2 Year Tank - Growing Acropora 1/2021

Righteous · Mar 4, 2021

I can see what looks like cyano growing on the bleached tips. Unfortunately that one is almost certainly a goner... so don’t be surprised if it RTNs all of a sudden.

Healthy acros like those don’t bleach that quickly from not enough light in two weeks. If you blasted them with 400 par then maybe.

instead its more likely a stability and/or water quality issue. You mention your Alk, but what’s your calcium? 8.5 alk with 320 calcium for instance means dead acros. What’s your flow? Low flow and cyano is going make it very hard on new acro frags.

And while your NO3 and PO4 levels are certainly possible to keep healthy Acros, I also wouldn’t say it’s ideal conditions to learn to grow them in either. High nutrients can be a double edged sword, especially when the tank doesn’t yet have a lot of growth and stability... it’s going to exacerbate issues.

Assuming you get your Alkalinity and Calcium nice and stable, 8.0, 420. Then make sure you get strong flow, I’d get those nutrients more in the 1-2ppm NO3 range and 0.03-0.05 PO4 range.

Once you can grow them, then you can try boosting the nutrients if are having color or slow growth issues.

Also never hurts to do an ICP test to check for other water quality issues.

Jenuvio · Mar 4, 2021

Kingston said:
I thought if Acros are bleaching its due to too much light? I had the same issue with my beginner acros. A mixture of bleaching and browning.

My same thought...

Camaro Show Corals · Mar 4, 2021

Jenuvio said:
My same thought...

It’s actually very hard to bleach acros, bleaching would be pale or white but still showing polyps. Those pictures are STN/RTN which is much more common and basically means losing tissue and dying.

Jenuvio · Mar 4, 2021

Righteous said:
I can see what looks like cyano growing on the bleached tips. Unfortunately that one is almost certainly a goner... so don’t be surprised if it RTNs all of a sudden.

Healthy acros like those don’t bleach that quickly from not enough light in two weeks. If you blasted them with 400 par then maybe.

instead its more likely a stability and/or water quality issue. You mention your Alk, but what’s your calcium? 8.5 alk with 320 calcium for instance means dead acros. What’s your flow? Low flow and cyano is going make it very hard on new acro frags.

And while your NO3 and PO4 levels are certainly possible to keep healthy Acros, I also wouldn’t say it’s ideal conditions to learn to grow them in either. High nutrients can be a double edged sword, especially when the tank doesn’t yet have a lot of growth and stability... it’s going to exacerbate issues.

Assuming you get your Alkalinity and Calcium nice and stable, 8.0, 420. Then make sure you get strong flow, I’d get those nutrients more in the 1-2ppm NO3 range and 0.03-0.05 PO4 range.

Once you can grow them, then you can try boosting the nutrients if are having color or slow growth issues.

Also never hurts to do an ICP test to check for other water quality issues.

I'm gonna buy an ICP. Testing Calcium with API and reads 400-420...
May be a flow issue but will look into other water parameters and keep trying.

Thanks for the advise

Kingston · Jan 2, 2022

Jenuvio said:
I'm gonna buy an ICP. Testing Calcium with API and reads 400-420...
May be a flow issue but will look into other water parameters and keep trying.

Thanks for the advise

@Jenuvio how did your acros turn out eventually?

Jenuvio · Jan 5, 2022

They died. I have not tried any since. Still have the same light and might try again in the future

Tank Update - Hit 3 years in November

jpas · Jan 5, 2022

Its hard to tell from the pics, are you growing coralline on all surfaces?

Kingston · Jan 6, 2022

Jenuvio said:
They died. I have not tried any since. Still have the same light and might try again in the future

Tank Update - Hit 3 years in November

Sucks... I am mapping out the PAR throughout my tank first

Jenuvio · Jan 7, 2022

jpas said:
Its hard to tell from the pics, are you growing coralline on all surfaces?

Yeap, coraline is growing, on rocks and corners of glass

SyracuseMatt · Jan 7, 2022

It is very hard to guess on par, particularly with LEDs. This is even more true with puck or spotlight style LEDs. When I first used a par meter, I was surprised to learn I was both providing too much and too little light, sometimes only inches apart. I ended up putting 4 t5s on my 180. I have a 60 gallon cube with just LEDs but, I have 2 Radion XR30s over a tank that’s only 24 x 24 inches, not for power but for spread and creating even lighting. More fixtures are better. Also, once acros start to grow, shadowing becomes a real issue.

Matt

Neon_Devil · Jan 7, 2022

Jenuvio said:

Are you having a cyano problem?

Kingston · Jan 8, 2022

SyracuseMatt said:
It is very hard to guess on par, particularly with LEDs. This is even more true with puck or spotlight style LEDs. When I first used a par meter, I was surprised to learn I was both providing too much and too little light, sometimes only inches apart. I ended up putting 4 t5s on my 180. I have a 60 gallon cube with just LEDs but, I have 2 Radion XR30s over a tank that’s only 24 x 24 inches, not for power but for spread and creating even lighting. More fixtures are better. Also, once acros start to grow, shadowing becomes a real issue.

Matt

For sure...I am both surprised and disappointed at what PAR I have in the tank. I wish I knew how to copy my Apex graphs and paste here. Basically my PARs is mostly at 130-170s. Only my tallest rock work has a PAR of 230s. With people talking 400-450s PAR for acros, I guess i am back to the drawing board.