Poly Extension ?

[ironman20725]

Same here. My montipora are growing like crazy. Everything is doing great other then an ich outbreak. Lost 5 fish. I'm just letting them die then I'll go fallow. With corals.

 

[Theo15]

Same here. My montipora are growing like crazy. Everything is doing great other then an ich outbreak. Lost 5 fish. I'm just letting them die then I'll go fallow. With corals.

You loose any expensive fish? Did you try to treat it ?

 

[ironman20725]

I tried that PolypLab medic. Stuff is junk. I lost 4 tangs and 2 clowns as of about 20 minutes ago

 

[Theo15]

I tried that PolypLab medic. Stuff is junk. I lost 4 tangs and 2 clowns as of about 20 minutes ago

Dang that sucks, you know how it got in your system ?

 

[ngoodermuth]

I'm sorry @Theo15, remember you will need to go fishless for 76 days to make sure new additions don't get reinfected. Do you have any survivors? If you can whip together a QT tank the fish disease experts here can certainly help with treatment advice!

 

[ironman20725]

Only guess I could say is from a ***** coral. I dip but don't have a qt for them.

 

[ironman20725]

****** coral

 

[Theo15]

I'm sorry @Theo15, remember you will need to go fishless for 76 days to make sure new additions don't get reinfected. Do you have any survivors? If you can whip together a QT tank the fish disease experts here can certainly help with treatment advice!

It's not me @ngoodermuth , I've had ick in my system before but I used a medication and it went away

 

[Theo15]

****** coral

Lol, I had a cyano outbreak before because I guess I didn't dip a coral long enough it sucked

 

[ngoodermuth]

Oops, sorry @Theo15...that should have been @ironman20725.

[emoji23][emoji23]@ ****** coral

 

[Theo15]

Oops, sorry @Theo15...that should have been @ironman20725.

[emoji23][emoji23]@ ****** coral

All cool man

 

[ironman20725]

It's not me @ngoodermuth , I've had ick in my system before but I used a medication and it went away

Hard using medication with corals

 

[ngoodermuth]

Hard using medication with corals

Coming from someone who is currently slapping together a 4TH QT tank for a fish who was "accidentally" shipped in hyposalinity [emoji52][emoji52] it's really not as bad as it seems to get a cheap QT running.

 

[ironman20725]

I have one for fish. All fish were qted before. That's why I figured it was a coral. Which I don't qt my corals. Yet.....

 

[Theo15]

If you catch it early and the fish still eats try metroplex and focus from sea chem ,it works wonders and doesn't bother coral or inverts

 

[ironman20725]

It's way past that and hopefully theirs not a next time

 

[Theo15]

It's way past that and hopefully theirs not a next time

That sucks man , hopefully it won't happen again

 

[Mikemccafe]

Nope, many keep Acropora directly under MH lighting. I do not think lighting is the issue.

When you post water quality is good, is that referring to Ca/alk/mag?

Even though you never see an Angel pick at corals you'd be surprised how many hobbyist experienced the same situation removed the Angel and PE returned. I am not saying that is the cause but do not rule it out completely.

I can only tell you what works or worked for me, and that included allowing N/P to creep up from very low levels.

I was having problems keeping acans, thought it may have been a problem with stock from a particular lfs, so I thought I'd try one more since my tank was older and everything was thriving. I went to another lfs store which seems his stock does better in my tank, and I asked him his opinion among other things he mentioned flame angels, but I swore mine didn't bother my corals spent $90 on a beautiful 1/2 purple 1/2 green colony I'll be danged it wasn't 5 minutes out of acclimation and he thought it was feeding time. Traded colony for bunch of sps frags from a friend

 

[BluewaterLa]

It is natural for Stoney corals to only have polyp extension at night due to predation from fish / critters on their polyps during the day hours.
Night time on a reef is when the waters are flourishing with life and small food particles for the corals to feast upon without critter predation upon their polyps.

Most times in our reef tanks Stoney's will adapt to having great polyp extension during the day.
Numerous reasons why this may or may not happen.
Water quality, chemistry and nutrients available will vary from tank to tank.
While you may get frags from a friends tank that has excellent polyp extension, once said frags are transferred to your tank it may take lots of time for the coral to acclimate to your tank and husbandry.

All things from light, flow, placement, nutrients available and parameters all play a factor.
Some things are not seen or tested for on a hobby level that may hold the answers we seek for such issues.

I've got corals that had zero PE in tanks and their frags opened up polyps within minutes in my tank even after dipping. Also the reverse has happened where awesome PE was displayed in the original tank and once in my tank only a couple of days once in mine, then back to only at night time hours.

Taking a coral from a happy place where it is comfortable and thriving under light plus flow conditions that are spot on for the coral then changing that along with different water parameters / nutrients could be most of the reason.

One more thing I have witnessed within my own tank is frags that didn't show much polyp extensions during the day light hours but grew well would change to hairy monsters once grown out to a nice small colony or bigger.
( colony being half size or more of your hand )

Plenty to keep us on our toes with reefing for sure.
I agree with others that as long as the corals are growing then something is going good.
Next thing to target would be flow and nutrient levels in your tank.
Just changing flow intensity or pattern can make a difference and same goes with light or nutrients available to the corals.
Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / mike

 

[reeferfoxx]

I was having a similar issue. Except i wasn't getting any PE either day or night. Had bleaching issues then browning. Come to find out I was adjusting light intensity slowly but ineffectively and really not ever considering light schedule. After confiding with a r2r friend, I realized my 9 hours of intense light and 11 hours of total light cycle was way off. I droped to 7 hours of intense light and 9 hours of actinics. It took 3 weeks and I'm now seeing daytime PE and color coming back. This is chinese black box lighting BTW.