Happy acro chipping away tissue, help solve mystery

[kuansreef]

I have had my acros for a year and they have been doing very well. I start seeing 6 out of 10 acros chipping away tissue on different areas of the acro, top, side, bottom, but The tissue that ramins has full polyps open. i canot figure out how a happy acro looses tissue. i changed water and test water very often. Everything looks good. Please Help solve mystery. Would dose Lugo help?

My 60g tank has higher flow with radion pro
Alk. 9
Calcium, 430
Mag. 1450
Nitrate and phosphate bwteen 0 to 0.03
Vodka dosing 1ml/day
Half cup of gfo in reactor and half cup of carbon in sump
Run cal. Reactor and chiller so swings are minimum

 

[cdness]

First off do you have pictures? Or is the recession spotty, recession from the base, recession from the tips, or middle of the colony recession?

The major concern would be if it is spotty as that means you have a pest.

Since you are vodka dosing, your alk is a bit high. This can lead to burnt tips and possible colony recession.

If the recession is in the middle of the colony, try redirecting your flow a bit to get more water flow to the coral.

If you have an iodine based dip like Seachem Coral Cure, dip the acros in that to try stop the recession. This is assuming they are removeable.

 

[pickupman66]

Small round circles or dots on them will indicate AEFW!

 

[kuansreef]

Several recessions started in different places, the bottom, the middle, the young tips, and the areas with tissue have full polyp extension. No spotted recesssion. it is very odd. i will see if you can get some pics.

 

[Chameleon]

sounds like RTN to me... would you describe it as tissue sloughing off?
If so a parameter swing is the cause, most likely a swing in alkalinity.

 

[kuansreef]

sounds like RTN to me... would you describe it as tissue sloughing off?
If so a parameter swing is the cause, most likely a swing in alkalinity.

Recession looks more like chipping away, little by little everyday

 

[kuansreef]

uploaded some pics to show. thanks for any help! Should I reduce vodka dosing or lower Alk? I also have LPS corals in the tank so lower alk probably not a good idea.

 

[nova65ss]

The last pic looks like an aptasia and a vermitid snail both of which could of caused the coral to start rtning. Looks like there is a lot of algae in there which tends to be phosphates as well. The one has algae all around the base and could be causing the acro to start losing flesh around the base as well.

 

[Mike J.]

I'd sure get that Vermetid out of there. If not for anything else because of the cob webs it's putting out. On the last picture I'd cut the live tip off that coral and try to save it. Otherwise, it looks like it's going to be a complete RTN death.

 

[pickupman66]

I agree. FRAG that last one to the good part. and I do see alot of what looks like Turf algae on the rocks. while this does uptake phosphate to the point that your test kits dont read it, its presence indicates that as a possible underlying cause.

 

[kuansreef]

Thanks guys! Do you think water change may not be a good idea to improve? I have observed that some frags started to recess fast a day after water change and they were fine before water change. I only change 10-15% of water.

 

[Chameleon]

water changes are always a good idea to correct issues in my opinion. just be sure to match your parameters to you tank