Coral problems ONLY at night?

[AquaJunkie]

Could anyone explain why this is happening to some of my coral? ONLY happens during the night. Couple hours after light has been on they look great again and very healthy but couple hours after lights go off, this happens?

 

[NanaReefer]

Warfare or feeding would be my guess.

 

[AquaJunkie]

Both corals are not close to other corals. It's like tissue coming out.

 

[Salty1962]

At night most corals go into feeding mode. In your case, what appears to be a Torch is going into feeding mode. Most LPS corals send out sweeper tentacles from which they capture prey or food. They will also do this in the event another coral is near and warfare breaks out. In the case of warfare they usually open their stomach to kill the neighboring coral/corals. I don't believe your coral is sick just gong into feeding mode unless there's a coral near by that isn't reflected in the picture

 

[AquaJunkie]

Best way to describe it is the corals tissue seems to be coming out almost as if it's been stung, but why would this only happen at night? Especially when none of them are near other corals?

 

[Sabellafella]

Not sure what the tip photo is. Is that photo of brown jelly? Second dont be fooled, perfectly normal mesenterial filaments aka guts aka trying to either feed or eat something close by

 

[Macdaddynick1]

Best way to describe it is the corals tissue seems to be coming out almost as if it's been stung, but why would this only happen at night? Especially when none of them are near other corals?

galaxea coral can send out 6 inch sweepers while being 2 " across. and they do it at night mostly , thats just they way they fight,

 

[AquaJunkie]

Could any parameter swings cause this at night? I made sure not to buy any corals with long sweepers purposely to avoid warfare. And top photo is a red monticap with guts/tissue coming out.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

possibly low nitrate or really high phosphate.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

if its not a chem warfare(ant the dont need to be next to each other just in the tank), Id vote more for PH swing.
the other wild possibility would be bugs, any Zoo plankton on the glass? small jellyfish?
thats weird, Ive never seen a monti push its stomach out.

 

[AquaJunkie]

I have 2ppm nitrates and 0 phosphates. Could a ph swing cause coral to do this.

 

[AquaJunkie]

I removed my chaeto in fuge a few weeks ago because it wasn't growing very well (probably due to the lack of phosphates) could this be the reason?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

imo yea, PH is acid and base. so if it swings hard either way stuff gets mad. its easy to test for.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I removed my chaeto in fuge a few weeks ago because it wasn't growing very well (probably due to the lack of phosphates) could this be the reason?

yea it could change your ph. in the light macros add oxygen that affects the Ph. a fuge does help stabilize the ph.

 

[AquaJunkie]

Thanks guys think I will throw some chaeto back in the sump and see how it goes. The more I think about it, all this started around the same time I removed the chaeto which had been in my sump for almost a year.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

If your running GFO or using other Po reduction methods or have a HUGE skimmer, IMO, you may want to slowly dial those methods back. Give the chato a little more to do. IME its actually been easier for me to control nutrients with macros and not over-strip the system. The available O2 and conversely Co2 and PH result is another bonus.

 

[NanaReefer]

What kind of ph swings are you talking about. It's s very normal for ph to swing slightly from day to night. 7.8 to 8.4

 

[djreef]

Sabella got it right. They're mesenterials, or digestive filaments. No big deal. They emerge at night searching for food. Euphyllias more commonly use sweepers for defense.

DJ