Acan receeding

liamtilley · Dec 16, 2020

I’ve had this Acan for around a month and it’s been retracted the whole time. I’ve recently had a nutrient deficiency issue which caused my euphyllia to bailout their polyps and also my trachyphyllia. I’ve been trying to feed it weekly but it has a muted feeding response with only some heads actually trying to grab the food. Everything was going good until recently when I’ve had nutrient issues. I’ve tried to move it bc I thought there was too much flow but that isn’t the cause.
My parameters haven’t been that stable lately but I’m working on it and won’t be getting anymore coral until I believe the tank is stable. I have also recently had a swing in salinity and I’m unsure why. It dropped from 1.025 to 1.024 and it’s always been stable as I have an ato topping off daily. I have a feeling it’s the unstable nutrients. Need some advice to help this guy get back on track. Thanks

My current water parameters are
Alk- 7.1Dkh
Calcium- 375ppm
Salinity- 1.024
Temp- 26° C
Phosphate- 0.03
Nitrate undetectable
Magnesium- 1260

fishguy242 · Dec 16, 2020

hi,yes get nitrates up,mod flow,mod light.best wishes

OrangeCountyReefer · Dec 16, 2020

From my experience when they retract like that for a week or more they have a low chance of coming back. I have 3 heavy LPS tanks and I keep my nitrates around 20 and sometimes I have them go even higher and all my hundreds of corals are happy all time

Yates273 · Dec 16, 2020

I’ve had acans do this from time to time but they always come back. Still has its color may just be a little po’d. Acans can be a little temperamental but it should be fine

OrangeCountyReefer · Dec 16, 2020

Jason Yahr said:
I’ve had acans do this from time to time but they always come back. Still has its color may just be a little po’d. Acans can be a little temperamental but it should be fine

So you have had acan stay closed this for 30 straight days or more and it came back?

liamtilley · Dec 17, 2020

OrangeCountyReefer said:
From my experience when they retract like that for a week or more they have a low chance of coming back. I have 3 heavy LPS tanks and I keep my nitrates around 20 and sometimes I have them go even higher and all my hundreds of corals are happy all time

I don’t know what to do my lps keep bailing out their polyps. Very frustrated as all the corals I’ve got are labelled “beginner friendly” and they are behaving like this for no apparent reason. I thought nutrition was the issue so I upped my feeding game but no

TerraFerma · Dec 17, 2020

OrangeCountyReefer said:
So you have had acan stay closed this for 30 straight days or more and it came back?

I had my holy grail micro recede to the point that you couldn't even see a spec of coral on the frag plug. After sorting things out it was back in 6 months and is a happy healthy colony today. So don't give up.

Reef Guy Ronnie · Dec 17, 2020

Personal Experience- I get the fluffiest Acans in a PAR range of about 100-125, low flow, and get those nitrates up! Cans enjoy the dirty water

I try and keep Nitrates at 10ppm. Hope this helps!

Yates273 · Dec 18, 2020

I’ve had an ACAN shriveled up for weeks. I can’t say 30 straight days but after a couple weeks I began to panic only to see it one day happy and fluffy again. I don’t know what their reason was for doing this but they are still around and happy as can be with even more heads now. I do feed them a couple times a week and have them low in the tank

EntitledSushi · Jan 5, 2021

I have a similar problem. I have had this acan for about a month and he has been slowly deteriorating. He is at bottom of the tank, so the lowest flow and lowest light possible in my tank unless I move him into the shadow of a rock. I started feeding him Coral Frenzy powder but it's not helping. His feeder tentacles never seem to come out. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated, I would hate to lose him.

pH = 8.2
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 5 ppm
Salinity = 1.025
Phosphate = 0.22 ppm
Ca = 400 ppm
Mg = 1350 ppm
dKH = 8.1
Temperature = 77.8

Yates273 · Jan 5, 2021

You sure none of you fish are picking at it? Your Fox face may be picking at it

EntitledSushi · Jan 5, 2021

Jason Yahr said:
You sure none of you fish are picking at it? Your Fox face may be picking at it

Maybe. I thought Foxface was reef safe. I haven't seen him do anything to the corals but I will observe more often.

RocketEngineer · Jan 5, 2021

What kind of light are you using? The very blue pics make me wonder. My last tank grew acans like mad until I changed lighting.

Reef Guy Ronnie · Jan 9, 2021

To my knowledge, Fox faces are reef safe. We have one in several different tanks, tanks that include Acans. From your parameters listed, they look pretty solid. Without having listed your par, it is assumed then now that the lighting may be too strong. Try tucking it under a ledge some way, and target feed it amino acids every few days. when feeding though, test your nitrates to know when to slow down or water change. Hope this helps!

EntitledSushi · Jan 16, 2021

RocketEngineer said:
What kind of light are you using? The very blue pics make me wonder. My last tank grew acans like mad until I changed lighting.

@RocketEngineer : I have two Red Sea Hydra 26's. I do have them set to favor blue but that is completely adjustable. Do you have a suggestion for what Acans prefer?

EntitledSushi · Jan 16, 2021

Reef Guy Ronnie said:
To my knowledge, Fox faces are reef safe. We have one in several different tanks, tanks that include Acans. From your parameters listed, they look pretty solid. Without having listed your par, it is assumed then now that the lighting may be too strong. Try tucking it under a ledge some way, and target feed it amino acids every few days. when feeding though, test your nitrates to know when to slow down or water change. Hope this helps!

@Reef Guy Ronnie : I just ordered a PAR meter rental. In the mean time I moved him to the edge of the tank as far from the lights as possible. Do you have a suggestion for what PAR acans prefer?

RocketEngineer · Jan 17, 2021

EntitledSushi said:
@RocketEngineer : I have two Red Sea Hydra 26's. I do have them set to favor blue but that is completely adjustable. Do you have a suggestion for what Acans prefer?

In my case, I had been using T5s with the combination of bulbs chosen to give me a 20,000 K look so it was slightly blue but mostly white. I don’t have a PAR meter so no idea of spectrum or intensity. All I know is that the DIY LED I had made was the cause of loosing every coral I had, it’s the only thing I changed.

JoshO · Jan 17, 2021

Hi bud, best thing I can recommend is to get an ICP test done. It'll potentially show up something you're not able to test for.
My acans were retracted for months and lost all their tissue pretty much. Turns out my rock was leaching metals (man made). Moved them to a new system and its back to almost it's best, picture below was a few days ago...

Reef Guy Ronnie · Jan 18, 2021

EntitledSushi said:
@Reef Guy Ronnie : I just ordered a PAR meter rental. In the mean time I moved him to the edge of the tank as far from the lights as possible. Do you have a suggestion for what PAR acans prefer?

I keep our Acans at 80-100 PAR using kessil LED