yellow polyps just die

[damsel]

My yellow polyps won't open, and the last ones just never made it. any thoughts, I must be doing something wrong because they are suppost to be easy

[Alice]

Yellow polyps like light and they like food. They are also fairly sensitive to less than ideal water conditions. Once they take off they will usually spread like crazy but I've not found them to be the hardiest of corals at the outset.

[damsel]

wooooooo, I think that my water may be the issue. I just did a water change but I know that I just do a lot of guess work. the LFS looked at my water a couple of weeks ago and said that it was perfect, not sure how that happened but I have been trying to make sure I do a water chang of 8 gal. every 3 weeks on my 125 gal. I know it's not much but I have very little in the tank

[Geoff]

is there any way you could get numbers from the water test. "perfect" is a little vague to me? could you also find out what they test for? it could be perfect to them, so here try another bunch of polyps.

G~

[yardboy]

Yellow polyps are a little like xenia in that you can hardly get them started then they take over once established. It took me two tries but now they are really going to town. My second rock had them all die but two, now there are nearly a hundred (in three months.)
And don't you love an lfs water analysis that says "Perfect". I guess that's what you get for free.

[Casey]

Yellow polyps are sensative and take a while to get going its not your water probably its just how they are I have tried twice also and they disappeared and I test my own water

[damsel]

I will do the water tst today and hope that it will answer why. I do feel better that I have not been the only one to have a prob. and maybe there is hope for me yet.

[bigjohn]

I have a similar track record with Yellow Polyps.


Per Alice's quote "...like light and they like food..."

I purchased a rock covered with Yellow Polyps (~30 polyps) about 1 year ago. I placed it on the bottom of the tank (~28" away from my lights) and did not make special efforts to feed them. Within 3-4 months the colony diminished to 5 polyps. However, those 5 polyps are still very much alive and seemingly healthy. About 1 month ago, I raised them to midway in the tank and I have been target feeding them about 1 time per week. These 5 have held steady for about a 6-8 month period, and I am still hoping that they will eventually spread (but nothing yet!!!)

About a month ago someone gave me another yellow polyp rock with about 15-20 polyps on it. I also placed it at the bottom of the tank, but have been target feeding them since the gitgo. I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that these are slowly vanishing, so I am going home tonight to move them closer to the light.

I basically feed them the same stuff that I feed the fish--a mixture of frozen brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, formula 2 flakes, and prime reef flakes. I just take a turkey baster and direct the mixture over the polyps about once per week. I feed the fish about 2-3 times per week, and the polyps will sometimes grab whatever floats their way.

I have a 135 gal. tank with 440 W VHO (2 actinics and 2 daylight bulbs).

Could some folks share their lighting and feeding conditions??

[damsel]

I will try moving them to the light, but they are not even open to feed

[bigjohn]

I'd like to get some more feedback from others about their successes (failures) with Yellow Polyps.

Does overskimming have any bearing on the success of yellow polyps in peoples tanks???

I run a Reef Devil 3 skimmer in my sump which seems very, very efficient at removing organics from my system. I run it 24/7 and my nitrates always test below 20. Is this taking too much out of the water column??

How much and how often do others feed their tank?? As stated earlier I feed 2-3 times per week with a mixture of 1 frozen cube and 2 or 3 pinches of flakes.

I don't use any additives. I just rely on monthly water changes for microelements. I don't have any calcium consumers, so I very occasionally add B-Ionic to maintain alk and calc.

This has bugged me for a long time, because I keep seeing posts that say yellow polyps are "easy to keep and spread like weeds". So far, this has not been my experience.

[bigjohn]

Damsel,

You never posted your latest test results. Please share your parameters.

[SaltBlock]

Bigjohn, I do not think over skimming has an adverse affects on Yellow Polyps. I run a Turboflotor 1000 (24/7) driven by an Aquamedic 2700 (in 10 gallon sump) on my 30 gallon. I run my system to turn over about 400 gallons of h2o an hour (Aquamedic 2500 return) and the Turboflotor always draws nasty skimmate (I feed fresh seafood mush once a day, though I never target the polyps). I have had my polyps for over a month now and they have grown like weeds. One other suggestion is to give them as much light as possible. The first week I had my polyps, I had an old lighting system and they did not do anything (no that suprising). When I put in the new lights, however, I noticed they responded very quickly and began to spread.

One question I have is how do I get the polyps to spread to different rocks. Mine have begun to get crowded on their current rock (it is a small rock). I have heard that you can cut a piece of their base off and connect it to another rock. Has anyone tried this?

Nitrates, Nitrites, and Ammonia: 0ppm
Temp: 78 F
Lights: 2 55w PC actinic, 1 55w 10000K, 1 55w 8800K (11 hours a day)

AEB

[bigjohn]

Thanks for your input. I may need to do some lighting changes. I have 440 W total for my 135 gal. tank. Also, I only have about 120 lbs. live rock, so the tallest point on my rockwork is about 15" below the water line and 24" below the lights.

Hmmm.....

[R1Bill]

I keep mine near the bottom of my 180 almost directly under a 400W Iwasaki 6500K light. My tank has 2x400 MH and 400 PC actinic 03. They are growing ok but very slowly.

Bill

[bigjohn]

News flash!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been busy posting my whines about hair algae in another thread, so I thought that I would post some positive news. During the past month my yellow polyps have more than double in number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOORAY