Did too much flow do this to my green slimer?

[ScottB]

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77.1°F
Alk: 7.6dkh (haven't dosed yet so it will be 8.6 after dosing)
Calcium: 470
Nitrates: 5ppm (Salifert)
Phosphate: 0.1ppm

@Cali Reef Life My urchins eat the coralline algae on my rocks, it's absolutely covered with it. I also feed nori to the tank

Good numbers. I don't see an issue here.

 

[ScottB]

It looks like the exposed skeleton, completely white and smooth to the touch. I have it near the top of the tank, I'm not sure what the par is but I have a Radion G4 XR30 running the AB program at about 50% on my 55g. It's in the middle, right under the light because I heard they like a lot of light, and I have one wavemaker on the right side of the tank that I moved off to the side of the glass a little because I thought that was what was causing the dead spot

They can take a lot of flow, but a steady stream can do this. I had gyre on the back glass go rogue (or I butt dialed full tilt) and it blasted the back of a colony white. I literally sawed the colony in half and the rest did fine afterward.

 

[Chortanator]

The coral is on a frag disc. I would try to move the coral to a higher location on your rocks & try to mount it central to lighting- so there is no shadowing.

It's in the highest central point of my tank currently, directly under the Radion. I also have 2 Kessil A80s on either side. Here's a picture of where it is from a month ago, and I moved it slightly to the right on the same rock since then.

 

[Chortanator]

How often do you dose?

I try to dose alk daily but sometimes I forget and dose after 2-3 days, but I never dose more than 1dkh at a time

 

[Chortanator]

They can take a lot of flow, but a steady stream can do this. I had gyre on the back glass go rogue (or I butt dialed full tilt) and it blasted the back of a colony white. I literally sawed the colony in half and the rest did fine afterward.

That might be the issue, this is the pump I'm using, and it doesn't have options to turn it up or down. The flow undulates, but it's at relatively the same power the whole time

 

[homer1475]

Nailed down for you, huh?

Looks like shading on that one side, right?
What lights do you have and do you know the par?
Is this coral in the middle of the tank or close to one side?
More flow would not hurt.

This was what I thought when I first saw it. Looks like shading.

I would also agree it does not look like a green slimer either.

 

[Chortanator]

This was what I thought when I first saw it. Looks like shading.

I would also agree it does not look like a green slimer either.

I'm not really sure how to get more light onto that side since I already have a light on either side and the radion in the middle, and it's about as close to the middle of the tank as I can get it. Will it recover and grow past that shaded spot? My urchin won't stop rubbing its spikes on it either which is causing the polyps to retract

 

[ss30]

I try to dose alk daily but sometimes I forget and dose after 2-3 days, but I never dose more than 1dkh at a time

This could be part or all of your problem, SPS corals like stable parameters they don't like swings.
If you want to keep SPS corals you really need a doser to keep Alk stable along with Calcium, Magnesium and trace elements.
I take it you also dose Calcium and Magnesium and do water changes to take care of the trace elements?

 

[Chortanator]

This could be part or all of your problem, SPS corals like stable parameters they don't like swings.
If you want to keep SPS corals you really need a doser to keep Alk stable along with Calcium, Magnesium and trace elements.
I take it you also dose Calcium and Magnesium and do water changes to take care of the trace elements?

Yeah I'm not dropping $200-$700 on a $40 coral when I can do it manually for free, everything else is doing fine. I do dose calcium and magnesium but they rarely move. My cal has been high (as in above 450 but below 500) for a few weeks now and I'm not sure why, but I haven't needed to dose it. Water changes keep mag stable at 1300.

I do a 10% wc every week for trace elements.

 

[ss30]

Yeah I'm not dropping $200-$700 on a $40 coral when I can do it manually for free, everything else is doing fine. I do dose calcium and magnesium but they rarely move. My cal has been high (as in above 450 but below 500) for a few weeks now and I'm not sure why, but I haven't needed to dose it. Water changes keep mag stable at 1300.

I do a 10% wc every week for trace elements.

You can do it for free but SPS don't like 1dkh swings and that could be why the flesh has stripped.
I'm only trying to help you.

 

[Chortanator]

You can do it for free but SPS don't like 1dkh swings and that could be why the flesh has stripped.
I'm only trying to help you.

I understand and appreciate the input, I'll be more consistent with my dosing to prevent alk swings

 

[gbru316]

Yeah I'm not dropping $200-$700 on a $40 coral when I can do it manually for free

Might not be important now, but once that frag gets bigger -- and if you get more stony coral (SPS and LPS), you may find yourself needing to dose multiple times a day to keep alkalinity stable. Cheap 2 channel dosers are a bit over $50 on amazon, a Jebao 4 channel doser (which handles everything you should ever need to dose -- alk, ca, mg, 1 extra) is < $100. There's no need to spend $200+ on dosers if it's not in the budget. And it's unlikely that the vast majority spend $700 on dosers.

Though, I did. But I'll be the first to admit I don't need Apex integration, Trident testing/controlled dosing, or any of the other bells and whistles that come with that price. And I surely wouldn't have if I were on a budget.

 

[LucentFish]

Yeah I'm not dropping $200-$700 on a $40 coral when I can do it manually for free, everything else is doing fine. I do dose calcium and magnesium but they rarely move. My cal has been high (as in above 450 but below 500) for a few weeks now and I'm not sure why, but I haven't needed to dose it. Water changes keep mag stable at 1300.

I do a 10% wc every week for trace elements.

I feel the CAD pain with you! Im going to have to start dosing soon as some SPS start growing. I the RS300xl, similar to your RS250. My plan will be to get the Kamoer wifi $120, and dose all for reef to manage ALK. then manually do calc/mag as needed weekly. And eventually the Kamoers can scale up later on as needed/budget allows. From the amount of coral you have, im guessing its mostly the coralline that is eating up the elements.

 

[thepotoo]

Your Nitrates are a bit low, We would normally like to see that over 10. Slimers like most all Acro love a bunch of flow.

It's wild to me that a vendor would suggest bumping up nitrates when they are already at 5.

My nitrates are 5, actually all my parameters are very close to the OP's.

The amount of flow shown in the video is fine, actually a great baseline for most SPS. Slimers are one of the easier ones and can take anywhere from some flow to tons. I shoot for an average of 10 cm/second just over the top all SPS, as measured by flake food in the water column. And 250-300 PAR for frags, unless I can match what tank they came from.

You can look into IV drip bags or kalkwasser in your ATO (you do have an ATO, right?) if you don't want to shell out for a dosing system. I've never manually dosed so I can't comment on whether a single point alk swing is enough to do this or not. Actually, I have no idea what caused this, but I would bet money that it's not flow or nitrates.

Moving the coral (or messing with anything at this point) will further stress it, IMHO. If this were my coral, I would do nothing except keep the water chemistry, dosing, fish feeding, light, and flow constant. SPS = stability promotes success.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Video of the flow

Video doesn’t play for me. I’ve never been able to upload video to R2R. If you figure it out let me know lol.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

It's wild to me that a vendor would suggest bumping up nitrates when they are already at 5.

My nitrates are 5, actually all my parameters are very close to the OP's.

The amount of flow shown in the video is fine, actually a great baseline for most SPS. Slimers are one of the easier ones and can take anywhere from some flow to tons. I shoot for an average of 10 cm/second just over the top all SPS, as measured by flake food in the water column. And 250-300 PAR for frags, unless I can match what tank they came from.

You can look into IV drip bags or kalkwasser in your ATO (you do have an ATO, right?) if you don't want to shell out for a dosing system. I've never manually dosed so I can't comment on whether a single point alk swing is enough to do this or not. Actually, I have no idea what caused this, but I would bet money that it's not flow or nitrates.

Moving the coral (or messing with anything at this point) will further stress it, IMHO. If this were my coral, I would do nothing except keep the water chemistry, dosing, fish feeding, light, and flow constant. SPS = stability promotes success.

You can see the video? I can’t. I’m on mobile. It it only on desktop maybe?

 

[Hairyteeth]

I’ll try and remember to post when I get home… I have a slimer that is growing a branch right in front of a mp10 2” away, it has a spot of low polyp count due being blasted by flow.
Agree with postings above it’s most likely stability and/or shadowing

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

It looks like the exposed skeleton, completely white and smooth to the touch. I have it near the top of the tank, I'm not sure what the par is but I have a Radion G4 XR30 running the AB program at about 50% on my 55g. It's in the middle, right under the light because I heard they like a lot of light, and I have one wavemaker on the right side of the tank that I moved off to the side of the glass a little because I thought that was what was causing the dead spot

How's the acro doing?