Too much light?

[paulkva]

I am very new to the hobby and need some help determining what is happening with my green star polyp. I am guessing that the light is too intense but have no experience to draw upon so I ask for help. I acquired a green star polyp about a week ago. It did great for a few days, but now most of the polyps are staying retracted. Water chemistry has been good without fluctuations. Tank is a Red Sea 130D about 2 months old, 34g, SSB, 35lb live rock. Lighting is 2 T5 10k. Is it likely that the polyp is reacting to light that is too strong compared to its former home? I guess I should have started at the bottom of the tank and moved it up over time? Polyp placement is at about a foot of water. Lights are on 11hrs/day.

 

Suggestions for now and advice on how to do better in the future?

 

Thanks,

Paul

[epleeds]

i have a 75 gallon reef with t-5 bulbs....mine are on the sandbed about 21 inches down...no problems...

[Sikryd]

What are your water parameters? Very doubtful it is from light output from those T-5's. IMHO

[Supreme Reefs]

daylights that are on 11hrs a day seem a bit much... if the actinics were on that long it would be ok but for daylights 6-8 hrs is good enough... for zoas its always better if you start them low then move up over time esp if they came from a tank with higher lighting

[Supreme Reefs]

o yea and somtimes GSP stays retracted like that for a while esp when it comes into a new tank or when stressed out... it will open just give it some time as you see the base still intact and no tissue damage itll be ok... i had a piece of GSP take almost a month to open up

[Brian Ward]

Light shouldn't be the problem. What brand of test kits are you using? What else is in the tank? Please post measurements for: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, salinity, temp at a minimum. Include alk and calcium if possible. Also, you'll generally want to keep these on the sand bed away from your rocks. Once they start to grow into your rocks, they spread like weeds and it's much harder to frag than if you just leave them on the sand bed.

[paulkva]

Thanks to everyone for your input. I am happy to report that the GSP was just in a funk. I repositioned it so it is now on the sand bed, but it seems that light was not the likely driver for the retraction of the polyps. The polyps are open again now. I will post information on water chemistry as soon as I can as I do not have those data with me at the moment.

 

Thanks again,

Paul