Nuclear Greens getting their crank on

[Reef Bass]

I've had some nuke greens for a year or so and they went from a few to a small 4x3 inch mat of whats that like 50-100 polyps. From my experience, they've been generally "easy", colorful and relatively robust.

A month ago a heater exploded and released its toxic ooze into the water system. All sps bleached, some died. Now a month later after water changes and carbon, things have stabilized and corals are coming back.

With the exception of the nuke greens, the rest of my zoos and palys look fine and have looked fine for a couple weeks. The nukes though continue to look less than happy, let alone fully stoked. The polyps are smaller, not fully open and just look cranky.

No doubt they suffered a substantial toxic event, but now a month later I would have expected them to have recovered. Am I just being impatient? As I write this I suspect I am. Anyone else have nuclear greens which came back from tragedy?

I know, I know, what are my parameters, etc. I am doing a final water change today and I'll test afterwards. Before the heater event, my big three were 8.5, 450 and 1380.

 

[quicktater]

My guess is that they were shocked and are just taking their sweet time to bounce back. I had a chiller go south and spew kerosene like oil into the reef. It took almost a year to get rid of the smell completely from the rocks. I hope that you recover more quickly.

 

[Sinclair81]

Yea give em time, I suspect its similar to some purple deaths i rescued from a friends crash, took a couple months as I recall. Hang in there.

 

[cody6766]

my nuke greens never bounced back after an overheating incident. Everything else recovered, but they shriveled and died off. I don't know if it's common or not, but that's my experience. Sad too, they're one of my favorites

 

[Friday Night]

Yeaaa buddy. Gunna try to make this months meeting. :smokin:

 

[Reef Bass]

Thanks for the input guys (except Alex ). I'll TRY to be patient. Grrrr.

 

[fbird]

I feel your pain. I bought a nice frag of nuc greens a while back and a few days later my tank split. They have only opened one time in the new tank and its been about a month.

Very disappointing.

 

[Sinclair81]

Its been a couple days, lookin any better?

 

[Reef Bass]

I was busy yesterday between work and bday fun and when I checked them out it was right after the lights went out and they were looking very sad, though often things deflate or change right after the lights go out.

Before dawn this morning the majority of them are open, which is nice, but they still look thin stalked with slightly puckered oral disks.

Some days I think I'm going to loose them and others I think they may come back in another month or so. :rolleye1:

 

[dirland]

I am having the same issue with my nukes and purple deaths right now.

 

[philosophile]

Do you feed em? Maybe that might help them recover a little faster?

 

[Friday Night]

Thanks for the input guys (except Alex ). I'll TRY to be patient. Grrrr.

bahahah Ken. Thier Zoas their SUPER hardy i left some out of the tank for a night threw them back in and they were good to go. Your water parms look fine. lmk how they do. I hook you up with some as well.

 

[Reef Bass]

Update - the colony has dwindled and a few 5-10 polyp clusters detached, each of which is marginal. The best looking part is about 20 polyps (down from over 100) and while the polyps are open, they are small and look weak.

While I have not been target feeding them as often as I used to, as their feeding response has been poor, I do add zooplankton (Reef Chili) to the tank which they have access to.

I am surprised that they have lasted as long as they have considering their unhappiness. I also wish they would either get better or croak!

I did discover that my alk and ca were high, as I've lost a lot of coral between aefw and heater toxicity, and no longer need to dose as much as I was.

My corals in general are looking much better. Sps are coloring back up and growing again. Polyp extension is getting back to normal. Even the trachy which looked so miserable seems to have decided to give life another chance.

I think I'll try to up the target feeding of the better looking ones and see if I can't get them to eat. They used to be such greedy little dudes.