corals staying open at night

[brybrybry]

hey. I got gsp, a kenya tree, 3 different colonies of zoas and none of them are closing at night? At 2 am I can look at the tank and my corals are fully open. Is this normal? There are no lights on the tank at night. In the day I have a 250w guisemann w. 2 t5 actinics.

also.. I am starting to get a 'crystal ish' looking stuff in my tank. It started on a rock and now it is at the base of a frag of zoas. It looks like little crystals or fuzzies kinda. Any ideas of what this is? Doesn't concern me too much as there isn't much... But if it starts to spread that won't be good.

[christyf5]

Crystalish? got any pics? color? size? they might be foraminiferans?

As for the corals not closing at night, they might be feeding. A lot of corals feed at night :biggrin:

[reefwars]

IF left undisturbed by tank mates Kenya and Gsp can stay out all night as can most zoa's my Kenya stay upright all night my gsp if 50/50 as it's touchy with anything touching it or rubbing by from crabs fish etc. I'd be more worried if they didn't come out

Fill us in on some info like water parameters , tank history, things you feed or any additives you may dose, livestock etc anything you can think of but most importantly pics as to help us see what your seeing:) cheers:)

[brybrybry]

ill try to get a pic of the crystal stuff by tomorrow. Might not be able to tonight. Well see. As for the tank. Its a 20gallon. No filter or skimmer. 6 months old. Approx 20lbs live rock. Fairly empty. (waiting for fraggg fesssst! To fill it hah). 1 algae blenny is all it has for fish. I do a w/c every day or 2.. Which might sound weird.. But its just 4L a time. Corals don't even react to it. Works great. Salinity 24 to 25 ish. Other params unsure. Don't have test kits.. But I bring water to the lfs every month and I'm always good. I guess the corals are just feeding at night, which would explain them staying open.

I also have a gbta and I feed it mysis shrimp 1-5 times a week.. I'm kinda experimenting with it... Seeing what it likes. ....

[reefwars]

Go easy on feeding in a20g I feed my nem's twice tops and small amounts they also get food from light :) buy some test kits and find out forypur self what your parameters are I'm not sure shat they test for at lfs . I doubt water changes daily is beneficial to your system especially in a small tank by rights you should be doing 2g a week so not to stress everything out . Gsp, Kenya and most zoa's are pretty much indistructable:)

[brybrybry]

k so i checked it out closer tonight. dont got a camera right now, but ill get one if needed (i can just grab one from a friend). anyways they are more like thin clear tubes. Like a really small featherduster with nothing coming out of it.. and clear.