Sps Polyp Extension

[Dilan Patel]

WHen is it the best time to see polyp extension. How do I get polyp extension. Is it bad that I do not get polyp extensio during the day? Etc. Can you give information on Polyp extension any info helps me and anybody else who looks at this since this will be up to date.

 

[Dilan Patel]

WHen is it the best time to see polyp extension. How do I get polyp extension. Is it bad that I do not get polyp extensio during the day? Etc. Can you give information on Polyp extension any info helps me and anybody else who looks at this since this will be up to date.

Also what type of lighting spectrum grows corals and what colors them up? Im just trying to figure that out for a recovery coral?

 

[mtraylor]

To get good polyp extension you will need good steady water parameters and good random movement (flow). Once you master the parameters, then you will need the flow to get the polyps out. Place the corals accordingly to those conditions in your aquarium.

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

Also what type of lighting spectrum grows corals and what colors them up? Im just trying to figure that out for a recovery coral?

Let's focus on a couple things here that all have to come into play together
Flow- you want a strong indirect current, preferably alternating
Nutrients- No3 Nitrates , whatever you want to call them. You need them! Shouldn't be undetectable, this is what will help color up your SPS! No3 around 5ppm is pretty good.
Stability- whoa this one is KEY! A good sign of stability is coralline algae, if you're getting specks on your glass and elsewhere, you're doing it right.

You want PE pretty much all the time on SPS

 

[ReeferMadness80G]

I see you've asked this question a few times concerning color and growth in SPS, give us some details on your tank. Size, lights equipment etc.
parameters including temp and salinity
Tell us what your dosing
What kind of media filtration you're using.

 

[Dilan Patel]

Yeah Im just trying to put little bits of things together. As I have been doing a thread on a coral I picked up browned and the store i got it from could not get it to color up but it had PE. When I got it to my tank it had little but was still brown. Now there is little to no PE and still brown. All I use for filtration is a HOB skimmer octopus 2000 and a nitrate reactor and a phosban reactor. I dose alk,calc, and the coral color program(just started a week ago) and acropower. The tank is a 55gallon non drilled been set up for 4 years. I run two kessil a160's peeking at 80% intensity and 50% color. I run two T5-s one actinic and one coral plus which i think is red. I have a apex which runs everything. I use two powerheads I believe they do 1200 GPH each and a return pump. Temp runs at78 to 79. Ph at about 8.0 and salinity at 1.026-25. Alk at 9.5,calc at 420,mag at 1250,I dose 1ml of coral color each day . Potassium I havent tested since I have started dosing. Nitrate at 5-10,nitrite 0,phosphate.025ppm,ammonia at 0. I use hannah checker and red sea test kits. Plus the probes and refractometer. I use RODI water.

 

[Abhishek]

I know many people disagree but flow is the most important aspect of sps , even more than light. We spend all the money on lights and hardly look at flows whereas indirect random strong flow brings out the best PE along with nutrients .
In my 30 in x 30 in x 18 in tank, am running 2 gyre 130s , 2 Tunze 6055 , 1 Tunze 6040 and a seaswirl for constant moving return water along with 2 reefbrite leds and 2 x 250 watt halides.
Have stopped all carbon and GFO and nutrients are pretty high . Definitely fighting algae but I hardly care for them as the PE is have now is insane 24 hrs .

This is just daytime .. nighttime it's as if polyps will fall off






Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Dilan Patel]

How are you not kicking up sand all the time with that much flow? I used sugar fine sand which I know have to fight all the time to not blow it around.

 

[Abhishek]

Depends on what sand you are using .. I use Tropic Eden which is heavier than others and doesnt get klicked up by pumps. But I have leopard wrasses that like to blow sandstorms which helps the acros I think as they love the extra nutrients in water column i think.

 

[Dilan Patel]

wow crazy polyp extension only polyp extension I get day and night is from my birdsnest.

 

[Abhishek]

If you really want to experiment, I would suggest the following :-

1. Increase flow and as random as possible.
2. Increase nutrients in water by feeding more to fishes and having high bioloads. If you want to try acropower, sure but I do not use amino acids and cant comment on that .
3. I took it quite a notch and stopped everything in my system except for my trusted Deltec skimmer . But it will cause algae bloom , mostly cyanos . If you are ok to have cyano and algae bloom in tank, sure , otherwise stay away and run GFO and carbon but may be intermitently.

Lastly, stable ALK helps a lot . If you have low nutrients but run high alk, its detrimental to corals. I run mine around 7.5-7.6 . Steady temparature at 76.5-77 .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[happyhourhero]

Blast em with flow and keep parameters stable.

 

[ksfulk]

Theres a lot of other things to take into account, but most of the advise is solid up above. I would also take a flashlight to your tank and look at it about an hour or two after your lights go out. Many corals feed at night, and this is where even injured corals will extend feeding tentacles or polyps after hours. In addition, if you have a fish or other inhabitant that picks at the corals or even just agitates them often, the polyps can stay retracted quite often. Tanks with angel fish are notorious for this. Finally, what type of acro do you have? A millepora will have much better polyp extension and overall "hairiness" than carduus (dragon type) or echinata species.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

I actually just ran a little experiment with feeding them regularly to encourage PE. I saw a significant difference. I feed reef chili and marine cuisine (which I feel has more of the fine stuff that SPS are capable of utilizing). So along with everything else that's been posted, try feeding them
I'm sure some people are sick of seeing these picture, but here are some before and afters of my daytime PE. Left side is before regular feedings, right is after.

And one of my nighttime.

 

[Abhishek]

I thought reef chilli was a little too big for sps . I have found Reef Roids to be more suitable for acros. I used to use it and it did great . But since I took GFO offline, no feeding as it just fuels the cyano way too much to handle .
Some of the best sps keepers I know of hardly feed their acros but still get insane PE just by following K.I.S.S method.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Dilan Patel]

did you broadcast feed or target feed. did you shut off all flow. I feed coral frenzy. I do run a little lower nutrients due to algae so if I were to drop the alk to around 8.5 would hat be better or drop it lower?

 

[Abhishek]

Stability is the key. If you run high alk and want to lower it, I would suggest doing it very very slowly . I would lower it to below 8 over the course of a month or 2.
You can target feed by switching off all pumps and see if it helps.

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Dilan Patel]

Ok thanks.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I actually just went to check on the coral I usually do not see polyp extension. I actually saw some polyps coming out,not fully out but you can see the tips. I guess I am never home at this time to see it. I am sick today so i get to watch the tanks haha.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

If nutrients and water parameters are good, and after several hours lights out (brightly lit room where your tank is doesn't count), your SPS should have excellent PE. If yes, than your tank's light is too intense for them. I have a lot SPS that lives within tidal shore lines and they don't like blinding light intensity even though they came from a 3 feet of water during low tide.