Soft corals size change

[wbdevers]

Hey all. I've had my tank up for 9 months and all has been going very well. All of my corals have been doing great and growing. Here lately though, I've noticed that some of my soft corals seem to be shrinking in size and one even died. My SPS and LPS are doing very well as are basically half of my softies. My last water params are: NO3-0, P04-0, pH 8.1, Ca+-420, Mg+-1230, Alk-6.5, temp-84 (usually 82), SG-1.026. I do 10g water changes every other week. I run a BRS media reactor with GFO and GAC.

The corals that are shrinking are my green palys, neon blue/green stripped mushrooms, and my white finger leather died over two days. One colony of zoas has shrunk in size, but they are spreading. Also, they changed from kind of a dark green to a pale green. My large leather coral used to be brownish with green polyps--it's now almost white, but growing as well. My SPS have doubled since I've gotten them. My LPS are doing very well too. Below are some pics to show the size changes.

The only thing I can think of that may be the cause is I changed bulbs. I went from a Hagen and other brand mix to all ATI bulbs. The cause maybe?

Thanks for any help.

Palys in March:

Today:

Mushrooms in April:

Today:

Zoas in Feb:

Today:

and finally, my leather in March:

Today:

As a side note last Monday my RBTA split for the first time and the daughter is doing great as well.

Sorry for the long post.

 

[APBonds]

I would say your alk is a little low at 6.5 you want that at 9 to 12. For your lights did you put in daylight bulbs or all antic? If you have a mix of antic and day light you might want to run the light longer or try feeding them phyto. Those green poylps will eat mysis or fish food. The hammer will like zooplankton.

 

[wbdevers]

My bulbs are 2 ATI Blue+, 1 Purple+ and 1 Aquablue Special. My alk usually stays around 8-8.5. My lights run for a total of 13 hours a day. I feed Oyster Feast twice a week and mysis to my RBTA and Elagans maybe once a week.

 

[APBonds]

So you dont have any white/ daylight 10,000k bulbs? If so thats you problem they need the white bulbs as well as the antic bulbs.

 

[wbdevers]

Yes there is one. The Aquablue special is actually a white bulb--go figure.

 

[ati70cutlass]

alot of stuff look like its bleaching or dying. jump that alk up to at least 8-9 range and get some 10k bulbs in there. roughly half half or so. need more sunlight

 

[wbdevers]

Actually nothing is dying except for the finger leather. I've got SPS and LPS doing great. In fact the SPS has quadrupled in size since I've gotten it. I'm guessing here, but I think the finger died because my RBTA split. The WFL was close by the parent. When I saw it had split the daughter RBTA was behind the WFL. I'm thinking that the daughter landed on the leather and stung it to death before it moved to where I found it. Could be wrong, but that's the theory I've come up with given the time frame and location.

 

[APBonds]

Just my opinion but I would put 1 more 10k daylight bulb in there, since you only have 4 bulbs I would go 50/50. It might not be the look you want but they need that color spectrum from the white bulbs a little more than the blue.

 

[wbdevers]

Thanks. I may give that a try. I've got one of my old bulbs that wasn't as old as the rest that I could try.

 

[408Reefer]

I think it might have to do with the change of your lights. I had a similar situation where I changed all bulbs on a 6 T5 set up from the stock bulbs that came with the fixture to all ATI bulbs(4blue plus, 2 aquablue special). My lighting was much brighter and my anemone reacted by moving down from where it was and it split. I have also experience palys getting really big when they seem like they need more light. Its kind of like expanding their surface area to catch more light, in your case they might be just adapting to your much stronger light. just my 2 cents

 

[wbdevers]

Thanks 408, that's kind of where I'm leaning as well. The palys came from a 125g tank with MH but they were off to the side, and when I bought the green zoas they were in a 90g at the bottom to the side. Really don't know on the leather especially since it actually started changing color prior to the bulb change.