polyps

[darylm]

new to this hobby.........can anyone help with lighting required to have polyps...........i have power compact.........is that ok

[Sohal Tang]

Hi, I was growing button polyps under 54 watts of pc
on a 10 gallon tank like WEEDS!!!!!!

What size tank and how many watts I guess is a good question.

Tim

:D

[darylm]

72 gallon bow............55 watts x 2 plus a 48'' blue light

[Sohal Tang]

Yep, personally I would have no problem with that set up.
You still need more light thought to be ideal for reef...but you
probably know that...

Tim :)

[darylm]

i have had the polyps in the tank about 2 weeks and now they dont seem to open up as much as they did before........

[Sohal Tang]

I am not an expert by no means...but personally I would
be checking water chemistry...

I would also perhaps RAISE THEM in the tank depending
on where you have them now....


but...I would bet it is a water problem over a light problem.

But I am not 100% sure on this one...

ANyone else?
Tim
:)

[darylm]

suggestions on lighting

the polyps are near the top of the tank about 8'' from the top

water is 0-0-0...... 1.023 salinity and ph 8.0

[Sohal Tang]

phosphates? nitrates?

temp? and...how often do you do water changesand when
was the last one done and how much do you change?


Tim

are they button polyps....??
Some types should be fed?
You may want to look into the exact polyp you have and
what it's requirements are/aren't

Tim

[darylm]

nitrate is 0 nitrite is 0.............77 degrees...........wtaer change done today 5 gallons................we do 5 gallons a week

[Sohal Tang]

personally I would change that to 10 gallons every 2nd week
or even 7 gallons every second week is plenty...my opinon
and I am not an expert...Its just that every time we do ANYTHING to the tank it effects the STABILITY of it.....

I once asked an expert what the secret was and he said,

"GOOD WATER AND NO MAGIC POTIONS"

So...MY guess is find out WHAT KIND of polyp they are and
what their needs are...they may be starving for food. but I am not sure...so check into this...you may have to take an eye
dropper and spray some brine shrimp into the polps but I am NOT SURE.

Good luck...
I would suggest you contact Flavio at ORG he WILL DEFINITELY know.

Tim
:)

[darylm]

thanks for your input

[Sohal Tang]

your welcome...I wish I could have been more help on this...

AGain...talk to Flavio..he will have a darn good idea what to do.

Do you deal with OrG?

Tim
:)

[little-reefer]

Originally posted by Sohal Tang
You still need more light thought to be ideal for reef...
:)

I agree depending on what you are keeping! ..

Im keeping a 30G tank with 2x 15 watt no's! .. keeping polyps, Mushrooms and leathers! No problems!

Depends on what kind of Reef you are looking to keep! if you are looking at just softies and some fish you are cool.. you want to move up to LPS, SPS then i would concider moving to atleast VHO's if not halides.

[kadaytar]

How long have you been running that system. Nitrate :0 is a little bit strange. I haven't heard a system having nitrate at 0. Are you sure that you are testing your water correctly? If i were you I would test a water sample from another tank to see if there was a problem with my test kit. I have button polyps in my 5 gallon Before upgrading lights I had only 8W power glo . Despite that i had only 1 1/2 Watts/gallon theye were fully open and they were very close to the bottom of the tank.

Kadir

I have just seen that you had 5 powerheads in your system. I am not very experienced but flow from 5 P heads may be too much for button pollyps. It is just an idea. What dou you think Tim?

Kadir

[Sohal Tang]

Kadir..if the powerheads are say MAX JET 1200'S
and you have 4 of them in a 72 gallon that is in my opinion
NOT TOO MUCH but ALOT...depending on HOW and WHERE
they are situated in the tank.... I have 4 maxi jet 1200's
in my 90 plus the return from a MAG 12 doing the flow rate..yee haa...I love current..but I also had to move some zoos so they
would open.....

Yes, very possible too much flow in the area they are sitting...

and I agree...the nitrates may be THERE in that tank....

re-test with A DIFFERENT TEST KIT... I personally HATE the
test kits that are available...THEY ALL SUCK!!!!!!! BUT...
I recently bought a dummy proof alkalinity test kit that is
EZ to use for QUICK results....

but..we need them..even though none of them are great.....
so....RE TEST with another kit... I test Calcium occassionally
with 2 different test kits and alk also.... never the same reading
with 2 different kits amaaaazing...

Tim
:)

[little-reefer]

its not that hard to maintain zero nitrates, I maintain them in a 30G with 2 clowns!

If you have enough Live rock and a DSB its very simple!

[kadaytar]

How many lbs of live rock do you have and what is the depth of DSB? And also could you give some information about your equipment and maintanance? I read that the tank has been running for only 7 weeks and still has diatom algae. It is not mature yet. 0 nitrate may be possible for a mature tank but for me its not possible for a new tank. As much as I could understand from the sources i have read a new system needs ammonia and nitrates at the beginning to activate live filtration. Because we have to feed the denitrifier bacteria at the beginning . Thats why we put frozen shrimp into tank , to support nitrogen cycle. I still believe that 0 nitrate is not normal for a 6 week old tank. Maybe wee need an expert advice.

Kadir

[Sohal Tang]

someone called for a NO EXPERT an THATS ME! HEHEHE

bUT....I believe it IS possible to have zero nitrates in 6 weeks!
I did it in about 4-5.

But..I used ALL FULLY CURED LIVE ROCK and I used
the bacteria filled and ready to rock figi pink substrate.

Together they made an extremely healthy beginning and
quick REEF READY TANK.

Just my .02 worth...

Tim
:D

[kadaytar]

I am going to apply what you said in my new tank Tim. That will be great if i have 0 nitrate in my new one.

Kadir

[darylm]

thanks everyone

[Sohal Tang]

when and wherever you buy your live rock...
I would make sure that it is coraline covered
and then I would keep it submerged...
and I KNOW that everyone will tell you that it does not matter
because they ship it from xyz place in the caribean or wherever in newspaper etc.....

my opinion...keep it totally submerged, aerated after moved immediately and heated water until put in tank...

ideally move it from the car into the tank..period..keeping
submerged in water....

All the rock I bought with the exception of one or two pieces
was loaded with coraline.....The tank looks fine now and the
coraline grows I think FASTER because the tank has been
well SEEDED with coraline....

good luck...and repeat..I AM NO EXPERT...but I am glad
you are trying it with as well cured rock as possible..there is always die off..but you CAN minimize it DEFINITELY.


Tim
:)

[little-reefer]

One of the best ways to cover a tank with corline is to buy a nice small piece covered, and use a wire brush and scrap it clean in the water colum this will release tons of Coraline Spores into the tank!

[Michael_Lambert]

Its True dany! .. the stars i got have not growen at all! .. now i have much much less water flow do you think that would cause it?

[Sohal Tang]

I have scraped some off to help seed the tank yes...excellent...
but I have never used a wire brush??? is that a good idea?


Tim

[kadaytar]

which tool did you use to scrape it Tim?

Kadir

[Sohal Tang]

that was about 4 years ago and have been scratching my
head trying to think of the item I used to scrape the rock...
I am pretty sure I simply used the RAZOR BLADE of which I
normally scraped the glass with.....darn I cannot remember
exactly....perhaps it was simply a butter knife? man...I cannot remember...but I did do that to seed my 50 gallon upon the
advise of a LFS owner in Sudbury...and it worked extremely well...but I cannot for the life of me remember for sure what I used at the time...definitely not a wire brush...although a wire
brush sounds like it would do the job..no worries about metal
into the tank????

Tim

[Daniel Schubert]

darylm

Your PH at 8.0 is a little low, I'd try to raise that to 8.2. I aslo think that 2 55 watt PC is not enough for a 72 gallon tank.

[Sohal Tang]

Dan, if his ph is 8.0 it could be at 8.1 or even 8.2 by mid day no?
Tim

[Daniel Schubert]

Tim

Yes the PH can fluctuate between Night and Day. And you can minimize or eliminate the swing by using a large refugium on reverse daylight. But if his reading are 8.0 during the day then they would go lower at night