Help keeping my Spidermans, please?????

[goldmaniac]

I've had a couple Spidermans sitting on the sand in my tank, and they're not doing anything. No buds, no baby polyps, but the two are open every day, but not growing. I was hoping I can get some advice on placement:

current stats:

120 gal tank 2'x2'x4'
24" deep
Nova Extreme Pro T5's (8 bulbs total)
current lighting:

4 bulbs - all in the bluish spectrum - 10 hours/day
4 bulbs - all in the sunlight/6-10k spectrum - 3-4 hours/day

flow - I'd say medium flow, along with return pumps I have 2 Koralia 4's in there. No direct flow onto the Spidermans, but nice, modest, constant current running over them.

So I've have two polyps that survived an initial supergluing onto a piece of rock after the frag I bought was shipped to me. They fell of the rock that was shipped to me and I had to re-glue them when I received them.

They've been a lighter shade of blue, on the floor of my tank, not growing nor diminishing, for about 6+ months now.

Once I tried putting them in less light but they didn't open up for a couple days and I panicked and put them back.

any suggestions on placement?

Also, for the majority of this time, the tank's been without fish. I'm slowly adding QT'ed fish now, but bioload is low so Fish Poop Feeding is low, too. but I have 5 fish in hypo QT (for ich) right now to be ready by End of August.

Help please? Thanks in advance.

Eric G.

 

[prison police]

I will tell you what is helping me. Now you know..."what works for one,may not work for others". You state you currently have T5's where I have 250w MH's. My Spidermans are sitting high in my frag tank. I mean sitting about 1" under the surface of the water. Now they are really showing the "red" in the skirts and deep blue. They use to be about 8" deep under the surface and not directly under the light and the skirts where not "red". I've heard people getting better growth under MH's than T5's. I really dont know if thats true.I feed cyclopeeze directly and dose with Vit-C by placing into my sump and seen GREAT growth and with polyp size better than without. My Spidermans have low flow on them currently. Good luck with your Spidermans and hope this info can help you.

 

[Fishindude88]

My Spidermans are also darker higher up under T5s. As for growth, mine seen to grow at a pretty steady rate. Perhaps they are just off to a slow start?

 

[650-IS350]

whn I had my large frag I started in the bottom, then slowly moved them up to about 1/2 way. colored up nicely and grew fast.

 

[goldmaniac]

ok, so I shouldn't be scared to slowly increase light onto them by raising them up. got it. right now, at the bottom of a 24" tank with (8) t5's, they could handle more, I imagine. I just didn't know if they liked less or more. I'll slowly raise them up into more light to about mid-tank and see how that goes. Thanks!

I'm feeding cyclop-eze dry plus a variety of Reef Snow, and phytoplankton and zooplankton food, for my mixed reef.

 

[prison police]

Sounds like your feeding good stuff. With the T5's, dont worry about the light. I would place them mid for a week then bring them to the top and U will see a difference in them.Thats my opinion.Good Luck

 

[jeremyreef]

i have mine in high flow about a foot and a half away from my 8 t5 s and they grow fast

 

[FishyBiz]

Im not sure what made mine grow but I had them on the sand bed of my 30" deep tank with 400 watt halides. They grew like weeds.
I think the trend I see in other posts is more light.

 

[Fishindude88]

If it makes you feel better, I have a 3 polyp frag that for some reason grows so slow while my others grow normal. I'm sure it'll catch up.

 

[goldmaniac]

thanks everyone!

keep 'em coming

 

[impur]

I've got mine in my QT/frag tank lit by a 250w MH 14k. The tank is a 29gal and the frag tray is halfway up the tank. The pendant hangs about 18" from the top of the tank. They are in med-high flow. My spidermans look incredible and put on at least 1-2 new polyps a week. I'm really surprised at how fast these grow

 

[xmjxflipx]

ive had the same problem, =P got my 6+ polyp frag several months ago from a fellow reefer.....after a month or so...their was very little growth, then at around week 5 or 6 they just randomly starting budding alot. I guess just be patient, sometimes these zoa just bud whenever they want

 

[goldmaniac]

Thanks... any difference in feeding? When i got my spidermans, I still had a tank virtually empty of fish due to me trying to clear out the tank from Ich, and now I have some fish, plus some SPS, so I'm feeding fish and coral food almost daily now.. no buds but they're larger now.

I'll be patient -