why might my sps be closed during the day and open at night??? any thoughts???

P

Pallobi

CTARS, BRS & OSRAS Member
ok, so for a while i thought it might be cuz i didnt us RODI though i do use RO from our well, which has whatseems to be very clean water, but cant actually be sure (well, stopped cuz i ran out of resin and havent gotten more YET)... however, lately, i have been turing my vortec down to about 30 to 40% at night and of course the lights would be off... and for the last week or so, before the actnics come on and before too much sunlight comes in, i notice that the corals that have not been open at all are at what seems to be full length and the ones that still open a bit, are open even more...

i use amino acids bout twice a week, dose a 2 part every other day as directed, and i dose phyto maybe twice a week, usually once...

and my nitrates are next to nothing if anything... i plan on starting to vadka dose very very soon...

ph is good though i do need to add buffer here and there, i do this bout once a week... and my Kh seems to stay within the 9 to 12 range... i dont use a calcium reactor, and my calcium is usually a bit low, around 370 to 400 at the most, though i dont think this would effect their extension much...

those are the details i can think of now, and i would love some help... i am kinda sps newb as ive only been keeping them since june, but i do need some help and it would be more than appreciated...

thanks guys in advance
 
i am thinken its may be a light and flow thing if i were to go by those standards... i use a 6 bulb teklight... 39 watts each... they used to be open in the light daily however for a good 2 to 3 months
 
no, i only have a flame angel and a magenta dotty, and the flame has never even nibbled, and i spend an awful lot of time watching my tanks, an awful lot...
 
however, as for the flow, i jus have 1 mp10 and its mounted on the back wall and none of the flow is direct to any coral, fyi
 
have you tested for phosphates and nitrates? those could be a problem. Also do you feed your acros. i believe acros benefit from super clean water and food. oyster eggs is what i feed mine. color and growth has increased both in sps and lps corals.
 
Pallobi said:
no, i only have a flame angel and a magenta dotty, and the flame has never even nibbled, and i spend an awful lot of time watching my tanks, an awful lot...
Click to expand...

Centropyge's are notorious for rock grazing and coral nipping. It would only take once or twice before the corals do not have the same extension; especially montiporas. You could be 100% right, but the odds are the fish.
 
mpoletti said:
Centropyge's are notorious for rock grazing and coral nipping. It would only take once or twice before the corals do not have the same extension; especially montiporas. You could be 100% right, but the odds are the fish.
Click to expand...

its funny, but the monti's arent a prob at all... and i know people are gonna wana blame the fish... but i really dont feel he is the problem... for a good portion of the time that this has been happening, i have had no fish in this tank and they were all in the 75, only til recently did i add the flame and magenta back to the coral tank... maybe this helps with the info a bit too, sorry i left it out... doesnt mean your not right i suppose, but i jus not sure its him... could be a p[ossibility though...

and my nitrates shouldnt be a prob, but they do register a bit sometimes...
 
Has the colour suffered? Do they seam dull looking? I would also not rule out the pigmy angels. They are sneaky. I have two and the moment I leave the room or turn my back they start picking. Not much, but just enough to irritate some coral. They never seem to concentrate on the same one just pick as they swim along.
 
Pallobi said:
however, lately, i have been turing my vortec down to about 30 to 40%

If your running only 1 mp10 on a 75gal that is not nearly enough flow.

dose a 2 part every other day as directed, and i dose phyto maybe twice a week, usually once...

As directed by what? Your dosing should be done based on your tanks usage. If your tank uses 1dkh per day then you dose to replace, etc.

and my nitrates are next to nothing if anything... i plan on starting to vadka dose very very soon...

What are you trying to reduce with the vodka?

ph is good though i do need to add buffer here and there, i do this bout once a week...

Why do you need to add the buffer?

and my Kh seems to stay within the 9 to 12 range...

That is not an acceptable swing range and would likely be the biggest culprit ffor a lot of sps issues. You really dont want more than a 1 deg or 2 deg per day swing MAX.

Better polyp extension at night is also not abnormal though. Many sps only have polyp ext at night.

Good luck
Click to expand...
 
tmg, to addresse some of your comments, as you can see in my signature, the 40g breeder is my sps tank... iwill be dosing vodka, like so many sps keepers here do cuz i feel it will be good for my nitrates and tank... and i add the buffer becuz i dont have a media reactor to keep my ph right where it should be... and i do not test every day, so that difference in Kh is more of what i have found over the last 2 months, DEFINATLY NOT day to day... and i buff a low dosage of 2 part as the bottle (company) and other reefers suggest...

again, the sps are in a 40g breeder, as clearly stated, hope no one was confused by this...

i am starting to think that other than a bit of a small amount of nitrates, that i might be just fine, but again, i am kinda a newb at this...

i will be adding a 16x16x6 to 7" sand bed to my sump as soon as i get the mats to make a "sandbox" to sit im my sump...

anyone else have any info for me? much appreciated so far...
 
I experienced the same until I got rid of my Flame angel, only saw it once nip, but within a day of it being gone PE was back to normal.
 
Just my opinion, but if you have good nitrate readings and are still somewhat new to SPS then I would be cautious about jumping into vodka dosing. Yes, it sounds neat and all the cool kids are doing it, but until you have your tank figured out and lacking a real need for it, you are just complicating things for no real reason.

One MP10 on a 40 sounds pretty low on flow to me also, FWIW.
 
abrian said:
Just my opinion, but if you have good nitrate readings and are still somewhat new to SPS then I would be cautious about jumping into vodka dosing. Yes, it sounds neat and all the cool kids are doing it, but until you have your tank figured out and lacking a real need for it, you are just complicating things for no real reason.

One MP10 on a 40 sounds pretty low on flow to me also, FWIW.
Click to expand...

+1 on both comments
 
Just my .02 but stop buffering your ph.
I as many people with sps don't use media reactors and I have never ever buffered ph. PH swings will crush a tank just like alk swings. Unless your ph is below 8 or higher than 8.5 leave it be and let the tank do its job. If your having ph problems then you need to get better air in room and better air exchange to tank. If you really need a ph correction would maybe consider kalk dripping and maybe a bit of kalk in your top off water.
 
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