can I save the acros, if so how?

[Drinky]

New sps tank

 

[Scorpius]

Cold water during shipment always spelled disaster for me. Those Acro's don't look too bad. If you're getting ok growth, color etc with that intensity of light why change your settings. With lowered nutrients and if you did raise the intensity of your lighting you'd kill everything in no time.

 

[michael giordano]

This has happened to me multiple times, The corals are stressed from the shipping and then being dipped. This happens a lot at LFS stores that generally why they don’t dip the new stuff right away. Ive helped a lot of whole-sellers and well known LFS unpack new corals and most don’t dip the first week or two. (Here me loud and clear I am not telling you not to dip your new corals in the future in your main system). The best thing you can do is just leave them be on the rack, take out your media and throw away you phosphate media it’s too difficult to control and can bleach sps easily. Feed you fish a little extra times and maybe add a little aminos in the water. There is not much else you can do other than leaving them alone, keeping your alk stable and taking out your media and feeding your fish more often.

 

[Drinky]

How would you control the level of Po4 with out GFO? My main export is refugium chaeto. But Po4 was getting high 0.19 what should i have done about this? Ps my po4 is down to.06 i will leave it in another week then take it out if Po4 is low enough.
I'm fully aware that GFO will strip your water if not careful. and always test

 

[ScottB]

@Drinky I think you have diagnosed the issue well as acclimation/shock. I also agree low light on acclimation, AND a slight time deferral before dipping as has been suggested. Magnified visual inspection happens right out of the bag, but no bright lights or dips until the frags acclimate for a few days (in my LPS frag tank actually). These changes have reduced my shipped frag mortality rate to almost 0.

I guess I should not be surprised those corals weren't packaged with heat packs -- nobody in Florida is thinking it is winter yet. Ironically, frags may get to you warmer in the winter as all respectable corals vendors pack heat in the winter.

I believe you are also correct in keeping these frags in an "older" system. When that SPS tank has some sponges and coralline going, along with a steady supply of PO4 and NO3, you are good.

What to do about those sticks now though? Just gotta let 'em recover in a stable environment. Your params are all good for them. I would not work too hard removing PO4; go real slow. Keep PAR low until the zoox return. Corals without zoox don't need much light IMO.

 

[michael giordano]

don’t Chase numbers I know what the average reefer on here tells you to keep your PO4 low, but “higher” phosphate is not that often a bad thing. Now an extremely high phosphate level is no good. I would just take it offline the PO4 and see how everything reacts over time. t’s truly whatever you want to do, take my advice from someone who has a ton of experience or not. Follow the trends or follow others, just trying to help it’s your coral to kill at the end of the day

 

[Drinky]

I wasn't being rhetorical or a jerk, I'm serious what should i use in place of GFO. Phosphate Rx like melev?
I agree and like to keep my tank a little on the dirty side. The LPS like the extra nutes. I have a skimmer but don't run it any more mostly because i don't need it. Yes I'm aware of the o2 exchange the skimmer provides but my PH is 8.3 already and I have good flow.
I only run GFO when I need too, and I think .19 is time to bring it down to about .03 then start all over again till it is close to .2 again.

 

[Drinky]

I have taken note on inspecting coral when they come in for nasties and waiting to dip. I like your way of putting new acros with the LPS until they are ready and inspected safe to move to the acro tank. I will do this, if nasies make it past inspection and dip, what real damage can they do to an LPS tank, well flat worms and red bugs anyway.
So float till temp is safe, Inspect coral with lens, heal in LPS tank. Dip when looks safe, remove from plug, heal, dip again and then move to sps tank?
Thanks again for all the help and time reading my post.

 

[ScottB]

I have taken note on inspecting coral when they come in for nasties and waiting to dip. I like your way of putting new acros with the LPS until they are ready and inspected safe to move to the acro tank. I will do this, if nasies make it past inspection and dip, what real damage can they do to an LPS tank, well flat worms and red bugs anyway.
So float till temp is safe, Inspect coral with lens, heal in LPS tank. Dip when looks safe, remove from plug, heal, dip again and then move to sps tank?
Thanks again for all the help and time reading my post.

For my part "you are welcome" and I hope your acros recover. I picked up these tips piecemeal from R2R, WWC, TSA, my LFS and some trial/error.

I further wish I had better suggestions for helping out stressed/bleached acros, but I really don't. My batting average drops way down once they have bleached.

What dip did you use? I use Bayer.

 

[Drinky]

I used coral Rx.
Also I think I will remove the GFO .06 is close enough and that was taken sunday "water test day" the carbon is probably done or mostly done at this point anyway.

 

[mpekoske]

Hope everything turns around for you! I’m in South Dakota (Sioux falls) as well

 

[tehmadreefer]

Those are some nice chunky frags, where did you buy them from?

 

[Drinky]

I got them from a guy on the market place here on R2R.
GregOyeah is the guys name, came well packaged and dirt cheap.

 

[Drinky]

mpekoske
Do you know of a reef club or frag swap here in town? Would love to get rid of some rasta zoa's and other easy mode SPS like digi stylo's setosa and birds nest, they are getting out of control.

 

[Jeeperz]

I'm not sure of others luck but I've killed more sps when I used coralrx, I use Bayer on sps with a huge difference in them not dying. Coral rx can be used for other stuff but I will never use it on sps again.

 

[ScottB]

I'm not sure of others luck but I've killed more sps when I used coralrx, I use Bayer on sps with a huge difference in them not dying. Coral rx can be used for other stuff but I will never use it on sps again.

Anecdotally, I got the same sense from many posts here. I know many use it (even a couple LFS nearby) but "seems" particularly harsh for smooth skinned acros.

I use Bayer. Yeah, you have to be careful when handling. And yeah, it is mildly annoying (due to milky color) to ID anything that gets rinsed off, but it does work well for acropora pests. I dip in a glass bowl and view from beneath after pouring off most of the solution.

 

[motortrendz]

Well they didn't seem to like the 80 or so par they were under so I don't dare give them more light.
The green slimmer just under the monti cap turned brown when I put it on the frag rack in the back on the other side. Left it there for a week then moved it to where it is now, week later it was bright green.
I think the problem was I warmed them up too quick and now they are super angry.

I feel like your not giving them enough light. Not too much. Most sps wasnt 250+ par. Most of mine are 350-450 range and yet some still want more they could by fading bc they're not getting enough light.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

This has happened to me multiple times, The corals are stressed from the shipping and then being dipped. This happens a lot at LFS stores that generally why they don’t dip the new stuff right away. Ive helped a lot of whole-sellers and well known LFS unpack new corals and most don’t dip the first week or two. (Here me loud and clear I am not telling you not to dip your new corals in the future in your main system). The best thing you can do is just leave them be on the rack, take out your media and throw away you phosphate media it’s too difficult to control and can bleach sps easily. Feed you fish a little extra times and maybe add a little aminos in the water. There is not much else you can do other than leaving them alone, keeping your alk stable and taking out your media and feeding your fish more often.

Agree I don't dip my corals right away I wait a few days then dip. But do turkey bast them to remove any critters off . And I have had better success doing this so corals don't get stressed even more.

 

[Drinky]

I feel like your not giving them enough light. Not too much. Most sps wasnt 250+ par. Most of mine are 350-450 range and yet some still want more they could by fading bc they're not getting enough light.

New batch of frags top pic, floated for 2 hours then acclamated no dip. Looking fine.
Bottom is of the poor acros I nearly killed by temp shocking them.
Par not the problem.

 

[motortrendz]

Agree I don't dip my corals right away I wait a few days then dip. But do turkey bast them to remove any critters off . And I have had better success doing this so corals don't get stressed even more.

What do you do with them before you dip them? Do you have a qt for them?