Poor Polyp Extension.. Help Please

[Buddy08]

I recently have started to keep Sps corals in my 75g. Between November and January, I have purchased roughly 30 frags. Since then, I have lost 3 of these frags but may loose 2 more. They all started bleaching from their bases and slowly progressed upwards. I tried to salvage a branch each from 2 of the 3 frags that died but ended up doing more harm than good and inevitably lost them. The other died rather quickly within a few days of first noticing the bleaching coral but this one bleached at the base and tips and there was nothing to salvage. I have looked for AEFW but have found no signs of the pests so I ruled that one out. I have also checked for red bugs but have yet to find one; not ruling that one out yet as I have never treated for redbugs but Its safe to say, I havent seen any yellow specks on my acros.

Another thing I've noticed with my sps frags is poor polyp extension. My Digitata, Montiporas, and Milleporas hardly extend polyps; unlike the mother colonies in other tanks that these came from. I have tested my water, and changed my powerhead positioning and still have poor polyp extension. They show great color and are encrusting to the rocks/frag plugs but they lack the extension I would like to see.

My cali tort, pearlberry, tri color, german blue, & garf bonsai are showing decent polyp extension and growth so at least some sps are happy, but the others worry me. :hmm4:

Run down of my tank including Parameters:
Calc 440
Alk 9
mag 1380
phosphates 0
nitrates 0
ph 8.0
salinity 1.025
temp 79
as for lighting, Im running 48diy leds that push on average 650 par 5 inches below the water line, 450 in mid level of tank and 200 at bottom so I can assume my lighting is sufficient

I does using 2 part but I rarely have to do so as my water levels stay constant every time I test it. My Lps corals seem happy but with that being said, I've never had big polyp extension with my meteor shower coral either (they protrude away from the coral base but do not show much of their orange polyps) although it is growing as its started off as a 3/4" frag and is now about 5" in diameter.

What do you think? Any idea or explanation that can lead to improved polyp extension and ultimately better coral growth? Thanks in advance for your time

 

[Buddy08]

bump.

 

[Ricunger]

If your corals are growing you should have the need to dose regularly... And with a par of 650 @ 5" below water you might have cooked the corals that died... where were the frags that you lost located in the tank?

 

[Buddy08]

they started out at the bottom, and over a 4 week period, I slowly raised them up on the frag rack to the middle of the tank. some of the corals have now been placed on the rocks.

 

[andysolo]

I believe your corals are starving, sine you have 0 phosphates and nitrates. What fish do you have? Do you have algae in your tank? Are you running bio-pellets or some other sort of carbon?

I'm having the same issue. Phosphates and nitrates are undetectable as my cyano and GHA is sucking everything from the water. My bioload was low and I recently added more fish while trying to eradicate the algae.

 

[Buddy08]

I have a 5 gallon fuge full of cheato, also running a reef octopus bio pellet reactor. I tossed a bag of carbon in the sump the other day to eliminate the possibility of chemical warefare as i have a lot of lps corals.

as for fish, Im pretty heavily stocked for a 75g, Fish list:
1x yellow tang
1x coral beauty
1x three stripe damsel
1x blue damsel
2x ocellaris clowns
3x lyretail athias
1x engineer goby
3x fireshrimp (long story how i wound up with 3...)
1x brittle star
1x purple linkia star
4x hermits
unknown amount stomatella snails (easily 30+ )
4x nassarius snails

If I dont clean the glass within a 4day period, it grows a little bit of brown algae but easily scrapes off with the mag float.

I have a 180g in the spare bedroom that everything will be going into in 2 months as Im spending my tax return on upgrading the tank but I wont to get control of my SPS frags before I spend more money on a bigger tank

 

[Buddy08]

had my LFS test my water today, these were the results. I used an api test kit for mine, they used red sea and saliferts.

Salinity - 1.025
PO4 - 0.011
kh - 10
cal -500
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 12.5/2.5 (Not sure about which numbers mean what with this test)

anything seem alarming? A reefer on another forums mentioned STN. Anyone have any info on this or experience with it?

 

[Acropolooza]

Bopellets starve the water column of nutrients NOT GOOD IMHO

 

[Buddy08]

is there any way to supplement those nutrients other than water changes? I have been told before that my water is "too clean" but its always one opinion vs the other. wish I had some factual evidence or a cookie cutter setup that says hey, you need this, this, this and this to be successful. I could always disconnect the reactor for a few weeks and see how that turns out but then I'd have to start all over with reseeding the bacteria if I decided to use it again.

 

[sjfishguy]

That coral beauty will decrease your PE for sure. I had one for a year or two and NEVER saw it even nip at anything. Had terrible PE. Got rid of him and PE has been amazing ever since.

 

[sandworm]

have you taken a flashlight and checked fo PE a couple hours after the lights go out? If they are out, then i would guess your angelfish would be a problem

 

[Buddy08]

I have looked at the tank when lights are out with a flashlight and seen some polyps more extended thanwith the lights on but its nothing like you see on some of the milli's featured on this site. alll fuzzzy and stuff. I have also noticed that there is a little more polyp extension when the actinics are on

 

[myroom]

How is your water flow?

 

[danil]

No PE means corals can't feel any food in the water or/and under stress. If you have no nutrient problem in your tank why do you run BP? BP could be the reason of your problem since they strip the water from nutrients otherwise would be available to corals. System has to be overloaded with nutrients to justified BP so they can just reduce excess not strip it to the 0. Also try some other food like RN oyster feast to see corals reaction.

 

[Buddy08]

I have a mag 7 running on my return which is a 1inch pvc pipe. add in head loss and I would imagine it is pushing 500gph. I also have 3x hydor koralia 1400s, one that stays on constant and 2x that alternate between each other every 10 seconds from each side of the tank so roughly 3300gph at a given moment but the alternating flow helps the corals out too. I have removed the bio pellet reactor altogether. Will start to do more regular water changes. used to do maybe 20 gallons every 3 months, will do 15 every other week now until everything improves. Once I see improvement, Ill then start running bio pellets again but will cut the amount used by 2/3rds. I think with the lack of water changes, and the bio pellet reactor running... what available nutrients were in the water have been depleted as the reactor used up most of them. hopefully with extra water changes and extra coral supplements, It will come around. When someone mentioned it could be my reactor, it dawned on me that I lost a toadstool, a colony of yellow colonial polyps, and 4 heads on my torch coral which i blamed on the addition of the leds and their intensity; but I lost those corals within a month of adding the bio reactor so I think thats the culprit. As for sps food, any idea what I could look into buying? Im about to make an order for supplies and such

 

[Chondro 5]

That coral beauty will decrease your PE for sure. I had one for a year or two and NEVER saw it even nip at anything. Had terrible PE. Got rid of him and PE has been amazing ever since.

Just like the OP, I have no PE with montis & millis but good polyp extension with acros and I also have a coral beauty that I've never witnessed harassing corals. Could the coral beauty actually be targetting montis & millis for some reason? I don't run biopellets, but I do run a coil denitrator & chaeto so I may be stripping nutrients and the acros aren't as sensitive?