What's happening to my yellow polyps?

[Adam113]

So these yellow polyps have grown an INSANE amount for the past 4 months. Taking over everything around them. My girlfriend noticed last night they aren't looking so hot. Any ideas? First picture is about a month ago, last two are from last night. Now this was late last night, around 9 o'clock, but all lights were still on. My lights start dimming around 9:30. I haven't been able to check them out today yet in middle of day.

No big changes. I blew off and sucked out some cyano off a rock last week, added a powerhead to the left of the yellow polyps, and that's about the only changes.

Parameters-

80 degrees
Salinity- 1.024
Ammonia-0
PH-8
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 5
Calcium- 420

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

yea that is weird. How is your Po4? did you change the lighting?

 

[Adam113]

yea that is weird. How is your Po4? did you change the lighting?

Forgot about that. Just got new bulbs about a month ago. Stock Biocube bulbs but the old bulbs were oldddddd. Maybe too big a change in light too quickly? I can't really move them down in the tank as they've taken over a main rock.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Forgot about that. Just got new bulbs about a month ago. Stick Biocube bulbs but the old bulbs were oldddddd. Maybe too big a change in light too quickly? I can't really move them down in the tank as they've taken over a main rock.

were they name brand? Browning(less vivid) is usually an indicator of not enough light. Thats what's so odd.
Yea possible too much of a change but....

 

[Adam113]

were they name brand? Browning(less vivid) is usually an indicator of not enough light. Thats what's so odd.
Yea possible too much of a change but....

Very weird. They are the factory lights for the Biocube, same as the old ones (two years old), just new. Noticeably brighter.

One thing I did do was finally get blinds on a window that let some natural sunlight hit the polyps, but was contributing to some cyano growth.

 

[ahiggins]

I read somewhere that polyps can ingest cyano and die. Whether thats true or not I dont know but its a possibility.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Very weird. They are the factory lights for the Biocube, same as the old ones (two years old), just new. Noticeably brighter.

One thing I did do was finally get blinds on a window that let some natural sunlight hit the polyps, but was contributing to some cyano growth.

yea maybe it just made them grumpy. Kinda weird.

 

[Adam113]

I read somewhere that polyps can ingest cyano and die. Whether thats true or not I dont know but its a possibility.

That's interesting because I just recently blew off and sucked up a lot. I'm sure some pieces made their way over. I wouldn't be too terribly depressed to be honest as the yellow polyps have flourished so much it's kind of gotten worrisome of taking over a large portion of the tank.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That's interesting because I just recently blew off and sucked up a lot. I'm sure some pieces made their way over. I wouldn't be too terribly depressed to be honest as the yellow polyps have flourished so much it's kind of gotten worrisome of taking over a large portion of the tank.

hahah. they are known as weeds by some. I like weeds though.

I read somewhere that polyps can ingest cyano and die. Whether thats true or not I dont know but its a possibility.

I lost a tank(28g jbj) to cyano. didnt really lose anything but it was gross and it did not flourish.

With less yellow and orange from the bulbs you should see some improvement w the cyano.

 

[Adam113]

Anybody know anything about the cyano and yellow polyp deal? I'm leaning towards this as it's super coincidental.

I blasted the polyps with a turkey baster yesterday and got some pics of the stalks. Does this tell anything else?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

the crusty lookin stuff on them is weird.

 

[ahiggins]

are you going to chemiclean the tank?
Im actually in the process of one now

 

[Adam113]

are you going to chemiclean the tank?
Im actually in the process of one now

I've never done that before. I'm thinking something has only hit my yellow polyps. Everything else is flourishing, all fish are happy, levels are constant. Not sure what happened here.

 

[brandon429]

Is there not an invasive sponge in between polyps, irritating? Google to see if parazoanthus axinellae is nonphotosynth

Vary up that feeding and surgically scrape remove the sponge outside tank then rinse well

 

[Adam113]

Surely somebody else has more insight to this?? I'm noticing more of the crusty stuff on them.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Surely somebody else has more insight to this?? I'm noticing more of the crusty stuff on them.

get the crusty stuff off and look at it. how does it feel. crunchy? slimey?

 

[Adam113]

get the crusty stuff off and look at it. how does it feel. crunchy? slimey?

I have no idea how I'd get it off. It LOOKS like it's crunchy. What are the options either way on what it would be? I started spot feeding them yesterday to see if that changed anything. I also redirected some flow in their direction.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have no idea how I'd get it off. It LOOKS like it's crunchy. What are the options either way on what it would be? I started spot feeding them yesterday to see if that changed anything. I also redirected some flow in their direction.

Teachbin with your fingers and grab the polyp and feel it.

 

[Adam113]

Teachbin with your fingers and grab the polyp and feel it.

I did it earlier. Definitely not hard and crunchy. More of a film that's soft

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I did it earlier. Definitely not hard and crunchy. More of a film that's soft

Then the two things on the top of my head are. Algae or a fungus. It could also be some other pretty benign form of life but the case is likeley the same.

Flow and cleaning. In the wild file is big and on some days it's huge. So the corals close up and get blasted in storms. This blows all the funk off. It cleans them.

Plus thers a lot more things eating and removing gunk from the corals in the wild too so quite often the corals are regularly groomed.

So imo in captivity we don't provide that well. Build up can cause problems like bacterial infections and the growth of fungus.

I regularly blow the heck out of my tank with a turkey baster. I used to have a maxijet on a timer that would come in a few times a day and blow up a storm. Worded too well though and made my sps really huge.

So clean those guys off I'd say and if it's easy to get out. Use tank water with a few extra drops if lugols iodine and Swish it around after you clean it. Peroxide works too but Is harsher to the coral.
Both are reeef safe.