purple clove polyps help!

[fishroomlady]

my post is probably the opposite of what you may expect with the title....anyway, I have a rock with purple clove polyps where the polyps are slowly fading away

I know people complain about them taking over but I'd love to get mine to grow! any advice?? It's in low flow in the lower part of the tank - I have a 65 gallon tank with 4 HO t5 bulbs.

 

[mike007]

I can send you more if you would like. lol

 

[Velodog2]

Mine were spreading alarmingly fast. But when I finally got my tank really clean by weekly water changes and a lot of effort with detritus removal they all melted away like snow in the spring. I would say your tank is too clean.

As corroboration I have now let it dirty up a little again because my sps stopped growing, and the single tiny clove polyp I know of still in there is increasing in size again.

 

[fishroomlady]

what do you recommend in terms of light and flow? In trouble shooting, the rock it's on is pretty close to my torch coral so maybe that's affecting it?

 

[fishroomlady]

bump - please

 

[ritter6788]

What cloves are they exactly? Have a pic?

 

[PaulKreider]

+1clove polyps like xenia tend to like dirtier water, other than that I couldn't get them to stop growing.

 

[Velodog2]

Mine grew anywhere regardless of light and flow, although colonized very high light areas last.

 

[TUSI]

I have an SPS tank with low nutrients tried them at least six time and can't keep them alive so I tend to agree they like dirtier water

 

[fishroomlady]

my xenia is thriving so I'm thinking my water isn't that prestine. Here's a picture under whites....not the best pictures and I didn't realize they'd come out so big lol

 

[davocean]

Cloves like that will grow even in a clean tank, hard to say what's going on w/ those in your tank, and I know it's not the answer you are looking for, but my opinion is your tank has a gaurdian angel, because those things are the single most biggest nightmare I have ever dealt with in all my years of keeping tanks.

 

[ritter6788]

Yep, that's the cloves I had. They like a lot of light but should do fine anywhere in the tank. If you have a nipping fish like a dwarf angel it may irritate them and close up. I know you want them to grow but they are really a nuisance and can kill stony corals.

 

[fishroomlady]

I do have a coral beauty - maybe he's nipping at it?? I don't see him do it but maybe that's the problem. Any advice if it is?

 

[ritter6788]

I do have a coral beauty - maybe he's nipping at it?? I don't see him do it but maybe that's the problem. Any advice if it is?

Very possible. Only thing you can really do is isolate the cloves or the fish and see if the cloves open up.

 

[Eienna]

Some setups just won't grow certain corals for some unknown reason.

 

[Velodog2]

Perhaps cleanliness isn't the right term or concept. There may be a limiting component that you don't have enough of. My tank did not seem that clean either, but showed a lot of signs of being too clean such as low sps growth rate, and lps recession, which have all reversed since I stopped cleaning so scrupulously. Who knows? It's my best guess.

 

[fishroomlady]

hmmm.......