Cyphastrea looking agitated!

[DaveRaz]

When mine are very happy the polyps open so much they cover the base. The need a hard surface to encrust upon. I don't feed corals specifically, just feed the tank homemade chum that also includes oyster feast and rotifiers.

Kh- 8 to 8.5
Ca 420
Mg 1320
No3- 5
Po4 - .03

Lots and lots of flow because I run bare bottom, mainly acros.

Good luck.

 

[cjsreefaus]

Reduce the white channel.

 

[R6REEFER]

Do you have your parameters handy? These are slow growing for me.I would suggest keeping them off the sand,the new placement looks great. I would not expect to see as much polyp extension from a Cyphastrea in comparison to Acros.

Yessir parameters are as follows:

Nitrates - 6ppm
Niti & am - 0ppm
Po4 - 0.00
Alk - 10.6 dk/h
Cal - 420 ppm
Mag - 1 380 ppm
Spec gravity - 1.026
Ph - 8.0

Thanks, I like the new placement better as well. We'll see how they react to it. Polyp extension looks fine, they're out but not fully extended.

 

[R6REEFER]

Reduce the white channel.

Really? How much do you figure? All my other corals are FINALLY responding in a positive manner to the lighting, it'd be a pretty big deal for me to adjust. Last night I brought the blues and violet up a tad as during the day the tank looked a bit bland, not so vibrant. I guess I can try lowering 5% but I don't think I'd go for anymore than that.

 

[Chris Adams]

mine has gone green but I get great polyp extension. High Flow
Also have another that is supposed to be purple(probably should have it lower but don't want it on bottom).

 

[kireek]

Yessir parameters are as follows:

Nitrates - 6ppm
Niti & am - 0ppm
Po4 - 0.00
Alk - 10.6 dk/h
Cal - 420 ppm
Mag - 1 380 ppm
Spec gravity - 1.026
Ph - 8.0

Thanks, I like the new placement better as well. We'll see how they react to it. Polyp extension looks fine, they're out but not fully extended.

Your water looks a tad clean on the Nitrates and Po4.Not crazy clean though.Other than that,it looks like you are doing a awesome job.

 

[R6REEFER]

mine has gone green but I get great polyp extension. High Flow
Also have another that is supposed to be purple(probably should have it lower but don't want it on bottom).

Looks real good man!

 

[R6REEFER]

Your water looks a tad clean on the Nitrates and Po4.Not crazy clean though.Other than that,it looks like you are doing a awesome job.

Thank you very much! It's the first tank I've been able to get No3 down that low. To my understanding SPS are best in the lowest nutrient systems. My Po4 has always been at 0.04 in other tanks because I heard it's not great to have absolutely no phosphates. A little is good. But what are you referring to as "clean"? Nutrient free?

 

[kireek]

Yes,that was what I meant.Or I say something nerdy like your Nitrates are deviating.

 

[R6REEFER]

So I should dirty my tank up a bit? Add some nitrates lol. I don't have any fish aside from a orchid dottyback and engineering goby, I'm sure that's why it's low. My skimmer can barley pull any skimmate.

 

[nervousmonkey]

No, you don't need to add nitrates. 6 ppm is fine. For me, anything from 2-5 ppm is fine and everything is happy. When you add cyphs to your tank, add them to a really shady spot. They are deep water corals, so they are not used to having a lot of bright light. Deep water = used to blue light, so the advice to turn down the whites from @cjsreefaus is spot on, BUT, since other corals like it, move your cyphs into a shady area. Most of the time with cyphastrea, it all has to do with lighting.

Remember that these guys are not used to anything bright at all, and you can see it in their growth patterns: encrusting a rock to get all the light they can get, not as much polyp extension since they get nutrients from the deep water and don't need to extend polyps a lot just to get a little bit of nutrient rich water like acros *typically* do.... Cyphastrea will turn brown and stop growing when it gets too much light, which is what it sounds like with yours... Definitely don't move them up, move them into shade, if you want to see color and growth, get them out of the light. If not, they'll just turn brown and sit there like that forever.

Here is a link to a Tidal Gardens video about cyphs that will help:
http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/astr...astrea-faviidae-coral-similar-different-3050/

 

[R6REEFER]

No, you don't need to add nitrates. 6 ppm is fine. For me, anything from 2-5 ppm is fine and everything is happy. When you add cyphs to your tank, add them to a really shady spot. They are deep water corals, so they are not used to having a lot of bright light. Deep water = used to blue light, so the advice to turn down the whites from @cjsreefaus is spot on, BUT, since other corals like it, move your cyphs into a shady area. Most of the time with cyphastrea, it all has to do with lighting.

Remember that these guys are not used to anything bright at all, and you can see it in their growth patterns: encrusting a rock to get all the light they can get, not as much polyp extension since they get nutrients from the deep water and don't need to extend polyps a lot just to get a little bit of nutrient rich water like acros *typically* do.... Cyphastrea will turn brown and stop growing when it gets too much light, which is what it sounds like with yours... Definitely don't move them up, move them into shade, if you want to see color and growth, get them out of the light. If not, they'll just turn brown and sit there like that forever.

Here is a link to a Tidal Gardens video about cyphs that will help:
http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/astr...astrea-faviidae-coral-similar-different-3050/

Dude! I think you're absolutely correct! Anyone else watching this thread DO NOT move cyphs up if you have a setup like mine! I got up around noon today and freaked out when I saw them, just from 3 days moved up I could see very noticeable browning on the jingle bells and meteor. I immediately moved them not only to the sand bed, but underneath that rock arch (pictured) in the shade. Watch, in a week all the color will be restored, I'll put money on it.

I'm glad we all had this discussion. It cleared up alot of grey areas for me and hopefully you guys took some knowledge from it. With that being said, no matter the species of cyphastrea, KEEP THEM SHADED UP!!

 

[nervousmonkey]

Give it 10 days and they'll be pale blue with bright red polyps. Maybe a bit of green where they get light. Good luck man! Another one like cyphastrea is leptoseris. If you get one put it next to the cyph.

 

[R6REEFER]

Give it 10 days and they'll be pale blue with bright red polyps. Maybe a bit of green where they get light. Good luck man! Another one like cyphastrea is leptoseris. If you get one put it next to the cyph.

Yessir I have a really nice purple and green leptastria that came with the cyphs and it seems to like the shade as well, you can see in the following pics I put it next to the japonica. Thanks for the help buddy! Final placement pics will follow.

 

[R6REEFER]

Alright guys with your help and a bit of trial and error, here are some pics of the different cyphs placement. As you can see they are all shaded either entirely or more than 50%. Here is the Japonica and the purple leptastria along with my echinata and JF bling bling cyph.

 

[R6REEFER]

Here is the Meteor Shower and Jingle Bells.

 

[R6REEFER]

Last but not least, the PPE cyph which REALLY likes the shade. The blood red is to the left of it but I couldn't fit in the pic. The PPE is under a cave which shines a tad bit of light in during day lights. The valentine's cyph (which I don't care for) is behind this rock work shaded as well.

 

[MrJoel]

My meteor shower had mouths wide open for about 1 day a few days back. I was finally getting around to searching about it. I was also curious if it was good or bad since I had never seen a photo showing that before.