Nuclear Green Palys turned gray

kyley · Jul 6, 2019

Hi All,
I have a 120 gallon with all sorts of zoas and palys doing fine. But I added a small colony of Nuclear Green Palys a few weeks ago and they have turned a pale gray (see pic below). Anyone with experience with these particular palys have any ideas? I've had them before in my old 65g and didn't have issues with the colors fading like that. They've been at the bottom of the tank. I moved them up for several days but haven't seen any improvement. Do these need higher or lower light? Any other thoughts? Lights are Noopsyche K7 Pros (everything seems to be doing well under those lights). Thanks,
--Kyle

flchamp89 · Jul 6, 2019

Never seen that before. I'm on a phone. Are the skirts gone?

Hemmdog · Jul 6, 2019

I think they are healthy, I just think they aren’t nuclear greens. Did you have a pic of when you first got them?

@flchamp89 , put 2 fingers together on your screen and slowly spread them apart, that should zoom in for you.

flchamp89 · Jul 6, 2019

Hemmdog said:
I think they are healthy, I just think they aren’t nuclear greens. Did you have a pic of when you first got them?

@flchamp89 , put 2 fingers together on your screen and slowly spread them apart, that should zoom in for you.

Just gets blurry for me but I'm old lol. That's good point. They don't look like nuclears.

kyley · Jul 6, 2019

flchamp89 said:
Just gets blurry for me but I'm old lol. That's good point. They don't look like nuclears.

Nah, they definitely are (I've had them before too). I don't have an original pic, but they looked exactly like the ones below I found online. They just lost their color over the course of a couple of weeks and have shrunk a bit too. :-(

flchamp89 · Jul 6, 2019

OK well that's a good point. They top photo looks nothing like the bottom. Are they getting too much light. PDP I know brown out in too much light.

Katrina71 · Jul 6, 2019

Curious what your nitrates are?

kyley · Jul 6, 2019

PDP = Purple Death Palys? If so, yeah, they're similar palys for sure. I had both growing together many years ago. Maybe I should try to get them out of direct light and see if they color up?
--Kyle

JCOLE · Jul 6, 2019

What are your parameters?

Coralreefer1 · Jul 6, 2019

Water parameters can be an issue IF other corals are being effected. If it is a single incident, then try moving the Palythoas to an area that is different than where they are now. Experiment with flow and light intensity for best results. Do this slowly so you don’t stress them out...

Katrina71 · Jul 6, 2019

I'm not saying this is true for everyone, but all of my neon corals like higher nitrates. My son's too.

ZoWhat · Jul 6, 2019

How often you doing WCs?

Could be a Magnesium or a trace element deficiency like potassium or strontium

Hard to say but if you are lack WCs the palys might be starving on a certain element

kyley · Jul 6, 2019

skimjim said:
How often you doing WCs?

Could be a Magnesium or a trace element deficiency like potassium or strontium

Hard to say but if you are lack WCs the palys might be starving on a certain element

Thanks all. I need to test my water and plan to in the next day or two. That said, I suspect my nitrates are very low. Running a good algae scrubber and skimmer and feed fairly light. Elements could be low, and I'll test them too. Anyway, I have an auto water change system that does 1 gallon per day now to help replenish elements. I'm planning to start 2 part dosing in the near future, but right now my limited amount of corals aren't using up a lot of Ca & Alk. Thanks,
--Kyle

jrock flimflam · Dec 24, 2019

Update please. I have similar issue and hoping your are doing better

Dennis Cartier · Dec 24, 2019

I hate those nuclear green palys. I find them to be invasive and pretty near impossible to kill ;Rage

Now that I got that off my chest, I can help you save those little spawns of Satan. As you probably gathered, I have those in a tank and I have experienced the greying of them when they are particularly malnourished. If you dose a bit of iron, the grey will vanish and they will turn green within a week, and return to the their secret campaign of destruction!! ;Dead

Dennis

kyley · Dec 26, 2019

jrock flimflam said:
Update please. I have similar issue and hoping your are doing better

I lost some of them. I believe I have a couple that are starting to do better. They're showing a little more color, but certainly not their typical appearance yet. Are your NO3 and PO4 at 0? That has been the case with my tank and I believe may be the issue. I'm trying to raise them and also dosing amino acids and energy.