Too much polyps extension on SPS

[danreefman]

But I notice a lot of vendors take pics with retracted polyps.

 

[Sabellafella]

But I notice a lot of vendors take pics with retracted polyps.

Either to see the base colors, or they most likely just moved the piece to a better location to capture a photo

 

[danreefman]

I think my polyps are gonna fall off?

 

[dz6t]

This is a fake post - it must be lol. Like in a viagra website - my .... is too .... I dont understand. The funny thing is that people are actually trying to answer this question...

lol, after fake new, fake reply...

 

[dz6t]

I think my polyps are gonna fall off?

You need some super glue to glue them back on, quick.

 

[MnFish1]

Why is any of this so hard to believe? All of this is out there in books and some Dr. RHF articles. High temp can also lead to high PE - oxygen is less soluble in high temp. High aerobic load by sometimes dosing organic carbon can create levels of lower oxygen and PE can get larger. High levels of ammonia can lead to more PE as gas cannot really exchange as well. All of these are potentially bad signs, but they are also not all that common.

Because the OP is wondering if PE alone could be suggesting a problem in his tank or in the coral itself.

Certainly polyps can extend to various levels due to light, flow, food, temperature, etc etc. No one is doubting that PE is variable. The problem with everything people have said about increased PE (put it in a bucket, and look, look at coral after shipping, etc) is that lower oxygen is not the only thing that is happening in those situations (the temp is different, the light is different, there is no flow, etc). It is the experience of most people here that no polyp extension is more symptomatic of a problem than hyperextension of polyps.

Not sure there is any data that dosing carbon can increase polyp extension that is due to low O2. It could also be due to increased organisms in the water - resulting in increased feeding. After googling it, I see no evidence that 'low o2 alone' or 'ammonia' causes hyperextension of polyps.

They do not need to exchange gas as much during the day when the light is driving photosynthesis. It is more necessary at night since the zoox are not contributing any gas.

Curious where you get this idea? Day and night respiration in the coral is taking place (O2 is used, CO2 is released). During the day - Photosynthsis uses CO2 to produce O2. and the amount of Co2 used is more than the amount of amount of Co2 produced from respiration. But in any case. gas exchange occurs 24 hours a day - and is increased during photosynthesis not less.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Have anyone have any experience with too much PE? All my SPS have way too much PE. My Tubs Stellata and Forest Fire all you can see is polyps. My Bubble Gum Millie have a fuzzy brown appearance to it. You can't see the stony parts at all.

Have anyone figured out what causes this?

I run into this problem roughly the same time I have the problem of too much money in my pockets and the mirror making me look too attractive. But do you know what is the worst problem? When people come up to me and say I am too awesome ;-P

All kidding aside, you have beautiful corals and would love to have PE at that level.

 

[29bonsaireef]

Because the OP is wondering if PE alone could be suggesting a problem in his tank or in the coral itself.

To answer the question.. Yes, PE alone "could" be an indication of an issue. In rare cases, but possible? Certainly. There's many variables that can affect PE, gases being one of them.

OP asked about excessive PE. To the average hobbyist PE is good.. PE is a great sign, but there can be underlying issues asscociated. That is what is being pointed out. No one said that is the issue? Don't know why so many people are getting upset over it. Just science. Enjoy your tanks, and be happy we are fortunate enough to grow and keep these amazing animals in our home.

 

[jda]

Great - another Google reefer. Get a book or two by one of the coral fathers... Veron, Shmek, etc. It is all laid out in there. This whole paradigm of "I did not know about it and cannot Google it, so it must not be true and prove it to me" is a bit troubling.

For the rest of the folks who really want to know what is going on... lots of PE is likely no issue most of the time... but this can point to a problem, so know what you are doing and pay attention so that you can tell if one should arise. Hyper coloration can also be a problem. So can lots of growth.

 

[bubbaque]

There is nothing wrong with using google to find an answer. A lot of the books written many years ago on reefing has shown not to be very accurate. I'm glad I don't follow the books that recommend 0 no3 and po4.

 

[jda]

Who said that there was? There is a problem with discounting knowledge in books and lectures because you cannot find an answer that you like better with Google. Besides, we are not talking about husbandry... biology, anatomy and physiology has not really changed much in the last twenty years.

 

[bubbaque]

Well when you said “great-another google reefer” you are putting someone down for using google, the one place that has more info then any other.

Things have changed. Just like a recent studies showed ph isn’t that important as once believe and certain corals can regulate their own internal ph.

If I needed to research something with the most up to date info, I’d use google.

 

[jda]

Dr. Holmes Farley has said since the 1990s that pH is not all that important and never to chase it. I get your point that husbandry has changed and methodologies hav evolved a bit. Still, chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology has not.

I am not sure why we are arguing about this... Google is great, but everybody needs to understand what it is and do not trust everything that they have indexed and linked to - they do not vet hardly anything... just provide links, and more importantly, place ads. You can get links to flat-earth theory on there too, but that does not mean that it is right. The majority of what they have is pure data and opinion - data is nearly worthless... unless some people turn it into information, which has some good value... knowledge is what is really important, but it takes experts to do this... the kind of experts that write articles and books. I was a software engineer at Google for years... I could give a 40 hour class on data vs information vs knowledge since it was my purview.

In any case, how do you know if what Google linked you to is accurate without a baseline from a reliable knowledge source like a book or school? Blending the two is a good idea. Google alone is dangerous. If somebody wanted to argue that books alone are just as dangerous, I would not argue back, but I might mention that people who get published are at least somewhat vetted whereas anybody can post something/anything on the web and a Google crawler can find and index it for search.

Don't even get me started on people who think that they learned something because Google did not find any search results for what they were after.

This whole argument about some types of PE being bad reminds me of the deniers when people told them that their dry rock could be full of phosphate - they never heard of it, could not Google it and the BRS video did not mention it, so it could not possibly be true... even though it is in every Phosphate article that Dr. Holmes-Farley has written and had been discussed at a few different MANSA and MACNA meetings over the last few decades. Kinda like this one, nobody told anybody that their rock definitely had phosphate, just that it was a possibility and to look out for it.

 

[chromis]

@skysoblue987 are you concerned about the PE because the polyps are ugly or you are just not used to seeing fuzzy corals? The red planet should eventually get very red beautiful polyps and with a lot of water movement, you can keep them moving so you can glance the metallic red that eventually develops under the polyps/metallic green around the base. Making sure your trace elements are at good levels can help the coloring up process. Otherwise, the “fuzziness” looks normal to me.

 

[skysoblue987]

@skysoblue987 are you concerned about the PE because the polyps are ugly or you are just not used to seeing fuzzy corals? The red planet should eventually get very red beautiful polyps and with a lot of water movement, you can keep them moving so you can glance the metallic red that eventually develops under the polyps/metallic green around the base. Making sure your trace elements are at good levels can help the coloring up process. Otherwise, the “fuzziness” looks normal to me.

I'm not concerned, just curious as to why my PE is so good. I've never seen PE like mine before either in person or images. I also don't like the way some of my SPS look. My Tubs Stellata is nothing but green polyps. The appeal of the coral (at least to me) is the combination of bright green polyps and skeletal structure. My Forest Fire Digitata have so much polyps it's growing and covering the tips.

I think my acro looks fuzzy because the corallites haven't formed yet. Aren't they suppose to be tucked inside the small tubes and cups on their skeletons?

 

[dz6t]

As far as forest fire digi, it is supposed to have that much PE shown in your photo.

 

[dz6t]

I'm not concerned, just curious as to why my PE is so good.

Because you are extremely awesome, fantastically wonderful and above all the others. Happy? Ok I am just kidding.

Are you feeding amino acid?

 

[skysoblue987]

Because you are extremely awesome, fantastically wonderful and above all the others. Happy? Ok I am just kidding.

Are you feeding amino acid?

Reef Energy a while back, I've stopped for the last 2 months or so. I used Red Sea Coral Pro with almost 0 tds water, maybe that's why. Natural salt might be the way to go.

 

[Scorpius]

OP, my corals look fuzzy like that as well, but not all of them though. Some of them get crazy fuzzy at night, but not during the day and vice versa. Nothing to worry about.

 

[dz6t]

Red sea salt is not a natural dried ocean water. For matter of fact, if you dry ocean water, you wont be able to reconstitute it by adding water. The calcium, magnesium and other metal except sodium and potassium, will irreversibly form insoluble carbonate solid.
I have no idea how natural these red sea salt is.