polyps dying.........

[braad]

i have 12 gallon nanocube. its been up for a good 3 months now. waters fine, fish are fine, inverts are fine, everything is PERFECT. ive had 2 polyp attempts and both have failed and im not sure why. my friend and i arent to sure whats wrong. we have almost a identical set up for our nanocubes and polyps are fine with his tank.
any idea what might be causing these polyps not to last. i want to get this figured out before i try this again. im nervous to put any type of coral in now.
any adivce helps. thanks.

 

[thomas712]

I can think of 3 big reasons.
1. Lighting
2. water quality
3. preditor

 

[braad]

Originally Posted by Thomas712
I can think of 3 big reasons.
1. Lighting
2. water quality
3. preditor
Lighting - i highly doubt that is the problem but it could be the most likely out of the three. my friend and i got these thanks pretty much at the same time and his polyps are doing fine. and our set ups are almost identical.
Water Quality - my water quality is fine. i test the water reguraly. everying is where its supposed to be at in order for my tank to stay alive. the temp fine as well.
Preditor - I have a pair of perculas, green clown goby, a extreamly small blue legged hermit, and a pepermint shrimp. As far as i know none of these things should be a threat.

 

[wax32]

Suspect: Peppermint Shrimp

 

[jer4916]

shrimp, and also i personally wouldn't try any other coral untill you get this figured out...polyps are insainly hardy...if your killing them something is seriously wrong.
~Chris
i'd check your lights though... time them correctly...dont blast them...they have to be broken into new lights...etc

 

[braad]

Originally Posted by Jer4916
shrimp, and also i personally wouldn't try any other coral untill you get this figured out...polyps are insainly hardy...if your killing them something is seriously wrong.
~Chris
i'd check your lights though... time them correctly...dont blast them...they have to be broken into new lights...etc
My friend has a pepermint in his nanocube as well and they havnt done anything to his polyps. Im definatly not going to put any more corals in until i figure this out. Thats why i made this thread, was to figure this out.
As far as breaking them into new light, whats the max i should keep it on right when i get them? How long should the process be and what not? I didnt keep the lights on as long as i normally do when i first got them but, maybe i didnt do that for long enough. Now without any corals i keep my lights on for about 8 hrs.

 

[space_geek]

Just because one thing works for your friend, does not mean it will work for you. Its a sad, but true fact of this hobby...

 

[braad]

Originally Posted by Space_Geek
Just because one thing works for your friend, does not mean it will work for you. Its a sad, but true fact of this hobby...
I realize this but, I monitored the first couple of days very well and didnt notice the shrimp going near the polyps at all. What would they look like if the shrimp was going after them? What happened was that i put them in my tank. They were fine and they started opening up and they just didnt fully open. They started to lose color and they started getting very skinny and eventually just just got down to the point where i took them out.

 

[dejaco]

Please post your water parameters - temp/SG/NH3/NO2/NO3/dKH or Alk/Ca
also you say your two tanks are almost alike - howare they differant then?
Also are you sure it's a peppermint shrimp (there are look alikes ya know)?.

 

[farslayer]

Sundial snail?

 

[thomas712]

The predator possibilities
The peppermint shrimp, sure its not a camel shrimp?
The sundial snail as mentioned
A small starfish that looks very like the astrina star.
Could be a coral loving nudi prowling around.
Just to name a few possibilities.
Take a look at the corals at night with a flashlight and see if you can find anything suspicious