Colony Polyps

[smokinjoe2122]

So after I have been successfully keeping a different arrangement of Mushrooms, I bought a polyp colony yesterday. First time with anything besides shrooms. They had no name, except polyp colony, but they look like Cat eye polyps(?) Anyways, after 24 hours only a few opened up. Maybe 5 out of 25 or 30... Are they still getting accustomed to my lighting / flow or should I move them? It's a 10 gallon tank with 2x 20 watt 50/50 compact fluorescent bulbs..(Enough lighting??) Stats are: Nitrates 20 Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Phosphates 0 (which I do not believe because there is still a small amount of hair algae, but it's finally going away after using phosphate pads) If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Joe

 

[steelhealr]

Colony polyps communicate with each other and if one is unhappy, it may cause the colony to close up. Your nitrates are in moderate range and they may not like the 20 level. I'm sure they are probably adjusting for now but you may want to consider doing a water change to see if bringing the nitrate level down causes them to open up. SH

 

[smokinjoe2122]

Ok..Thanks for the advice.. I am doing my weekly water change tomorrow anyways... I have never been able to get my nitrates consistently below 20 in either one of my tanks...I am just running carbon with phosphate pads... About 15 lbs of live rock..

 

[steelhealr]

Have you considered a refugium? SH

 

[smokinjoe2122]

Have you considered a refugium? SH

Yes and no... I wanted to use this tank primarly for my reef lobster, (Kept eating my fish) but also to get some frags started for my 28g HQI tank when I set it up in a few months.. I didn't want to mod it too much, but I have seen the in-tank refugiums. Maybe a small in-tank fuge with some calupra would make a difference?? I have planted some grape calupra in the tank, but have read horror stories about it completely taking over, so I took it out..

 

[smokinjoe2122]

I did a water change, a decent sized one (25%) and only one opens still. All (like 30) remain closed... Should I keep them in the same area and let them be for another day, or move them to more flow/lighting? Right now, they are located on the bottom of the tank. No direct flow, but there is a small feather duster on the colonies rock and it is swaying back and forth, so I assume it's getting some flow.

 

[steelhealr]

You can recheck the params. If one is open and alive. Have patience. Do you feed your tank? Sometimes a feeding stimulus will open them. SH

 

[smokinjoe2122]

You can recheck the params. If one is open and alive. Have patience. Do you feed your tank? Sometimes a feeding stimulus will open them. SH

Yah one is open an alive, a few look like they want to open, but are only open a sliver. I have read sometimes it takes days - weeks before polyps open, so I'll be patient. Yes I do feed my tank. I tried with some cyclop-eez last night, nothing stimulated them. A feather duster near the colony wouldn't make them stay closed would it?? I doubt it, but throwing it out there.. I'll try to take some pictures later if necessary..

 

[jtnova13]

I've had some polyp frags (5 or so polyps) take up to a week to open up fully. I'd be more wary since this is a whole colony. May be too much flow or your nitrates/phosphates.

If your light is low, you would see greater polyp extension or something, they would still open up though...

 

[smokinjoe2122]

I added a pic to show how they are doing. Not all open yet, some seem to be bleached.. There also seems to be white little tentacles (looks like a dead dandelion) all over in between the polyps.. Not exactly sure what this colony is, but if anyone has a specific name for it, I'd appreciate it. Sorry about the blurry pics..

 

[smokinjoe2122]

SO after these last few weeks, most of this Polyp colony has bleached out. I am not exactly sure why, but I am pretty positive it's because of how I acclimated it. Lesson learned. I have not been able to bring it back. I only have a few polyps left.. Maybe 3-5 out of the 20-30 originally. Is there any chance of these surviving, or should I take it out of my tank? I believe my phosphates are still a little high, but cannot get an accurate test. Always shows up as 0, but I do have a very very small amount of hair algae left in the tank (collectively, the size of a dime) Ammonia is 0 and nitrates are around 10. Also I have one bigger hermit, that I cannot identify, but seems to pick at it constantly.. I am assuming these are dying polyps it's eating. Anyways, anyone have any advice?? Thanks...