Acro turning white at the base

wrfreeman · Jan 8, 2014

I'm not sure if this is related to a sea whip that died or not. Several of my stonies died following the meltdown of a sea whip while I was on vacation over Christmas. The sea whip was new to the system. I'm not sure what caused it to die or if it dying was the cause of the others to die. Before adding the sea whip I had a nice sized metallic green cap, two small acro frags, a large acro frag, and a branching monti that were all doing well (noted growth over the past couple of months). After the whip died, the cap sloughed it's flesh in about a week. The two small acro frags bleached out completely. The barnching monti has gone all white. Now the larger acro frag is turning white at the base. Everything else seems to be doing fine including all the softies and a few brain coral including a lobo, welso, maze, war, and regular favite type. So it appears that all that died were SPS. I also have a turbinaria that's still doing fine and a potato chip pavona that seams to weathering the storm (I can see a very small edge that's turned white). Also still doing well is a plate, meteor shower, three acans, alevepora, frogspawn, hammer, and a couple of small chalice frags. I'm listing all these because I don't want to assume that the sea whip was the only cause of the others dying. There's many variable to take into account and an event several weeks ago could lead a coral to die now and leave you scratching your head wondering why.

If the sea whip dying caused an ammonia spike or something similar, could that cause the SPS to die and not affect the others? Is there something that I should be looking for now (all my parameters seem to be fine with no drastic changes or fluctuations)? Is there anything I can do to save the acro turning white or does it just have to run it's course?

cee · Jan 8, 2014

wrfreeman said:
I'm not sure if this is related to a sea whip that died or not. Several of my stonies died following the meltdown of a sea whip while I was on vacation over Christmas. The sea whip was new to the system. I'm not sure what caused it to die or if it dying was the cause of the others to die. Before adding the sea whip I had a nice sized metallic green cap, two small acro frags, a large acro frag, and a branching monti that were all doing well (noted growth over the past couple of months). After the whip died, the cap sloughed it's flesh in about a week. The two small acro frags bleached out completely. The barnching monti has gone all white. Now the larger acro frag is turning white at the base. Everything else seems to be doing fine including all the softies and a few brain coral including a lobo, welso, maze, war, and regular favite type. So it appears that all that died were SPS. I also have a turbinaria that's still doing fine and a potato chip pavona that seams to weathering the storm (I can see a very small edge that's turned white). Also still doing well is a plate, meteor shower, three acans, alevepora, frogspawn, hammer, and a couple of small chalice frags. I'm listing all these because I don't want to assume that the sea whip was the only cause of the others dying. There's many variable to take into account and an event several weeks ago could lead a coral to die now and leave you scratching your head wondering why.

If the sea whip dying caused an ammonia spike or something similar, could that cause the SPS to die and not affect the others? Is there something that I should be looking for now (all my parameters seem to be fine with no drastic changes or fluctuations)? Is there anything I can do to save the acro turning white or does it just have to run it's course?

Yes, the ammonia could cause what you state. Lower the "white" acro if possible and do water changes (although it is likely too late if this occurred at Christmas). Don't buy sea whips unless you want to feed your tank heavily.

wrfreeman · Jan 8, 2014

cee said:
Yes, the ammonia could cause what you state. Lower the "white" acro if possible and do water changes (although it is likely too late if this occurred at Christmas). Don't buy sea whips unless you want to feed your tank heavily.

I thought sea whips were supposed to photosynthetic, but it looks like unlike most other PS corals, they can't survive on good light and left overs alone.