Ricordias not looking good, lighting I think

[pufferpoison]

Ok here's the deal, I have a 24G aquapod that I bought a 20" orbit fixture with a modded 70W DE Metal Halide light that replaced one of the 40W PC lamps. SO this setup is 70W MH and 40W PC antinic. I also run the stock hood with 2x36W PC (one 50/50 daylight and one 50/50 antinic). I rotate the lighting every two days (lift the hood and run the MH for 2 days and then take it off and close the hood and run PC's for 2 days) It is filled mostly with many, many types of zoas, which all are thriving and growing like crazy. I've bought 2 Ricordias (orange - was very pretty) and they have seem to shrink into hardly nothing. One is 3/4 of the way up and the other is on the bottom. The one of the bottom looks better than the one that is 3/4 towards the top - this one looks bad

I have zero Nitrates or Phosphates, Use Reef Crystals salt with RO/DI water and change weekly (3 gallons).
I though rics liked alot of light? Is there too much for these guys? should I move them to another tank? need help ASAP because i have a feeling if I don't act now, there not going to make it.

Thanks,
Shawn

 

[jrhupp]

Shawn,

Maybe you could post a picture of the Ricordea in question. That would be helpful in diagnossing the problem.

Jay

 

[Sula]

You probably want to put the unhappy one down at the bottom of the tank. My guess is the light is too intense. I have an orange Yuma sitting on the sand under pretty weak pc lighting which has done quite well, have had it for 7 months now....

 

[pufferpoison]

Well I was told before that my aquapod with original lighting (2x32W PC) wasn't "near enough" for rics and that i would need MH or something similiar with tons more WPG.

So i'm confused, do they like low or high light?

 

[Sula]

I know exactly what you mean about the confusion. One person will say PC only, the next will say MH for everything. I'm far from an expert, but as near as I can tell, rics in general seem to do okay under PC lighting. Some rics can also be acclimated to MH, most people recommend you start them low in the tank and gradually move them up. Your MH isn't incredibly strong so I wouldn't think you would have a problem. The easiest thing to try is to move it away from the light and see if it improves, that will pretty quickly answer the question on how much light this particular ric likes.

 

[ezcompany]

i've lost some yumas under 40 watts of PCs. i was told by someone that they need to be in areas almost pitchblack to get acclimated to new lighting. i've seen yumas do superb under 200MHs as well. go figure.

 

[jrhupp]

Shawn,

I still think a picture would be useful, but here are some thoughts. If it is actually to much light you would expect to see belaching of the secondary pigments, in addtion to reduced expansion of the polyp. Is there any loss of color? Secondly, I would expect that if light was the issue that on days you used the stock lighting over those where the tank was lit with hallides, you would see better polyp expansion (not to say normal, just better). Thats not to say it isn't a light acclimation issue, just a few other symptoms to help diagnose the problem.

Alternatively, you list zoanthids as the primary tank inhabitants. I have had issuse with Protopalythoa and Ricordea in close proximity to each other. I have had Ricordea show reduced polyp expansion when the Protopalythoa (fully expanded) were more than an inch away (ie not touching). So you may won't to consider who its nieghbors are before you go blameing the lights.

And lastly the issue maybe in the light rotation you practice. Generally, when you aclimate an organism to a different light environment you gradually increase the amount of light it recieves and keep it higher, giving it time to assemble more photosynthtic machinary to hand the additional light. Your roating lighting shceme may be hampering the animals ablity to photo-aclimate. Alternativley, light environments in marine systems are more stable than what you are providing by switching between lights. So the reduced polyp size may just be a stress response. Think of it like moving the Ricordea to a new location in the tank every couple of days.

Just some thoughts,
Jay

 

[Ryanqk]

All my mushrooms of all types moved into crevices and under rocks, they all hated the 2 T12 bulbs i have! apparently i have vampire shrooms, lol

 

[bblumberg]

I had a similar problem, losing 2 nice ricordea (one orange, one green). My shrooms were also starting to shrivel up, although zoas, and LPS corals were doing fine. The solution for me was to start dosing iodine. Once I did, the remaining Ricordea started to perk up and the shrooms are now growing and looking generally good again. I dose 5 drops of Kent Marine iodine in my 24g nanocube daily.

good luck,

Bruce