Blue Acropora care

[Liquid360]

I've got a 60g cube with a 30g sump. I've got a 250w halide. I just purchased my first piece of acro, blue. My question, do I need to add calcium to my water or do anything beyond?

 

[that novice guy]

Not now just your water changes should replenish alp that you need but when you start to add more then it's another story what salt do you use?

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Reef2Reef Aquarium Forum mobile app

 

[Dowtish]

This should help.

Also the coral looks very bleached. You will want to keep it on the bottom of your tank until you see some color come back. Good luck!


Reef Addicts - Acropora - Proper care yields the best results

 

[jtomasi]

Did you buy the coral that white? You need to move is down ASAP. You should always start SPS on the bottom of the tank and move them up over a period of time. For me, I do it over 3 weeks. With one SPS you probably wont need to add anything beyond water changes, but once you get more (trust me you will!), look into dosing Kalk in your ATO or two part via doser. bulk reef supply has great videos on dosing methods. Make sure your Alk, CA and pH are not only a the correct levels but also constant. Small fluctuations can quickly kill an SPS. Keep your Po4 at less than .03 and No3 at less than .05. Some people say that having a tiny tiny bit of each works best. Others who have ultra low nutrient systems does things like amino acids or other SPS "food"

Another bit of advice, do a lot of research on SPS pests/hitchhikers and how to get rid of them. Although I am very new myself, it seems like people spend soo much time learning how to best keep SPS as it relates to chemistry, they forget about other things that can kill coral, which in my opinion, is just as important.

 

[Liquid360]

Thanks so much for the nfo!! I've moved him to the tank bottom as suggested. That photo was taken the day I got him home. That was a week or so ago. The blue color seems to be slowly returning. Here's a picture I just took having moved him to the bottom.

 

[Liquid360]

and here it is today.... it's hard to tell because I see it everyday... but it is starting to look better isn't it?

 

[that novice guy]

That looks alot better at least it's not white!

Sent from my LG-MS770 using Reef2Reef Aquarium Forum mobile app

 

[Liquid360]

Thanks! I'm a lot nervous since this is my first acro and it was a pricey little piece of coral. In the future I assume the advice is never take home a piece of white acro?

 

[Liquid360]

Thank u

 

[jtomasi]

Not necessarily, nor should you not pick up a piece of acro because it's browned out. If the money is right those are sometimes the best value pickups. Many posts on people buying corals for cheap to "recover" them and having the piece turn out amazing.

 

[jtomasi]

...maybe not the best idea for your first coral though

 

[Snookin]

The first picture of the coral bleached out looks to have more growth than the later post......Did u kill the coral? Be honest....

 

[Liquid360]

I prefer to believe that it took its own life. We all tell ourselves what we must in order to move onward.

 

[dendroman]

Looks to me like it was loosing its flesh from the first picture did you notice this at all ?Once it loses its flesh its a goner

 

[Liquid360]

Yeah it was looking like a goner from day one. Was my first acro and in hindsight I shoulda never accepted it. Lesson learned the hard way.... the only way I seem to learn. What a drag.


Sent Via the R2R Forum APP

 

[Frick]

It looks like it is recovering well. The next step would be to move it in to more light and more water flow will be just as impartant. It will need more water flow than that torch coral it is next to.

Get it growing and encrusting on the base/plug first. Worry about the color last.

 

[Liquid360]

Now that I know how to buy acro, thanks to this site, I picked up this piece at the new LFS.... here tis lookin' ever so pretty under my new Maxspects...

 

[J Rog]

That piece looks much better then your last pick up.. :clap2:

 

[Liquid360]

No kidding!! That first piece was sold to me as blue acro... never saw the blue I was promised and don't believe it was my fault... at least I couldn't find any parameters that would lend themselves to such a rapid demise. This new piece though is beautiful now. If I lose it then ill have some serious detective work to do on my setup.