Hammer & Frogspawn Corals Not Opening

[mr_X]

Those SOLs can really cook corals. I would not be surprised at all if it turned out being the lights. I know a couple guys that killed a lot of sps before they got them dialed in properly and that was at less than 50%. This was switching from halides and high powered T5 units. My fixtures have no optics. The SOLs have optics to maximize light. Similar to T5HO's with and without reflectors.

[fort384]

The bad news is now my zoas are getting in on the act. It started with 1 colony yesterday, and now late today, another colony has closed up as tight as they can get. I really don't know what else to do.

I was advised to try running some carbon in the off chance that something has gotten into the water, so I started that tonight. I am making water tonight in the event that I need to do another water change, but have been advised both to do a bunch of big water changes, and also not to do any water changes.

LOL I feel as lost as I felt when I first got into planted tanks... but at least the plants I killed when I started out only cost a few dollars. This is shaping up to be a much larger financial disaster.

[Sniperhank]

Actually, carbon sounds like a great idea. It possible to turn your lights down some more?

[AquaRick]

Originally Posted by mr_X

They would not shrink if the light was too low, instead they would expand more to try to create more surface area to absorb light. "MH" lighting could mean anything. As stated above, a couple 150 watt halides over a tank is practically nothing.

Still thinking it's the lights and agree with Doug.

Were you able to call the LFS and see what kind of lights your corals were running under? If they were indeed 150 MHs, then 20% could indeed still be too much.

[fort384]

I called the yesterday. They are 250s over the tank the Lps came out of. PC in the zoa tank.

[uh.oh...]

I don't know if that carbon is going to help atm. If it is the light, then adding carbon, which removes dissolved inorganic materials, is actually just going to make your water clearer, which will increase the amount of light hitting those corals. If you do add it, and you agree that its the light, then you'll need to dim the lights some how.

[uh.oh...]

they might be looking for some higher alkalinity, to go a different way for a minute. 9.8 is what you listed before, which is fine... but I find that with higher efficiency lighting systems corals like to be around 12 dkh. That study posted on Advanced Aquarist last week about the different growing conditions of corals under leds, mh, t5ho, ect... found that under blue leds corals need more flow and oxygenation, something to do with increased uptake of oxygen and increased heat production. I'm not saying put your lps in front of your vortex on 100%, but maybe its partly related to alk.

here's the article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog...al-aquaculture

[fort384]

Thanks uh oh. I will check out the article tonight. Lowering intensity isn't an issue - I can set it anywhere from 0-100%.

I will report back tonight on how they are looking. I think the hammer is toast though. The tentacles are retracted so much now that you can hardly see them.

[carey]

I've had similar issues with zooas for some reason. I attribute it to too much light. :-( Even if you get them to a proper level these things do still happen. Sorry that youre having these issues. But like mentioned above, see if ypu can get them under less light or shielded a bit. You should have some time before the zooas actually disappear which is what they do in my tank sometimes, they just disappear polyp by polyp. :-(

Good luck, still following to see what the solution may be for your problems, might help solve my own.

[Sniperhank]

After being involved with this thread and finally getting my Radions up and hung over my cycling 55...I realized that I never turned them down! I have them turned down as low as they will go and planning on keeping them there until the switch over and see how things react.

Maybe it is time to try 10%?

[melosu58]

I dont know if this has been covered but you dont have any of your fish picking on them do you? That`s what caused mine to do that yrs ago. Come to find out I had two angels that were picking on them.

[fort384]

I don't think either are of the clowns are picking at it, but they were harassing the LPS.

I just got home and looked... lights are set at 20% again today... LPS still look about the same (awful), 1 zoa colony looks like it is dead (it is turning white), and my large colony is completely closed up except 2 polyps. Being that the zoas have started to be affected, I don't think it is the clown harassment that is causing it. Maybe I cooked em? I had the lights at around 50 or 60% I think for the first several days. I think I am just going to leave the lights at 20% for awhile and see what happens. I don't know what else to do. I guess I can drop them lower, but 20% appears awfully dim. 10% is just a few notches above moonlight.

[Sniperhank]

At this point I don't think it will hurt to try. I don't think that you could have cooked them at half power...they would have shown signs of recovery...atleast I would believe.

I would be less worried about the zoas, as for whatever reason some people just can't get them to do well. I am quite possibly one of them, only minor success as my improvement with them. But since all the corals in the tank are struggling...probably tied together. Might be time to run some carbon as well to see if that helps.

[fort384]

I started running carbon last night. Maybe that will help.

At what point should I take the dead (or maybe still dying?) zoa colony out? I don't want it to start rotting... but at the same time I have no idea if it is actually dead or just closed up. This is the third full day of it not opening at all.

[Gboy66]

Originally Posted by fort384

I started running carbon last night. Maybe that will help.

At what point should I take the dead (or maybe still dying?) zoa colony out? I don't want it to start rotting... but at the same time I have no idea if it is actually dead or just closed up. This is the third full day of it not opening at all.

Dont take it out yet, 3 days isnt too much. Thats bad that it isnt opening, but it definitly isnt dead yet IMO. once my toadstool closed for 4-5 days. Turns out it was just shedding

[mr_X]

If you've cooked the LPS initially, you wouldn't see the result of that until days later. Then it would take months for them to recover.
I did this changing bulbs in my halide fixtures a few years ago. I went from year old lamps to brand new lamps in the time it took to install them. Days went by and then my corals all started to wilt, or close up, or brown out, or melt, depending on the coral.
It took about a month before I saw any signs of recovery.

[fort384]

hmm Doug that would kind of fall right into line with what I saw. They looked amazing for the first few days.

I will say that after 2 days of running the lights now at 20%, things might be a bit better. The large zoa colony was at least partially open today, which is encouraging. The other zoa colony, and the LPS both look about the same, but at least not worse... for several straight days I was seeing a decline in their appearance every day. Daisies and 3d zoa colony are still looking healthy. Hopefully I have at least curbed the advance of the problem, and it is encouraging to know that my LPS may yet survive.

[fort384]

Day 4 of subdued lighting: The large zoa colony is almost all the way back open. The frogspawn is not open, but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did earlier in the week. The hammer and other zoa colony are both still closed up tight. Signs of improvement are encouraging though!

[AquaRick]

Glad things are looking up! Those sols pack a lot of punch.

[fort384]

Things are definitely looking a lot better. The frogspawn is continuing to extend more and more. I see signs of my 1 zoa colony starting to open again (though not open yet, they are not clinched tight like before). That just leaves the hammer, which looks awful still, but I can still see green tentacles down deep in it, so I am just gonna leave it and see what happens.

Thanks all for helping me sort this out. Hopefully the crisis is over