Yellow Polyps not happy.

[tvasi]

I have a 5G tank, with LR/LS. Has been running for years now, but never put any coral in. Last week I put my first coral... yellow polyps. They were fine for a couple of days, I added some buffer to tweak my alk level up, and they closed up (alk shock?). Havent opened since... a couple open every now and then, but dont look very happy.

My levels are

Sali 1.024
Alk 9 / 3.2
Nitrates/Nitrites/Amm/Phosphates/Silicate all 0
Ph 8.3
Calcium is 180 (low, I am adding Seachem reef complete, its coming up slowly)

Now I can assume that the polyps went into alk shock...can I do anything at this point? or just hope for the best?

 

[tvasi]

Oh I forgot to mention I have 2 firefish in there, but they spend most of their time hiding in crevices. And they were in the tank at the time of my buffer addition... they seem to be very happy.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe something's eating them? I recently discovered that my hermit crabs (all of them!!) have been feasting on my yellow polyps. The ones that haven't been turned into lunch are doing poorly from all the disturbance.

The crabs that were eating them are red tip hermits, scarlet leg hermits, blue leg hermits, dwarf blue leg hermit...

 

[fungia]

i think if they close up right after adding the alk buffer, it is something with the buffer the polyps dont like. sometimes they take a while to open up again but i would recommend a water change which usually works for these problems.

 

[tvasi]

Well I have seen the hermits a couple of times amongst the polyps, butthey dont seem to be eating them per se...

I will do the water change and see, I tend to feel its the buffer too. Thought the alk level is fine. A coupe have opened up, a bit weakly, so I am hopeful that they will recover.

I was going to get some zoos once the polyps had settled for a couple of weeks, but all thats off till the polyps look happy.

I read all these posts, of how ppl are trying to get rid of their polyps that are growing wild, and I have to laugh with frustration... :?