Less PE when all my lights are on?

Thisseemsfishy

Just another Reefer
So I'm still a little new to SPS. Im having great luck with everything, but my bottlebrush. I use a Tek 4x54w, I have two blue+ that are on early, when my 6500k and purple+ kick on the bottlebrush PE isn't nearly as long. Too much light? Advice?

Thanks!
 
I've got some SPS that don't really extend polyps at all during the day but are furry looking at night with PE, and all of the ones that do have PE during the day have greater PE at night. It's completely normal from what I've seen.
 
SPS polyp more at night cuz it's when they feed. It also depends what kind of fish you have in the tank. I dont have any nippers so my sps stay fully polyped even with main lights on.
 
Then why do we see so many tanks with full polyp extension during the day. I have never gotten good polyp extension either during daylight hours but have seen many that have.
 
Then why do we see so many tanks with full polyp extension during the day. I have never gotten good polyp extension either during daylight hours but have seen many that have.

There are a couple of reasons. One is mainly because of what t4zalews said. The other reason is because those corals have a lack of an adequate food source in their systems.


SPS polyp more at night cuz it's when they feed. It also depends what kind of fish you have in the tank. I dont have any nippers so my sps stay fully polyped even with main lights on.
 
There are a couple of reasons. One is mainly because of what t4zalews said. The other reason is because those corals have a lack of an adequate food source in their systems.

This is speculative, at best...no offense!

So I have some real world expirience to add. Ive always had great PE day and night, then I add a coral beauty and a cleaner shrimp within a few weeks of one another. Bamn, PE during daytime is gone on a few of my corals but still great on others...so who knows, some coral just may be more picky about whether it extends its polyps back out once disturbed. But the PE change happened with the addition of these guys. That goes against the having less food in the water that acroholic above notes. If anything there is much more food in the water now that I have a grazer ploppin out sps biscuits every few minutes! lol
 
Among SPS corals, Polyp Extension is not a sign of good or bad health, in any way. Long term lack of polyp extension would be something to be concerned about, but otherwise, don't judge a coral's health, by the extension of polyps.
 
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