Understanding Polyp Extension

[UWUALineman]

I've been keeping SPS for about 2 years now, and polyp extenion on stonies continues to leave my mind asking questions. I have some coral that show polyp extension 24hrs a day. Some coral show significant polyp extenions at night. Some show polyp extenions part of the time. Some, never at all. My monti's are doing great, and showing extension all through the day. As most of my acros do as well. My miami orchid (does from time to time show), ice tort, and a few others which I can't bring to mind what the names are, never show extension. Is this related to species? Common occurrence?

 

[Wiskeyrebel]

Would like to know this to

 

[Brian Chong]

my best guess is that many grow in different environments and adapt. some have evolved from areas where there are more predators while others are from safer areas. some are from areas where food is available more at night rather than day etc. some may prefer more photosynthesis because of more available light while others prefer to feed more. could be anything, so i dont worry about it too much. only when there is no polyp extension in my tank. then it might be red bugs or some other pests or flow or lighting.

 

[Brian Chong]

or parameters as i have recently learned from my own experience a drop in magnesium (380 to 300) will decrease polyp extension as well

 

[Brian Chong]

ooops i meant 1380 to 1300

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

assuming that you have adequate flow, it is your phosphate level. Phosphates too high create less polyp extension. Low phosphates will create a lot of polyp extension while the polyp is hungry and looking for food. If phosphates are too low for a while, the polyp will die off and will show little, if any, polyp extension. Finding that line to walk is the trick to having great polyp extension and still a healthy coral.

 

[jonnybravo22]

FWIW i have never had polyp extension on my corals, just started running GFO and now i have PE very noticeably on 1 coral and moreso on others. still getting all my params in order but GFO helped right away on that, even though test kits had told me 0 PO4 in past.

 

[UWUALineman]

What about corals such as the Midwest Turoki? I can't say that I've ever seen polyps, however, I haven't paid particular attention to it at night.
I ran Brightwell Katalyst pellets for a few months and nothing really changed other than most of my colors on my SPS faded.

 

[needmore-reef]

I had a strange thing happen. I placed corals in QT and then PE always vs. just at night. I blame my angel, but who knows.

 

[Brian Chong]

What about corals such as the Midwest Turoki? I can't say that I've ever seen polyps, however, I haven't paid particular attention to it at night.
I ran Brightwell Katalyst pellets for a few months and nothing really changed other than most of my colors on my SPS faded.

my royal blue and baby blue turaki, hawkins, and other deepwater types only show at night.

 

[90greefman]

ooops i meant 1380 to 1300

What do you keep your magnesium and ph at? I am starting sps and some do great and others just poop out.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

What do you keep your magnesium and ph at? I am starting sps and some do great and others just poop out.

With SPS, the main trick is stability. Acropora corals are much more difficult than montipora corals even tough they are both SPS corals. I keep my pH between 8.20 and 8.30 and never check magnesium. Rule #1 is that nothing good happens fast in a SPS aquarium.

 

[Acrotrdco]

... If phosphates are too low for a while, the polyp will die off and will show little, if any, polyp extension...

Where do you get this from?

There's no way the phosphate level in our tank would ever be as low as the level in the ocean, and yet SPS colonies thrives in the ocean with such low level of nutrients (NO3/PO4).

Read here:
http://grumpyreefer.net/2009/10/28/ulns-is-not-really-l-and-far-from-ul/

Quoting from the URL above:
"...Taking the annual mean values, a good candidate for a LNS reef aquarium would have 0.003 ppm PO4, 0.003 ppm nitrate and 0.2 ppm silicate. For phosphate, that’s 1/10th of detection limit of best PO4 test kits and 1/100th for NO3."

 

[Brian Chong]

What do you keep your magnesium and ph at? I am starting sps and some do great and others just poop out.

my magnesium is between 1350 to 1380. i havent tested ph for over an year. only alk cal and magnesium. as someone else once said, the holy trinity of sps tanks
if your alk is good and stable it will keep your ph stable, is what i read in the alk,ca,mag thread. never had any problems and i also run a refugium with reverse lighting period from the main display which i heard also helps stabilize ph. and i use a doser not a calcium reactor for a 50 gallon cube and i dont use those fancy reactors thingys so no need to worry about ph for me

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Where do you get this from?

There's no way the phosphate level in our tank would ever be as low as the level in the ocean, and yet SPS colonies thrives in the ocean with such low level of nutrients (NO3/PO4).

Read here:
http://grumpyreefer.net/2009/10/28/ulns-is-not-really-l-and-far-from-ul/

Quoting from the URL above:
"...Taking the annual mean values, a good candidate for a LNS reef aquarium would have 0.003 ppm PO4, 0.003 ppm nitrate and 0.2 ppm silicate. For phosphate, that's 1/10th of detection limit of best PO4 test kits and 1/100th for NO3."

I don't think we are comparing apples to apples here. Natural Sea water has more larva in it than we can ever duplicate. It is the microscopic life that feeds the acropora colonies.

Not a bad write up but the main thing is that we don't have the ocean in our house. Here is a response that somebody wrote about that article and I think he has a good point.

Hi Tatu,

good to see all of this on your website. This why I write articles about coral nutrition. The ZEOvit system is quite ridiculous and far too expensive. The reason why corals look so unnatural and are experiencing RTN when using ZEOvit is very likely due to starvation, in the sense that they are not acquiring sufficient plankton and detritus.

A fed coral is a happy coral.

Silicate is actually dosed to several zoo aquaria, to stimulate the growth of sponges.