chadg
Member
Hi everyone, I'm new around here and have a problem. Why else do people post here...
Anyway, here is my problem. I have a few clusters of what I believe are Large button polyps, Protopalythoa vestitus. I say believe becuase I fond a picture in a corals book that looks just like mine. The only difference is that mine have bright green tenticals and lines that go to the center (when they are healthy...). In the last two weeks they have started to close up and some of there surfaces do not seem right. The ones that had good green color are loosing it. They just do not look right and I think they are dying.
Current Tank Stats: 72 gal bow front, 90 lbs live rock, 2" live sand, sump with a protein skimmer, RENA xP3 canister filter with a carbon bag and bio-chem filter. PH 8.3, temp 75.5, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, salinity 1.024, calcium 360. Tank has been establised for about 5 years.
Current Stock: 1 large yellow tang (5 years), 1 large clown fish(4 years), 1 damsel(3 years), small grandma(band new), dwarf angle (band new), 6 line rass (3 years), two brittle stars, brand new clean up crew (crabs, snails, shrimp, etc). Polyps (that are now sick, 3 years) and many red mushrooms (Actinodiscus cardinalis, 3 years) which seem to be perfectly healthy.
Tank History: The tank has been pretty well neglected for the last two years. Amonia and Nitrite were 0, but Nitrate was off the chart over 160! All snalls were gone, only a handfull of crabs existed. I finally decided that I needed to either get rid of it or really take care of it. The polyps looked fairly healthy, but only two of them had any green in them at all. So, I started a mission to get it healthy. Here is what I have done over the last 2-3 months.
1) I started with water changes of about 25-30 gal every three days to get the nitrates under control. I got them to about 20ppm (can't seem to get them lower) after about 4 weeks.
2) I then added the canister filter with the carbon and bio-chem. Prior to that all I had was the protine skimmer. A new inline heater was put in and I upped the temp from 74 to 75.5. I also put in a larger power head for water movment.
3) At that point the polyps were starting to look really good. The green ones were getting really green and many other were getting green as well. They looked really good and I thought my attention to water quality was paying off.....
4) I then got a brand new clean up crew. crabs (red leg and green emerald), 5 shrimp, snails. I also added the dwarf angle and the grandma at that time.
About two weeks after adding the clean up crew and the new fish is when I started to notice that the polyps were not looking good. They are now looking like they are going down hill fast. The mushroom corals seem to be fine.
I'm not sure what is going on here, they seemed to be doing so well once I started the regular water changes and got the nitrates down. The new fish (grandma and angle) are doing just great. Eating great and looking great. Same for all the ohter fish. Shrimp and snails seem fine. Allthogh I think the two abalone snails that I got died within a week or two of getting them. Could the new fish introduced something that the Polyps don't like? Anyone have any idea why the polyps are not happy?
Sorry for the long post, but from reading others, more information seems better than not enough. Thanks for any help that you can shed on this.
Chad.
Anyway, here is my problem. I have a few clusters of what I believe are Large button polyps, Protopalythoa vestitus. I say believe becuase I fond a picture in a corals book that looks just like mine. The only difference is that mine have bright green tenticals and lines that go to the center (when they are healthy...). In the last two weeks they have started to close up and some of there surfaces do not seem right. The ones that had good green color are loosing it. They just do not look right and I think they are dying.
Current Tank Stats: 72 gal bow front, 90 lbs live rock, 2" live sand, sump with a protein skimmer, RENA xP3 canister filter with a carbon bag and bio-chem filter. PH 8.3, temp 75.5, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, salinity 1.024, calcium 360. Tank has been establised for about 5 years.
Current Stock: 1 large yellow tang (5 years), 1 large clown fish(4 years), 1 damsel(3 years), small grandma(band new), dwarf angle (band new), 6 line rass (3 years), two brittle stars, brand new clean up crew (crabs, snails, shrimp, etc). Polyps (that are now sick, 3 years) and many red mushrooms (Actinodiscus cardinalis, 3 years) which seem to be perfectly healthy.
Tank History: The tank has been pretty well neglected for the last two years. Amonia and Nitrite were 0, but Nitrate was off the chart over 160! All snalls were gone, only a handfull of crabs existed. I finally decided that I needed to either get rid of it or really take care of it. The polyps looked fairly healthy, but only two of them had any green in them at all. So, I started a mission to get it healthy. Here is what I have done over the last 2-3 months.
1) I started with water changes of about 25-30 gal every three days to get the nitrates under control. I got them to about 20ppm (can't seem to get them lower) after about 4 weeks.
2) I then added the canister filter with the carbon and bio-chem. Prior to that all I had was the protine skimmer. A new inline heater was put in and I upped the temp from 74 to 75.5. I also put in a larger power head for water movment.
3) At that point the polyps were starting to look really good. The green ones were getting really green and many other were getting green as well. They looked really good and I thought my attention to water quality was paying off.....
4) I then got a brand new clean up crew. crabs (red leg and green emerald), 5 shrimp, snails. I also added the dwarf angle and the grandma at that time.
About two weeks after adding the clean up crew and the new fish is when I started to notice that the polyps were not looking good. They are now looking like they are going down hill fast. The mushroom corals seem to be fine.
I'm not sure what is going on here, they seemed to be doing so well once I started the regular water changes and got the nitrates down. The new fish (grandma and angle) are doing just great. Eating great and looking great. Same for all the ohter fish. Shrimp and snails seem fine. Allthogh I think the two abalone snails that I got died within a week or two of getting them. Could the new fish introduced something that the Polyps don't like? Anyone have any idea why the polyps are not happy?
Sorry for the long post, but from reading others, more information seems better than not enough. Thanks for any help that you can shed on this.
Chad.
