Weird Acting SPS

[reefyourself]

Hey everyone,

I have a 20 gallon reef tank thats been running a year and 2 months. I just recently changed my metal halide (september 2, 2010). Before the change, my current USA T5/HQI (4x T5 and 1x 150watt 20K Icecap) lighting was around 6 inches from the water. As of now (after i changed the lighting) I raised the lighting 12 inches from the water so the corals can get used to the new light.

The past day, my green bali slimer's polyps were not fully extended as usual on some parts of the coral but on other parts things were ok. Also, my other 2 acroporas had some long stringy things extending from the tips of the coral.

My lighting schedule and water parameters are as follows:

T5's: lunch - 8pm
Metal halide: 1pm - 7pm

Calcium:
Seachem - 400ppm
Salifert - 470ppm

Average (both kits) - 435ppm

Alk:
Salifert - 2.97meq/L (8.32dkh)
Aquarium Systems - 3.0meq/L (8.4dkh)

Average (both kits) - ~ 3.0meq/L

Mag:
Salifert - 1270ppm

Nitrate: <0.1ppm

Nitrite: 0

Amonia: 0

Phospate: <0.1ppm

I also run chemi-pure and GFO and change both once every month. I also dose phols extra, amino acids and vitalizer (1 drop of each daily). I do weekly water changes on saturday (1.5-2gal) with marine environment salt.

Whats going on with my corals???? What is that stringy stuff??? Can all this be light related?!

 

[allsps40]

Sounds like light shock. Cut the halide time to 3-4 hours and see what that does. I had major issues when I put new Phoenix 14ks in a few months ago. It starts out with small stuff like poor PE, slight bleaching/browning/lightening and sliming. Then can lead to coral death if not acclimated. Some sps are still recovering several months lated. You can also put a screen or some light defuser over the tank.

 

[reefyourself]

Actually its very strange because the 1/3 of the green slimer has full polyp extension (the tip) and then the rest of the coral has some polyps here and there; some are completely retracted while others or only half out.

luckily i can keep my parameters very stable during this time...using GHL dosing unit to dose Cal and Alk

What ive done is i reduced the photoperiod of my MH to 4 hrs. Should I also be putting a screen over my tank?

 

[neoalchemist74]

.1 phosphate. Is that correct? If so thats very high. You shouldn't be above .03

 

[neoalchemist74]

.1 phosphate is that correct? If so that is very high. you should be below .03.
sorry stupid thing didn't show my post didn't think it went through.:thumbdown

 

[reefyourself]

yeah sorry both phospates and nitrates are below 0.03....lol yeah that right o.3 would wipe everything out...lol.....

 

[mike_cmu04]

Cut down your light period raising the light may not have been enough to prevent light shock,

 

[reefyourself]

I have changed my photoperiod to as follows:

T5's: 8hrs
Metal halide: 4hrs (down from 6)

Should I just leave it as this or should I put some kind of screen on top of my tank (1 layer? or multiple?)

 

[reefyourself]

anyone??!!!!!!

 

[rogerwilco357]

my green slimer also does that once and a while seems the top half full polyps on the underside of the same skeleton they are not full mostly at night my phosphates are at .10 also have been working on that ..it was .25 last week then down to .10 and as of today .08 does it really have to be 0.00

 

[reefyourself]

the thing is... for the bottom part its half polyp brown but i have some even on the side with no polyps...

will be posting a picture tmr

 

[reefyourself]

hey everyone believe it or not i raised my alk to around 3.10 and calcium around 440 and voila! That fixed the problem