Acro question

Rabidbeast666 · Dec 14, 2023

This is my 1st acro since getting back after 15yrs. I've had him in the spot in the picture for a couple of weeks from a place on a frag rack for a couple of weeks then to this brighter spot. Since I've had it he's only fluffed up a couple of times. I can tell he's getting thicker and growing but he don't look the same as when I got it. The corals that are around it are at least 3" away. The shots deceptive. Everything else in the tank open up and extend feeders. Is this any kind of normal? I have good lights and flow so I dunno. Parameters perfect and fairly stable except for a dip in phosphate and nitrate I'm bringing up slowly. But the look of this predates that.

Jasonak · Dec 14, 2023

Everyone's going to ask you what your parameters are

There's allot of different things to cause no PE I've got Acros with none and everyone around them is fully extended. So its hard to say, sometimes it just takes awhile for them to settle in.

Rabidbeast666 · Dec 14, 2023

Sal 1.26
Ph 8.3
No3 3
Ph .05
Cal 450
Alk 10.2
Mag 1340
Temp 78
Except for bottoming out for a few days on no3 and po4 I'm usually right around here at every test.

Jasonak · Dec 14, 2023

Rabidbeast666 said:
Sal 1.26
Ph 8.3
No3 3
Ph .05
Cal 450
Alk 10.2
Mag 1340
Temp 78
Except for bottoming out for a few days on no3 and po4 I'm usually right around here at every test.

Yeah man everything looks good, some acros are just picky. I moved one 6 inches and it clamed up for 3 weeks ! I can see just little tuffs on it so not entirely closed up.

ryanjohn1 · Dec 14, 2023

Check on it at night when the lights have been out for a few hours. And see how extended it is

Dburr1014 · Dec 14, 2023

We will also ask,
What are good lights and good flow?
Name them and where they are set.

Boehmtown · Dec 17, 2023

There's a lot to it, but honestly. If the polyps are out at night, the color is good (not perfect) and it's doing any sort of growing or encrusting, I leave it alone for 3 months, at that point I'd reassess and maybe move it. Sps take a long time to adjust to your tank sometimes , especially if you dip, ship or rebase them

billyocean · Dec 17, 2023

It's probably fine and just adjusting. However, for me, the alk at 10.2dkh and your po4 at .05 and no3 at 3 is pretty low. I would pump those nutrients up some to avoid burnt tips if anything. At 10.2 your acro gets the growth but the low nutrients may not facilitate the growth. You said you've bottomed out, if only for a few days...still not good. Get that n03 up to 10 at least for a buffer zone from bottoming out at least. .05 is ok if you can stay there but .08 would be safer for a buffer zone. FWIW I'm about .08ish and 10-20 with a dkh of 8.

Rabidbeast666 · Dec 18, 2023

billyocean said:
It's probably fine and just adjusting. However, for me, the alk at 10.2dkh and your po4 at .05 and no3 at 3 is pretty low. I would pump those nutrients up some to avoid burnt tips if anything. At 10.2 your acro gets the growth but the low nutrients may not facilitate the growth. You said you've bottomed out, if only for a few days...still not good. Get that n03 up to 10 at least for a buffer zone from bottoming out at least. .05 is ok if you can stay there but .08 would be safer for a buffer zone. FWIW I'm about .08ish and 10-20 with a dkh of 8.

That's what I'm aiming at. But slowly working it up over about a week. If the higher nutrients don't work I can always get them back down and then adjust position. Luckily he's on a stable move able piece of rock. So I'll try this route. And to the other guys following it's not really extending at night either and I nightly dose phyto.

Rabidbeast666 · Dec 23, 2023

I've now got my phosphate at 1.0 will check nitrate in the morning. Acro is starting to show some of the color he had when I bought him. I've added a 5w uv sterilizer to my return chamber and the little bit if dyno I had is gone. If it gets back to popping again I'll share a picture.

ArachnoJoozt · Dec 23, 2023

Rabidbeast666 said:
I've now got my phosphate at 1.0 will check nitrate in the morning. Acro is starting to show some of the color he had when I bought him. I've added a 5w uv sterilizer to my return chamber and the little bit if dyno I had is gone. If it gets back to popping again I'll share a picture.

0,1 I hope?

christwendt · Dec 23, 2023

Rabidbeast666 said:
I've now got my phosphate at 1.0 will check nitrate in the morning. Acro is starting to show some of the color he had when I bought him. I've added a 5w uv sterilizer to my return chamber and the little bit if dyno I had is gone. If it gets back to popping again I'll share a picture.

I think you are starving them. The fact you had Dino’s means you had a low nutrient system and as you mentioned nutrients bottomed out. The precision on your test kit for nitrate Hannah which I assume you used is + or minus 2ppm. So you could have only 1 nitrate. And your phosphate could also be at 0.02 as I think that test kit has a 0.03 accuracy range. The fact you had Dino’s tells me you probably are starving them. I would raise nitrates to 5-10 and phosphates 0.1 and see how that helps.

Sps are tricky and don’t do well with very low nutrients unless you have a heavy import and heavy export methods.