours then, and only then would I begin to worry.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

What par do you keep that beauty under?

I wish I could tell you! I’ve been meaning to borrow a par meter from someone. It’s under radions at 100% running a modified ab setting

 

[Naturalreef]

What is the secret in having these great PE's? I have good water parameters and good flow and not even close to these good PE's. Just for reference, this is my HW and the PE sucks

Good nutrients and strong intermittent flow is what I noticed brings out good polyp extension. Depends on the SPS too, some are just hairier than others

 

[SamsReef]

I will play. Two hairy Milles...