SPS help

[Shu]

I am new to SPS and and starting to fall in love with them. Mine our doing great and getting great growth. My question is how do you know if they are dead? I know they have small polyps, but there hard to see so any help would be appreciated. Do they turn white?

[txav8r]

Yep. white or brown.

[Shu]

How would you know if one is not doing well? polyps not out? and turning white or brown?

[JeffCo]

If it's white and no polyps its probably dead.Some SPS have small polyps and may be hard to see, it depends on the type of coral you have. If their not looking good you need to test your water to make sure it's within an acceptable range. Then keep your parameters consistent.

[Shu]

It's looking fine just wanted to be sure what to look for since i'm new to sps

[BIGBIRD123]

Brown doesn't always mean they are dead. SPS can stress and "brown-out" because of that stress...new lights, poor acclimation, too much light to early. There are several things but just because it is brown, it could still be alive.

[Bill S]

They can also bleach, without dying. Bleaching is actually the corals expelling their photosynthetic zoanthella. However, in the home reef, it is most likely that a bleached colony won't make it.

Keep an eye on them, they will tell you when they aren't happy. If they start to recede, you'll know.

Click on my tank for sale in my signature, and you can see my old tank. My SPS were never great about polyp extension - never hairy. But they grew well.

[stoneroller]

And don't let no polyp extension fool you. Certain forms only come out at night.

[d3rryc]

I never give up on an SPS until algae overgrows the skeleton. I had a mini-crash this past summer when my heater stuck and my digital thermometer stopped reading properly at the same time (bad combo...). My green monti cap recovered from a patch the size of my pinkie nail, and my Cali tort got down to somewhere between three and five POLYPS before it bounced back. They're tough little buggers, so I make sure they're D.E.A.D. dead before giving up on it.

My exception to this is when the coral is crashing at a rate that risks the other tankmates. I had a bird's nest get hit by what I think was a bacterial infection, and it started sloughing material right and left. Out it came.

[Mr Cob]

yep...agree with post above...Don't count white out yet either....I have had several frags look to be dead...both brown and white....with no polyp extension....I would just leave them alone for several months and bam....it takes off.

As long as algae is not growing on all of it... then it still has a chance.

[Europhyllia]

I read in Coral magazine that it's actually very difficult to kill an SPS 100% right away. There are always some cells inside that are capable of rebounding even after it turns white.
Turning brown is more of a matter of the photosynthetic bacteria changing in response to nutrients in the water and environmental factors I think. It may not be pretty but brown is definitely not dead.

[Big_Pun]

welcome to the stick addiction !!!