Help with new Kryptonite candy cane.

C

chaudhry

New member
Hi All,
Having trouble with my Kryptonite Candy Cane. Got him about 3 weeks back. Initially for few days he did great. After light turned off he had great polyp extension and will grab on to Mysis that I was offering him. But then he stopped opening and latter I noticed his skin also started regressing and stripping away. Puzzling part is that the skin is not fading. It glows great but its literally stripping away. Not see much poly extension either after light off.

I initially put it at the top most rock but then I read that it does not need that much light, so I moved it to mid tank and still no recovery so I attached it to a small rock and moved it to bottom left of the tank. Seem little stable after getting there but still can not be sure about it as I just moved him 2 days back. Off note, it was placed on sand at the bottom of the tank in the LFS as well, from where I got him.

I am feeding them 2 times week.

Tank established for 8 months now.
Parameters are:
Nitrates 0, Phos <0.25, Alkalanity 9, Temp 79.5, SP. grav 1.025, Calcium 450.

Rest of the tank natives are pretty happy and include CUC, 3 fish, 1 anamone, Mistic sunset, 2 monti caps, Xenia, Leather, Screaming Green SPS, Green star, Plate coral, and few Palys and Zoas.

Knock on wood, zero death rate in 8 months and want to keep it that way.

Pictures might not be that clear, but i tried to do my best. Heres the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzNKuWPW-cxbRmt6Njl6d0dwaHM

Any suggestions for my sick guy?:sad2:
 
Didn't look at the pics but your description sounds like too much light, and you've taken the right measures. Is the tissue actually falling or stripping off, or has the polyp size just shrunk and/or receded into the skeleton?

Even under T5s, these corals can get too much light near the bottom half of an 18" deep aquarium.
 
They like to live at the bottom of the tank in the sand. Low light and low flow, just how your LFS had them.
 
Reef Frog said:
Didn't look at the pics but your description sounds like too much light, and you've taken the right measures. Is the tissue actually falling or stripping off, or has the polyp size just shrunk and/or receded into the skeleton?

Even under T5s, these corals can get too much light near the bottom half of an 18" deep aquarium.
Click to expand...

Its actually stripping away. Tissue not falling, fading or receding.
Lets see if changing to this new position will help.
 
I've always had trouble with krypto CC as well. Over time they decline for me while others such as frogspawn, hammers monticaps and everything else thrive.
 
I have a krypto cc up high tons of light and it's doing great. At one time when mine started peeling it was actually my calcium was too high. I would retest with a different test kit. It may be higher than you think
 
Yea that is one nice looking tank. It looks to me that your CC were more mid tank than "up high". How far from the water's surface were they, and how high was the T5 fixture mounted above the water line? I also noticed you own a dimable T5 fixture - did you use the dimming feature? Were they shaded at all?

For me, they need to be at least about 9"-12"' minimum from the surface as my 6 bulb 39w Fixture with ATI bulbs is mounted quite close to the water's surface, and will force the polyps to shrink in size, even though color remains fine and they basically stay healthy. They do best for me mounted near the bottom. I wish I could get them to thrive anywhere as the color is crazy - you can see them jumping out at you from across the room. What's the secret?
 
When I started in the hobby, I used a combo of simple 10k & actnic 39w T5 tubes. I can't remember scorching anything with "too much light." I remember that I liked the looks of the light well enough. I did have nutrients at the time and did my time battling algae.

Issues with "too much light" only occurred later when I went with more bluish bulb combos from ATI. Of course during this time I was working with different corals than I was in the beginning - many of which are the lower light species like chalices and acans.

So I've always wondered if this generation of bulbs with all these special phosphors are that much stronger than the early generation of bulbs, or the color temperature is just more prone to bleach some species. My current set of ATI Coral Plus & Blue Plus are about 14-15'months old.

Conventional wisdom says change them now. Based on some recommendations I'm now 2-5 months overdue. I've got a brand new set ready to go, but I've hesitated to install them yet. I've been doing multiple things to improve coloration lately and it's working, so I can't say for sure if the mellowing of the bulbs is a good thing contributing to the better colors, or it's the other things I'm doing, or a combination of both.

I am considering using some light diffusion films when I do install the new bulbs since my fixture is low & at a fixed height in a canopy.

Man, this hobby....just when you think you're getting things figured out....
 
I would say more 2/3rds rather than 1/2 lol. Hard to tell in the picture. What's my secret I guess neglect just don't stick your hands in the tank. It's right in the center of the tank so the brace is directly above it but not enough to shade it completely. Brace is maybe only 2" wide colony is over 10" wide. Fixture is about 4" from the water line
 
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