Are my damsels eating this acro frag?

[Dmsick]

I got my first acropora frags at the Aqua SD sale a week ago. They've been in my tank for almost a week and seem to be slowly opening up. Today I noticed these white areas at the base of this frag. Can anyone give me an idea of what's happening? I've read that damsels may nip at some sps corals but I've not seen any of them doing it. I also have a foxface in the tank. I've never seem him nip at the corals either.
Any thoughts. There is another sps frag very close to this one and it looks fine.

 

[Ranjib]

Highly unlikely...

 

[ncaldwell]

Not sure but if the entire base turns white and moves up I'd frag the top off and re glue it. It happens sometimes. Had that happen many times before

 

[Ranjib]

Yeah. Thats indicator of STN/RTN. You mentioned this is your first acro. Can you share the age of the tank, some details about your setup, parameters etc.
Acropora is one of the more demanding corals. Like most sps, you are aiming at high flow, high light (but slow acclimation), good water chemistry (Calcium and alk in particular), stable tank overall.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

probably not, but join the "I hate damsels club" and blame them anyways.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

oh yeah.. the coral. it looks like RTN to me..where the skin is just sloughing off. if it continues (very likely) then immediately cut above the infected parts and reglue.

try not to think about the money you spent on it.

 

[Dmsick]

Thank you all for the responses. I was afraid (and expected) it wasn't the damsels. My tank is only 3 months old. I've got some LPS and a few zoas which are doing ok. Thankfully the 2 acro frags weren't expensive but I still want to give them a good home.
I have 2 similar frags in similar areas of the tank. Both are higher up closer to the lights and defninely higher flow. I could go up on the lights but the other frag seems to be doing well.

Parameters:
Salinity 1.024
pH 8.0-8.1
Alk 7 ( runs between 7-9 with IO RC)
Mg 1400
Ca 450
P04 0.1
Nitrate 5

So I should cut off the bottom of the coral where the white is and re glue it?

 

[Ranjib]

What are you using for flow?
Slowly acclimate the coral for your light. Next time when you order, go for some montipora and other easy to keep sps (like green slimer or even green pociliopora).. once you have dialed in your dosing regimen, then go for the other sticks

 

[Dmsick]

What are you using for flow?
Slowly acclimate the coral for your light. Next time when you order, go for some montipora and other easy to keep sps (like green slimer or even green pociliopora).. once you have dialed in your dosing regimen, then go for the other sticks

Thanks so much for the feedback. I have a jebao crossflow 120 (4 foot tank) which is running at about 50%. There are no obvious dead spots in the tank and the flow in the upper half of the tank is pretty strong. I don 't really know how else to quantify it. I can move the acro to a lower area of the tank but my lights are only at 50% for UV and 5% white at the maximum for about 4 hours per day and ramps up and down from there.

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

I would cut it above the tissue loss and dip in revive or iodine and reglue.

I love sps but they are very very sensitive. Once you get them acclimated and growing they are much easier but you can have an sps just sit there for like 5 months before it grows.

A couple points of advice for sps...
1. test your alk daily or every other day. A hannah checker is gold for this. You here people say "I don't check, I just look, etc etc" Those people are not you. I have never seen an impressive sps tank where they didn't check multiple times a week.

2. alk spikes, ph, etc can really shock sps. Test the water it is in before putting it in your tank. Most dealers are going to be around 8 or 9 dkh, but not all. I lost $300 of sps doing this. Called the store after 2 weeks and everything was receeding..."oh yeah, we keep them around 12 dkh".

3. you don't need to blast them with light but they do need lots of light. so medium lights for a longer time or brighter lights for a shorter time. I have 4 HO t5's and two XHO reefbrite that run for 12 hours. I have 3 250watt MH bulbs that run for 5 in addition to that.

4. it does take time to get your tank to settle in. A very good indicator is coraline algae growth on your glass that is growing at a frustrating rate.

hope this helps.
cheers

 

[Dmsick]

I would cut it above the tissue loss and dip in revive or iodine and reglue.

I love sps but they are very very sensitive. Once you get them acclimated and growing they are much easier but you can have an sps just sit there for like 5 months before it grows.

A couple points of advice for sps...
1. test your alk daily or every other day. A hannah checker is gold for this. You here people say "I don't check, I just look, etc etc" Those people are not you. I have never seen an impressive sps tank where they didn't check multiple times a week.

2. alk spikes, ph, etc can really shock sps. Test the water it is in before putting it in your tank. Most dealers are going to be around 8 or 9 dkh, but not all. I lost $300 of sps doing this. Called the store after 2 weeks and everything was receeding..."oh yeah, we keep them around 12 dkh".

3. you don't need to blast them with light but they do need lots of light. so medium lights for a longer time or brighter lights for a shorter time. I have 4 HO t5's and two XHO reefbrite that run for 12 hours. I have 3 250watt MH bulbs that run for 5 in addition to that.

4. it does take time to get your tank to settle in. A very good indicator is coraline algae growth on your glass that is growing at a frustrating rate.

hope this helps.
cheers

Wow! What an awesome post. This is one of the most helpful things I’ve read. Thank you so much. I’m ordering the Hanna checker tonight. I just needed an excuse!

 

[Dmsick]

Is there any reason to wait to cut the dead coral off? What should I use to do it?

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

there are basically two types of coral death Rapid Tissue Necrosis and Slow TN. the slow is just that... typically the bottom starts to "curl" back and the tissue seems to be slowly receeding. That is the most common.. the reason.. usually something you did two three weeks ago

They can usually recover on their own when things stabilize. think of it as a sprained ankle.

RTN is like getting hit with a car. The tissue appears to be "blowing off" like a mass exodus of zoezenthelle. Like OMG what is happening. The conventional wisdom is cut and pray. Coral treatment is kind of like civil war medicine. Got an infected foot? Cut the leg off at the knee and hope for the best.

the hannah is soooooo easy. you will be shocked at how easy. Don't fret about how close it is to the "real" dkh it is stability more than the real number.

 

[Dmsick]

there are basically two types of coral death Rapid Tissue Necrosis and Slow TN. the slow is just that... typically the bottom starts to "curl" back and the tissue seems to be slowly receeding. That is the most common.. the reason.. usually something you did two three weeks ago

They can usually recover on their own when things stabilize. think of it as a sprained ankle.

RTN is like getting hit with a car. The tissue appears to be "blowing off" like a mass exodus of zoezenthelle. Like OMG what is happening. The conventional wisdom is cut and pray. Coral treatment is kind of like civil war medicine. Got an infected foot? Cut the leg off at the knee and hope for the best.

the hannah is soooooo easy. you will be shocked at how easy. Don't fret about how close it is to the "real" dkh it is stability more than the real number.

Thanks so much for the feedback. Thats a really good explanation and is really helpful. I don 't see any more white on the coral today. So, I think I'm going to watch it for a bit. It looked like more of it was colored up today under the lights. My zoas seem a little less happy today but my acans and favia look fantastic. My phosphates are higher today maybe up to .5 ( more than .1 on the seachem test but not over .5). The gfo in my reactor is only a week old but I went ahead and changed it out. I thought things were becoming more stable with my tank but maybe I'm wrong! Despite the elevated phosphate, nitrates are less than 5 and my hair algae seems to be losing out to my Foxface and snails.
I'm really grateful for this forum because I'm doing this on my own otherwise. The closest LFS is 70 miles away and I don't know anyone local who has a reef tank. Thanks again for the help!

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

are you sure phosphates are that high?? .5 is pretty dang high, especially if you have gfo.

 

[Dmsick]

are you sure phosphates are that high?? .5 is pretty dang high, especially if you have gfo.

I suppose it could be a testing error although the seachem test is pretty idiot proof. I rechecked this am and it reads between .05 and .1 so either last nights test was bad or the fresh gfo brought it down. I don't think the gfo could bring it down that much in 10 hours especially since I don't run the full amount I could. So maybe idiot proof was incorrect?!