Acans are Receding a lot

[NickNiz]

Hello everyone! My tank has been sailing smoothly for a while but a few days ago a few of my acan frags started to recede...

It’s only happening to a few of the frags. Here are water params:

Nitrate: ~5ppm
Phosphate: 0.04
Salinity: 1.024
Calcium: 420
Alk: 7.2
Mag: 1200

I know that everything is a little low but it shouldn’t cause this big of a reaction, right? My LFS recommended stoping dosing NOPOX, which I’ve been dosing 1mL daily to my 28g for 3 weeks now.

I don’t have any coral eating fish or inverts. I do 3-5 gal water changes weekly. As far as dosing goes, I use AcroPower, Red Sea Reef Foundation, and Red Sea Coral Colors (started recently).

Feeding consists of a small amount of Rods daily, as well as a drop of Polyp Lab Plus daily, and reef roids once a week...

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

There may be too much flow on some of the more forward located acans. There also may be too much light on some of them, I would try locating the most severe looking ones closer to the rock near the shade.

 

[NickNiz]

Thanks for the reply! I’ll try doing that.

 

[nfrench2100]

Sorry, a bit off topic. But can you snap a close up pic of the green coral in the back right of the third pic? I have one almost identical and have been trying to get a positive ID for months!

 

[NickNiz]

@nfrench2100 I’ve heard it called a jolly green leptoseris as well as a white lightning lepto.

 

[Jimbo662]

Has your alk and mag always been that low?

 

[erk]

Do you target feed your acans? I had recession in my acan after a month of having it. It is in a 150 PAR spot with decent flow. Once I started target feeding, it rebounded quickly and took off. Now it is the size of a baseball. Granted, you should ensure all your other parameters are in check before going this route.

 

[Bigbaby]

I found mine were being robbed of their food by my peppermint shrimp. The scars got infected and I saw my acans slowly melting away. Dipping didnt hep either. Got rid of the shrimp soon after finding out that he'd been the culprit. Could you describe the process in how theyre receding?

 

[Jimbo662]

I found mine were being robbed of their food by my peppermint shrimp. The scars got infected and I saw my acans slowly melting away. Dipping didnt hep either. Got rid of the shrimp soon after finding out that he'd been the culprit. Could you describe the process in how theyre receding?

I used to have a skunk shrimp that did the same thing...he got re-homed real fast!

 

[Bigbaby]

I used to have a skunk shrimp that did the same thing...he got re-homed real fast!

yeah mine receded down to nothing over the course of 10 days or so 7 heads of acan lords. I'd try to frag the remaining heads and see if you can take your time with remedying the issue one step at a time.

 

[John3]

I would feed the worst looking ones some small pieces of meat(I like raw shrimp) while they are still putting out the feeders. Make sure not to give them tooo large a piece. Once they stop putting them out it takes a very long time just get back to them putting them out and recovery takes longer and is harder.

Do you does alk between water changes to keep it stable?

 

[HungryOven]

Mine do that sometimes too. Also I saw how a few heads had feeding tentacles stretched way out, I could that that would happen when I put my hands in the tank too much.

 

[NickNiz]

Thanks for the info everyone! I decided to dip one of the frags and this came off of it... what is it exactly? If moves fast and looks like a tiny brown slime. Please tell me it’s not a flat worm..

As for a few of the questions...
my levels aren’t normally that low. I try to keep Alk at 8.5, Cal at 500, and Mag at 1300.

I don’t think that it was my cleaner shrimp either. I’ve never seen him snag food from acans. Whenever I feed the tank he just goes crazy for the calanus in the water column...

 

[John3]

Yikes might be a flatworm! That would explain your situation as well.

I find that in my tank the couple times I let the alk drop below 8 my corals had issues. This is more likely in my case too big of a drop because I normally keep it around 10-11.

 

[nfrench2100]

Thanks for the info. I googled those 2 names tho and doesn’t seem like a match. Close! But I’m still lost lol. Thanks anyways man, and sorry for nearly highjacking your thread

@nfrench2100 I’ve heard it called a jolly green leptoseris as well as a white lightning lepto.