Same time each day

[Schgred]

Help me think through something. Every day I happen to see something weird happen. For the first couple hours of the day everything typical looks good. The zoas are all open and everything is expanding. Then about 2-3 hours after all the lights are on I notice that everything at once tends to close up. The frogspawn and hammer don't react but the zoas and the mushrooms tend to close up or shrink. I honestly have no guess. They stay shut or mostly shut for about an hour and then gradually open up.

My parameters are all where they should be. I honestly have no idea what it might be. I'm assuming this is affecting growth over the long term. Any ideas?

 

[aquandrew]

well my first shot of a guess is your lighting could be too strong. the zoas and mushrooms need much less light than the others, what kind of lights do you have, on what size tank? it could also be too much flow, what and how many powerheads? how long have you had each coral? what is their placement?

 

[Schgred]

That would seem to make sense but my lights are not that strong and were doing great for the zoas and shrooms for quite some time. Shrooms are on the bottom and zoas are on the bottom 1/3 of the tank. I have two light. The marineland reef capable led and an innovative marine Skkye strip.

 

[Schgred]

And the flow hasn't changed either. I have about 25x turnover in the tank

 

[Animal-Chin]

Could be a ph swing caused by the photosynthesis period starting up again. This is why people run their sump lights oposite to their main lights. I can't remember exactly what happens (Its something like algae releases carbon dioxide during lighting periods) and when this happens some softies like zoa's react.

Just a shot in the dark...

 

[Dav3]

I agree with the ph swing.

Algae releases oxygen during photosynthesis while lights are. The additional oxygen drives co2 out causing ph to rise.

When lights go out algae is no longer producing oxygen during photosynthesis causing co2 levels to rise and ph to drop.

 

[Schgred]

If I'm using a HOB filter how do you avoid the ph swing? Should I have my actinics on for longer before the white lights come on? As it is, I have the actinics on for 12 hours and 10 for the white. I could have the actinics on for 2 hours before the whites instead?

 

[Dav3]

Test your ph in the morning before lights go on or as close to that time as possible. Then test ph just before lights go out. How big is the difference?

 

[Schgred]

I will test the ph later tonight but I did a test just now.

I tested the ph just after the lights went on and it was 8.0. I tested it now as I see the zoanthids are all closed up and the mushrooms are smaller and the ph is still 8.0. I'll check it tonight.

 

[Dav3]

If there is no detectable ph change and your zoas have already closed up I would try putting them lower in the tank. It is probably lighting as suggested earlier.

 

[Schgred]

I can't imagine it is the lighting. We are talking 1 watt LEDs and the zoas (3 colonies) are all at the bottom 1/3 of the tank. Plus I have had this setup for close to 4 months with no issues like this at all.

I see why it would appear to be light but my marineland reef capable led is not going to be too bright for zoas. Even with the Skkye fixture I can't imagine it is just too bright.

 

[Dav3]

How long have the zoas been in the tank? How long have you had your current light setup? Are you dosing anything?

 

[Schgred]

The zoas have been in the tank since June and the lights have been running as they are since late July. I just started dosing with C balance to get my alkalinity up since it is always low. The issues with the zoas an other corals have been going on since before I started the c balance.

 

[Schgred]

The crazy thing is that none of the sps corals are affected whatsoever. I also have a frogspawn and hammer and chalice that aren't phased. Te kenya tree, mushrooms, and zoanthids (all apparently beginner corals) are affected. Also, I have had some very healthy xenia that have been partially melting in spots at times. After being closed for about 2-3 hours the zoas open up again.

 

[Dav3]

Softies tend to tell you something is wrong with water parameters long before stony corals. If salinity or alk are off your softies will tell you.

Find it odd that they shrivel up after lights come on but resume their normal routine later in the day.

 

[Schgred]

Any other thoughts from anyone? It happened again today. For about 2 hours the corals closed up. Even the anemone. Then after about 2 hours or so it is back to normal.

 

[Schgred]

It has been a few days and no responses about this so I thought I'd resurrect this thread. The cycle continues every day. My anemone is also closing up when my zoanthids are as well. No apparent ph or temp swing.

I am going to try shortening the lighting. I have the actinics on for 12 hours and the marineland reef capable on for 9 of those 12. Maybe I'll go to 10 actinic 8 white. Or 9 and 7 even.

Any other ideas?

The crazy thing is that my sps are growing. Not just surviving but actually growing.

 

[Rmckoy]

I am leaning towards ph !
I was reading and ph does swing from day to night .
Phos can sometimes be high and not detected
I was advised awhile to test mag , alk and cal .
Mag alk and cal all help stabilize ph ?
That's what I understood anyways