Polyp extension

AJsTank · Jul 9, 2014

The polyps on my SPS do not come out, ever, during the day. They come out at night, but even my milli's, no polyps can be seen. I'm getting decent growth, phenomenal color, but nothing comes out unless it's night time. What could be the cause?

I've got 60 pieces from frag size to colonies. They are placed all over the tank and it's the same with all of them.

It's kind of frustrating. I picked up a nice diablo milli and it never has the polyps, I went back to the store I got it from and their mother colony has nice long extensions on the polyps.

I'm 100% SPS in this tank - I do have 5 angels, but 4 of them are quite large and they don't nip at all. The only one that nips is my Lemon Peel, but he only nips at my encrusting monti's.

Little bit about the tank -

Display is 400
Radion Pro Gen 2's
GFO reactor
Carbon in a bag
Refugium
57 watt aqua UV sterilizer
Bio-Denitrator

These 3 parameters never fluctuate. It's very stable
Alk - 9
Ca - 450
Mag - 1400

Phosphates are .03
Nitrates are zero

Salinity is 1.024

Temp goes from 77 to 77.3

Flow I've got 2 MP60's on each side and 3 MP40's on the back wall

AJsTank · Jul 9, 2014

Or do I just not worry about it....

I did forget to mention, I feed a lot to my fish. 3-5X's a day. I use filter socks and change them every other day. Could it be that my corals are getting fed, so they do not extend? I've found that people say polyp extension can happen for bad water, hungry or satisfied..

Tahoe61 · Jul 9, 2014

Duhhh I thought I read the post throughly, sorry. My money is still on the Angels. Sooo many times I have heard, "my Angels do not nip", Angels removed from system and instant improvement in PE. I have seen sps retract their polyps when an Angel even swims by, my own fish and corals.

AJsTank · Jul 9, 2014

Tahoe61 said:
Duhhh I thought I read the post throughly, sorry. My money is still on the Angels. Sooo many times I have heard, "my Angels do not nip", Angels removed from system and instant improvement in PE. I have seen sps retract their polyps when an Angel even swims by, my own fish and corals.

Well, I was having the issue for months before I even added them.... They've only been in for about 45 days.

I dropped a huge colony of Red Planet in about 6 months ago. I had polyp extension on it for 2-3 days and after that, it's never come out until dark. At the the time I only had a couple tangs and about 30 Anthia's.

As far as nipping goes, I have spent hours sitting in my chair watching the fish day after day, doing work. I'm not saying they don't nip, but I have never seen any of the big Angels even look at the corals. The Lemon Peel, like I mentioned does nip at the 3 encrusting monti's I've got. It may be a problem later on down the road.

jackson6745 · Jul 9, 2014

Radion G2, 0 nitrates, and GFO use certainly will play a huge roll in polyp extension.

shred5 · Jul 9, 2014

On the reef this is actually very normal... During the day there is more predation on the polyps. Also at night their is more food out....

AJsTank · Jul 10, 2014

jackson6745 said:
Radion G2, 0 nitrates, and GFO use certainly will play a huge roll in polyp extension.

Meaning... I'm stripping the water to much?

jackson6745 · Jul 10, 2014

AJsTank said:
Meaning... I'm stripping the water to much?

Could very well be, also If your SPS don't have a good population of zoox (deep color) the G2 light is quite damaging.

jackson6745 · Jul 10, 2014

I just looked at your tank thread. Beautiful system. I see some of the SPS appear very light in color. I would back off on the amount of GFO or discontinue it totally, start dosing acro power, try to get the nitrates up a little, possibly lower radion white intensity if you have it very high.
Relying on bacteria and carbon source instead of GFO and fuge has give me better PE than I've ever had.

mic209 · Jul 10, 2014

What kind of tangs do you have? I use to have the same problem, could never figure it out as I had no fish with a reputation of nipping. Suprisingly one day I caught my blue hippo tang nipping at they polyps. I got rid of the fish and within a couple days all my SPS corals had polyps out during the day.

AJsTank · Jul 10, 2014

mic209 said:
What kind of tangs do you have? I use to have the same problem, could never figure it out as I had no fish with a reputation of nipping. Suprisingly one day I caught my blue hippo tang nipping at they polyps. I got rid of the fish and within a couple days all my SPS corals had polyps out during the day.

I ended up removing all the tangs, but the huge Naso. He doesn't graze or nip that I know of.

AJsTank · Jul 10, 2014

jackson6745 said:
I just looked at your tank thread. Beautiful system. I see some of the SPS appear very light in color. I would back off on the amount of GFO or discontinue it totally, start dosing acro power, try to get the nitrates up a little, possibly lower radion white intensity if you have it very high.
Relying on bacteria and carbon source instead of GFO and fuge has give me better PE than I've ever had.

Thanks for the suggestions. 7 weeks ago, I started using acropower and wow... My acros have really colored up nicely. My intensity is back down to 80%. I'll work on nitrates a tad bit..

zesty · Jul 10, 2014

Tahoe61 said:
Duhhh I thought I read the post throughly, sorry. My money is still on the Angels. Sooo many times I have heard, "my Angels do not nip", Angels removed from system and instant improvement in PE. I have seen sps retract their polyps when an Angel even swims by, my own fish and corals.

I had this exact situation happen to me. I had a bi-color angel and a digi-monti that was encrusting but not one single polyp. Then I removed the angel and within a week, the polyps were like, "free at last, free at last!"

This may or may not be your issue. I have gathered more SPS since the digi-monti and some are good at PE and some aren't... some come and go, some come and stay... As long as they aren't receding or showing signs of stress, I just try not to mess with them.

evolved · Jul 10, 2014

I place all my chips on the Angels too; someone is nipping.

AJsTank · Jul 11, 2014

evolved said:
I place all my chips on the Angels too; someone is nipping.

Yes, it could be it, but like I said before, this has been happening for months and months. I only added the angels about 45 days ago. It's been happening since day 1. My PH ranges from 7.9 - 8. Could that be it? I re-arranged my MP's last night to get better use of my flow to see if that helps.

footballdude2k3 · Jul 11, 2014

Do you have a sump with a light that can grow coral well? I would take a piece of coral, put it in there, and check to see if it is the same thing, then you should get a better idea if the coral's behavior changes.

Pete polyp · Jul 11, 2014

You have great growth and fantastic color so what is the issue? I know people want the long polyps on their acro... But if they're happy and healthy isn't that what really matters?

ronnie · Jul 11, 2014

Might check for red bugs. They tend to limit polyp extension, but don't always affect color if the tank is in good shape

Kostaskappa · Jul 11, 2014

One question guys! I use reef plus and i lost some sps coloration but my lps is doing fine. If i dose acropower + reef plus should i cut dose's in half for both supplements?

PS. Sorry for the offtopic...!