Button Polyp discoloration

[MMM33732]

My green button polyps are starting to turn a dark brown in different parts. They aren't showing the eyelash like tentacles around the top anymore either on the ones that are browning. Not all are browing though. Is this an indication of stress or too much light? They are about a foot (7" under water) under 175w halides on a 55g. I recently had some slight ph fluctuations that may have caused some stress, but all other corals and inhabitants were completely unphased, hence why I suspect it may be the light. The GBP's have been in the tank for about a month now and recently started they browning about a week ago.

 

[MMM33732]

Heres a picture of what I'm talking about:

 

[stevelkaneval]

i have some of those and i notice that the less light they have the more colourfull and healthy they look. try moveing it in a shadow were half is in the shadow and half is out. that will tell you if you have too much light.

 

[MMM33732]

Good idea. I moved them down onto the substrate (as seen in my picture) thinking it may be the light. I have 2 175w 14000k halides and 2 40w actinics over a 55g. Lights are about 5-7" off the surface of the water. The polyps were about 7" under the surface, now they are about 15" under. Still no improvements noted over the last 2 days of them being down there. I've also started dosing vitamin C in hopes of them bouncing back. I'll try shading 1/2 the colony to see of that side bounces back sooner.

 

[geoxman]

The less light that those polyps get-the more they will increase in their browning and become duller.
This is only 1 part as to why they are changing on you and (2) 175w MH is not too much lighting for a 55gl on 99.999% of zoanthids. IMHO
Were they wild when you got them?
What are the bulbs and ballast?
Are you skimming?
What is your phosphate level and how do you control it?
What is your flow in the system?
Do you feed the polyps and/or the tank?
Do you have high fluctuations in your water chemistry?

There are many reasons why polyps will change in one tank VS another. Take a look at all of the absurd duplicate naming of the same polyp over on zoaid.

To single out one factor with out knowing all about tank it is pretty tough to speculate, but lights would be my first concern.

Take a look at the picture that you posted-What do they appear to be doing?.....Reaching for more light. Good luck with your polyps

 

[MMM33732]

I decided to move them back up to the original spot and modified an inlet to aid in more flow for them. I have about 8 polyps that were on a rock I broke off of the mother colony that are in a slightly shaded area to see if they bounce back sooner.

-I'm not sure what you mean by wild. Wild as in from the ocean or wild as in coloring? I'm not sure how they were collected/propagated, but the coloring was a nice bright green that some still are.
-Yes I skim.
-Phosphates are hard for me to measure as my test kit never seems to match the color chart. I assume there are phosphates due to a slight hair algae issue in a few spots of the tank. I actually just noticed some hair algae growing on the baese of the polyps which may be the cause of all of this. I have a fuge growing cheato to help control them. Phasban will be ordered within the next week to help.
-Flow depends on placement. I moved them back up to their original spot where a sea swirl now hits them with an alternating medium flow/high flow.
-I do feed the polyps occasionally. Either brine or a home made mixture. (My cleaner shrimp love to steal their food though) The entire tank also gets some Micro-vert every other day.
-Chemistry is pretty stable

 

[geoxman]

I meant did the come from a pet store "wild" most wild button polyps will lose their color if they are not fed well, like they are use to in the wild. Light can make up for that though, so ^^^^^ they go.

Phosphates are one of the quickest things to brown out "certain polyps" not all--but the larger polyps seem most effected by it. Try running some phosban in your sump or in your filter. It will also help with the HA.
What other things do you have in the tank and that will lead me to my next question as why are you skimming? What is the skimmer? You might be taking out too much.

Good job on the fuge! Are you doing a DSB in there or the tank?

You know what??? I really hate typing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and my dog is bugging me! Shoot me a PM with your # and I will give you a buzz, when it is good for you. I can get more info over the phone in five minutes than 12 hours of typing. If you want some good information shoot me your cell-if not oh well-my fingers are tired. good luck

 

[MMM33732]

Would hair algae growing on them cause them to discolor and look as if they were dieing?

 

[geoxman]

No, but high phosphates will and may be why you have HA

 

[MMM33732]

I think phosphates are deff a good contributing factor the the HA. I cant measure my phosphates because my test kit never seems to match its color chart at all. Nitrates are only 0-5. My ferric oxide pellets will be here Wednesday, so I can start lowering phosphates even more than what my cheato is doing. Hopefully that will help the HA issue as well as bring the color back to the button polyps. More of them are completely losing their color than in the pic I posted a few days back.

 

[geoxman]

PM me as I said before. I hate typing and I can get more info in 1 minute over the phone rather than typing for 2 days in forum messages. good luck

 

[MMM33732]

UPDATE:
So I added some GFO in a phosban reactor a few weeks ago. Shortly after doing that I noticed they started to color up again. Now almost all of them have most of their color back, however its a very bright lime green vs. the darker green they used to be. The new color is much better. The outside "eyelash" like tentacles are coming back on most as well.

Probably related, but my orange zoas which haven't grown one bit since I got them about 6 months ago started growing also. One poylp has spit into 4 now over the last 2.5 weeks. All coral growth has seen absolutely positive results since the addition of the phosphate remover. So apparently that was my problem all along. Now hopefully the cyano will stop growing in my fuge so my cheato will have a chance to grow a little faster. (even though phosphates are extremely low now which will slow the cheato growth) I'm currently only able to harvest about a baseball size every 3-4 weeks. It used to only be the same baseball size amount every 2 months though before. There still is hair algae growing in the display, but not as fast as it use to. I'm contemplating adding another reactor and more GFO media. Could be from nitrates though as they are currently at 5-10ppm. I'll try playing with the nitrate reactor a bit to see if I can increase its speed to help lower the nitrates again. All in all though, much improved results now.