Acro slowly dying from bottom up

[Eclyps19]

I've had my acro for a couple months now - it seemed quite happy for a while, but has only been half-extended for the past month or so, and is dying from the bottom up. Current levels are as follow:

Calc: 425
Alk: 8.5
Mag: 1410
Phos: 0
Nitrate: 5
Sal: 1.026
pH: 8.2
Temp: 78

Nearly everything has been been fairly consistent - Alk has had a couple swings of ~0.6, which may have agitated the acro.

Other inhabitants are 2x montis, hammer, duncans, zoas, toadstool. All of these corals are doing excellent, and the montis are growing very well. Nothing is near the acro so I don't think that it's being attacked. I did rapidly lose a cheap birdsnest recently, but it never acclimated well and never had much extension.

I just want to confirm that the best course of action here is to frag above the dead tissue and hope for the best. Is there anything else that I should try before fragging?

Progress pics below:

April 8th


April 25th


May 20th

 

[mannyhernz]

All params been stable? Any sign of bitemarks?

 

[Eclyps19]

All params been stable? Any sign of bitemarks?

No signs of bites, however on the last picture I *did* notice what appears to be a hole on the right side...

I don't believe that was there a week ago, though I could be wrong. Only fish in the tank are 2 clowns and a flasher wrasse, along with some hermits and snails.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

0 po4 is not good if it’s truly 0. Are you carbon dosing or using gfo?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Tank size, lighting, above the water mounting height?

 

[Eclyps19]

Tank size, lighting, above the water mounting height?

30g
2x AI Primes (3h ramp up and down with about a 3.5h peak in the middle). Image is of peak settings (no PAR meter)

Lights are ~8" from top of water, acro is about 6" from top of water.

No carbon or GFO, just running a skimmer. Dosed Nitrates a while back to pick those levels up as they were extremely low, hoped that would give my po4 a slight nudge, but my salifert test is still reading 0.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Not enough light or long enough peak period. Crank those babies up. That acro is stressed and starving from a lack of light. I have 2 -52 HD’s over my 50 gallon cube maxed out for 8.5 hours of peak.

I have a 26 HD on my 29 gallon biocube frag tank maxed out(90 Watts) for 10 hours and it’s only producing 225 par at the mid point of the tank.

 

[Hemmdog]

Not enough light or long enough peak period. Crank those babies up. That acro is stressed and starving from a lack of light. I have 2 -52 HD’s over my 50 gallon cube maxed out for 8.5 hours of peak.

I have a 26 HD on my 29 gallon biocube frag tank maxed out(90 Watts) for 10 hours and it’s only producing 225 par at the mid point of the tank.

+1, needs more light. 6-7 hour peak.

 

[Neetsama]

Phosphate: .03-.07, Try increasing nitrate to 10ppm, not by dosing but by feeding fish food, reef roids, etc. My water was too clean and I had the same problem.

 

[Eclyps19]

Thanks - I'll gradually increase my peak length up to 8 or so hours. The ramp up and down on my previous configuration gave things about 4 hours of absolute peak and then about 2 hours of 75% or above on either end of that, but maybe that was low enough to still starve it.

 

[Eclyps19]

Phosphate: .03-.07, Try increasing nitrate to 10ppm, not by dosing but by feeding fish food, reef roids, etc. My water was too clean and I had the same problem.

Were you able to keep your phosphates consistent by just over feeding?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Pic of my schedule before I started adding more red and green.

This is 240 watts 16” above the water, 650-400 par for 8.5 hours of peak. Don’t be scrared to max those out or even add a 3rd. Acros can handle a lot of light.

 

[Neetsama]

Were you able to keep your phosphates consistent by just over feeding?

My phosphate are at .05. Don't over feed, just feed slightly more. You can slowly feed more once your bacteria population builds up. Bacteria also helps rid of nitrates and phosphates through skimming. I run gfo, chaeto reactor, and carbon dose once in a while. I use to feed very lightly (just small amounts for my fish), my corals weren't doing very well. I was wondering why because my water parameters were almost perfect. I spoke with my lfs owner and the said I was straving my corals. Sure enough, I started to increase my feeding and everything looked happy.

 

[Neetsama]

My phosphate are at .05. Don't over feed, just feed slightly more. You can slowly feed more once your bacteria population builds up. Bacteria also helps rid of nitrates and phosphates through skimming. I run gfo, chaeto reactor, and carbon dose once in a while. I use to feed very lightly (just small amounts for my fish), my corals weren't doing very well. I was wondering why because my water parameters were almost perfect. I spoke with my lfs owner and the said I was straving my corals. Sure enough, I started to increase my feeding and everything looked happy.

Also when feeding, leave the skimmer OFF for 1-2 hours. I also use amino acids.

 

[SDK]

Thanks - I'll gradually increase my peak length up to 8 or so hours. The ramp up and down on my previous configuration gave things about 4 hours of absolute peak and then about 2 hours of 75% or above on either end of that, but maybe that was low enough to still starve it.

I think you need to ramp up both peak length and intensity. Not just peak length. I have a Prime HD mounted about 5" over the water on my Nuvo 10. I use the BRS settings which are significantly more intense than yours, and my acro frag did not start really taking off until my acclimation got me up to full power. My UV and V are double where you are at and the frag is probably less than 9" from the light...

 

[Eclyps19]

I think you need to ramp up both peak length and intensity. Not just peak length. I have a Prime HD mounted about 5" over the water on my Nuvo 10. I use the BRS settings which are significantly more intense than yours, and my acro frag did not start really taking off until my acclimation got me up to full power. My UV and V are double where you are at and the frag is probably less than 9" from the light...

This is what I saved as my config that I'm going to work up to. Pretty much maxed out on the violet/blue end.

 

[SDK]

That's much better UV and V, but the G, R and CW values might prompt too much algae growth. I've had really good success ramping up the BRS numbers proportionally. The full power numbers are:

UV- 119
V- 116
RY- 79
B- 80
G- 4
DR- 4
CW-16

Some then play with the CW if they want the tank less blue, but I like it at 16. It's blue, but not that over the top blueberry pie blue. With 8 hours at full and an hour ramp on each side, I have a Bonsai Acro and several different branching Montipora all growing well enough to be encrusting downward onto their frag plugs...

 

[Waynerock]

Or check out David Saxby’s settings, that’s what I use in my Prime’s and just turned down the white and I really like it.

. Cooks everything I put in to perfection. I have a mixed reef but plenty of higher up acro’s a nice Mille and some BN that I have to trim weekly

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

More light=More Better

 

[Eclyps19]

Or check out David Saxby’s settings, that’s what I use in my Prime’s and just turned down the white and I really like it.

. Cooks everything I put in to perfection. I have a mixed reef but plenty of higher up acro’s a nice Mille and some BN that I have to trim weekly

This is actually what I started with, and then adjusted a bit. I must have decreased my peak at some point to allow for a longer ramp time. Still seems low in comparison to all of these other recommendations.