Trachyphillia g. ?

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coraladdict

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Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
9
Location
Canada
I have 3 trachyphillias sitting on the DSB about 24" below the lamps.One which is red , yellowish green and metalic green.The red one puffs up niceley all day but when I have just the actincs it shrinks.The other 2 don't puff up though there is some level of polyp extention, when I bought them they were puffed up really nice. I've had those for about a month.What am I doing wrong?
I have an 8 lamp T5 setup 4" above water on a 18 " deep 110 gal tank.This tank is 4.5 months old, dose Kalkwasser via reactor,rotifers and fresh phytoplancton
Parms are:
Ca 450
DKH 12
pH 8,4 day time , night 7.8
mag 1500
Sg 1.035
po4 undetectable on Salifert
Temp 80
Thanks
 
coraladdict said:
I have 3 trachyphillias sitting on the DSB about 24" below the lamps.One which is red , yellowish green and metalic green.The red one puffs up niceley all day but when I have just the actincs it shrinks.The other 2 don't puff up though there is some level of polyp extention, when I bought them they were puffed up really nice. I've had those for about a month.What am I doing wrong?
I have an 8 lamp T5 setup 4" above water on a 18 " deep 110 gal tank.This tank is 4.5 months old, dose Kalkwasser via reactor,rotifers and fresh phytoplancton
Parms are:
Ca 450
DKH 12
pH 8,4 day time , night 7.8
mag 1500
Sg 1.035
po4 undetectable on Salifert
Temp 80
Thanks
Click to expand...

Welcome to reef frontiers!
I see a few problems with the water parameters. first the salinity is way high, that should only be 1.025 second the magnesium is high it should be at 1200-1300 and the ph swing is very very stressfull on your corals..
are you feeding the brains and if so what and how often?

Matt
 
I feed them 2-3 times a week small shrimp pieces. The metalic green hasn't eating at all since I've bought 2 weeks ago,I can see it's mouth open all day.
As for pH swings your right ,I'll get my reactor mixing a few more times at night and less mixing in the day hopefully it will reduce the swing.
As far as salinity it's actually at 1,032 ,I always thought 1,035 was better.I'll lower it and see what it will do.
 
matts125 said:
Welcome to reef frontiers!
I see a few problems with the water parameters. first the salinity is way high, that should only be 1.025 second the magnesium is high it should be at 1200-1300 and the ph swing is very very stressfull on your corals..
are you feeding the brains and if so what and how often?

Matt
Click to expand...

Holy cow I just saw that the sg I gave is wrong it's at 1,025 .
 
Ease back on the kalk reactor drip rate some. The alk is quite high and could be part of your problem. Keep the alk in the 8-9 DKH area, 12 is pushing it. A Ca that high is of no use either but if we are just talking this style of coral it's not a huge issue.
 
The reason I keep the ca/alk high is because I have 6 clams,7 LPS, 1 sps in a 105 g tank and fish.The clams are thriving but not the LPS.
I'll give it a try with lower alk and ca and see what happens.I have a hunch it could be ca and alk because today I added some ca and alk to increase levels to ca 450 and dkh 12.6 and did see some sort of shrinking reaction throughout the day with the trachyphillias.I always thought that high ca and alk was good...for large LPS corals.
 
matts125 said:
.. and the ph swing is very very stressfull on your corals..


Matt
Click to expand...

Why would a pH swing be stressful?!? That's not accurate. It swings on the reefs. Unless your pH is swinging from less than 7.8 to more than 8.5, your fine.
 
Also, most PO4 test kits are crap. If you're interested in testing for PO4 you need either Hanna or Deltec/Merck.

Your alk is way too high.... I've got tanks packed with clams and sps and run my alk at 7 dkh. But just as with sps, PE isn't an indicator of health. There are many reasons that corals exhibit polyp extension, feeding, gas exchange, increase exposure to light, shade other parts of the animal from light.
 
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Part of the problem is your ID. In the first picture, there is a trachyphillia and a differeent species either scolymia or symphillia... not sure which. Those don't expand too much, even compared to the trachyphillias.
 
stonycorals said:
Part of the problem is your ID. In the first picture, there is a trachyphillia and a differeent species either scolymia or symphillia... not sure which. Those don't expand too much, even compared to the trachyphillias.
Click to expand...


In the first pic the red one is a symphyllia but the other is a green metalic trachy,that one was at least double that size at the lfs and the other in the second pic well was as in this pic but is it normal? Do you think they are normal?
 
You've got T5s, so it may be as simple as adjusting to your light. What lighting was it under at the LFS? Trachy's do not like a lot of direct light....
 
The metalic green (the one in the first pic) was under halides in the top corner,the symphillia was in the bottom with halides and the green one in the second pic was under T5's.
 
stonycorals said:
Why would a pH swing be stressful?!? That's not accurate. It swings on the reefs. Unless your pH is swinging from less than 7.8 to more than 8.5, your fine.
Click to expand...
How's that?

Any change of more than 0.2 daily is not in the best interest of any animal you keep. Even though you might not see overt signs of stress, it is definitely something to be concerned about. The best kind of pH is one that fluctuates minimally from day/night and stays above 8.2 at all times.
 
As long as the pH swings are within the range, you'll be fine. Why would you need to be concerned, if your animals aren't stressed?!? Sure calcification may not be occuring at the optimal pace.
 
Bad news , the green trachy. in pic one has started tissue recession and I can see the skeleton through it's mouth.
Would Iodine dips be helpful?
 
stonycorals said:
As long as the pH swings are within the range, you'll be fine. Why would you need to be concerned, if your animals aren't stressed?!? Sure calcification may not be occuring at the optimal pace.
Click to expand...
How do you support that position? It's pretty much the exact opposite of what you should strive for.

coraladdict said:
Bad news , the green trachy. in pic one has started tissue recession and I can see the skeleton through it's mouth.
Would Iodine dips be helpful?
Click to expand...
Tissue recession or tissue necrosis?

Improper and constantly changing chemistry will stress the coral and cause recession/polyp bail out as can being improperly placed in the aquarium. Either improper flow (strong/direct), too close to a neighboring coral or touching a hard surface.

If necrosis, it could be the result fo brown jelly disease.
 
So aside from letting the chem get back to NSW levels, also look for direct problems as I mentioned above. Are the crowns of the coral flesh touching/rubbing on rock, are they too close to another coral, is the water flow coming at them too strongly or in a laminar fashion. Direct sustained flow in a particular spot will cause a good amount of damage to this type of coral.

If the pictures in your gallery depict where these corals are currently, they are a little close to each other but not significantly. This would lead me to believe water flow and/or chemistry are you biggest concerns.
 
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