SPS polyps not extending at night

[bif24701]

My collection of SPS are not extending their polyps at night or day is this a bad sign. The colors have improved since being added to my system over three months ago but growth seems very slow. Is this a bad sign?

 

[roberto_lopes]

Yes, this is a bad sign. It's sign of plague.

Look for redbugs or (i hope your don't have) AEFWs (bite marks).

Take a colony and dip on melafix (5ml/litre) for 10 min. If it's AEFW, they will pop from coral.

 

[Reef Bass]

Slow growth after initial placement is not unusual. Lack of polyp extension can indicate a problem. Could be a pest or water quality issue. If montis are fine but acro polyps are shy, I'd lean towards acro pests (aefw, redbugs), though there's usually a color loss as well as visible bite marks. If montis and acros are both reluctant to extend polyps, then I'd lean towards water quality, so check your alk, ca and mag. If those check out, consider running some carbon (to absorb impurities from the water) and possibly investigating for stray voltage.

 

[roberto_lopes]

I Think three months are enough time to see good growth.

As ReefBass says, if not pests, probably water quality and/or light.

 

[bif24701]

Not ruling out water quality or lighting but for now I am looking elsebwere. I haven't had any water quality issues. I have only acros, and LPS that all seem to be doing very well. I do not see any bite marks and color looks good.

 

[gon08]

Polyp extension is not necessarily a sign of health in sps. If the corals are healthy and not growing then check your calcium levels as well as your alkalinity. I would check phosphates as they can inhibit calcification also. If nitrate and phosphate are low I would try feeding the coral, this may improve polyp extension.

Give us some info on the tank ie; size, parameters, bioload, etc

 

[bif24701]

I'll just say that all my parameters are in normal range. I do run carbon and GFO, thinking of taking them off line for a week or two to see any change. I also have cheato in my fuge.

 

[Chris Lakies]

Have u done a good size water change?

 

[bif24701]

About 10% weekly, I skimmer runs wet and about a gallon a day of saltwater gets replaced each day with 10 gallon change weekly.

 

[gon08]

About 10% weekly, I skimmer runs wet and about a gallon a day of saltwater gets replaced each day with 10 gallon change weekly.

Did you mean RO water? If you are replacing saltwater daily your Salinity may be off.

If salinity is not the issue I would start feeding the coral with Oyster Manifique or something similar before taking the Carbon and GFO off line. Im pretty confident if all else is in order you will see better PE.

How well does your cheato grow with nutrients being low from the GFO?

 

[dunk373]

i have an acro that didnt extend polyps for a month, all others are good I haven't been into sps very long but i like to experiment and am very precise with the hobby. the one coral was in bad shape and didn't extend much at all the few polyps that came out would grow. it died in a month i fragged it so i would have something and they seem to be recovering

 

[bif24701]

Did you mean RO water? If you are replacing saltwater daily your Salinity may be off.

If salinity is not the issue I would start feeding the coral with Oyster Manifique or something similar before taking the Carbon and GFO off line. Im pretty confident if all else is in order you will see better PE.

How well does your cheato grow with nutrients being low from the GFO?

I only replace the gallon of saltwater my skimmer puts out, as I said it runs very wet. I do add RO daily and check my SG (1.025) daily.

My cheato doesn't grow very well, but it does.

I feed my tank, well. Put I don't have any nutrient problems with all the export systems in place. I only get a few small patches of algea on the rock from time to time.

 

[gon08]

I only replace the gallon of saltwater my skimmer puts out, as I said it runs very wet. I do add RO daily and check my SG (1.025) daily.

My cheato doesn't grow very well, but it does.

I feed my tank, well. Put I don't have any nutrient problems with all the export systems in place. I only get a few small patches of algea on the rock from time to time.

Feed the coral and see what happens.

 

[bif24701]

Feed the coral and see what happens.

Feed how? Suggestions?

 

[xtlosx]

This is interesting... All of my SPS show polpy extension during the day but when my blue led night lights are on, the polyps for almost everything are out bigtime. Has anyone noticed a similar behavior? This indicates feeding at night?

The growth has been great, my birdnest, red planet, tricolor validia and bushy acro are getting huge, quickly so i don't think it's a bad thing just not what I typically see.

 

[Logzor]

SPS not extending polyps can be pretty mysterious if there are no pests. I had this happen in my own system recently. My frag of palmers blue milli had polyp extension after the tank move, then about a month later it totally shut down, nothing for at least three weeks, not at night or during the day.

Not sure if it was related but the lack of PE coincided with turning gfo/carbon online and taking it offline, in addition to a massive increase in feeding (PE came back after feeding and discontinuation of the gfo/carbon).

For what it's worth I've been dosing oyster eggs or feeding a "cubes" worth of homemade food each night. usually one nice squirt of the oyster eggs, maybe 1 tsp??

Now that coral is looking like the rest of my acros and has excellent PE.

 

[bif24701]

SPS not extending polyps can be pretty mysterious if there are no pests. I had this happen in my own system recently. My frag of palmers blue milli had polyp extension after the tank move, then about a month later it totally shut down, nothing for at least three weeks, not at night or during the day.

Not sure if it was related but the lack of PE coincided with turning gfo/carbon online and taking it offline, in addition to a massive increase in feeding (PE came back after feeding and discontinuation of the gfo/carbon).

For what it's worth I've been dosing oyster eggs or feeding a "cubes" worth of homemade food each night. usually one nice squirt of the oyster eggs, maybe 1 tsp??

Now that coral is looking like the rest of my acros and has excellent PE.

Took, GFO and carbon (ROX) offline today. Been running both since I moved my tank in June. I will also start feedning ROTI feast again. Maybe this will help.

 

[gon08]

I run a skimmerless tank with no refugium, with GFO and carbon full time and it has no effect on PE. What does make a difference is the feeding.

I feed the fish heavily, and I feed Oyster Magnifique daily for the coral.