Has anyone seen this before?

[Brandon McHenry]

Hi all! I’ve been having an interesting issue in my personal tank that I was hoping to get some opinions on. I have several acropora, and to a lesser degree montipora, that are hardly encrusting and occasionally show white spots around their bases. I have not seen marks quite like this before and to me it does not look like traditional necrosis. The tissue becomes lighter around the edges of the base and eventually heals back up. In some cases you can even see polyps within the lightened tissue. The corals are quite healthy otherwise with good polyp extension and nice coloration. If anyone has any idea of what this might be I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I saw that on a few pieces a few months back. I thought it was just stress from some swings I was having because it stopped now and things are looking fine.

 

[ycnibrc]

It's just new growth

 

[Rmckoy]

Generally white tips or edges mean new growth .
They look great !

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not zoa growth. Looks very much like either psammacora coral or cyphastrea
I say cyphastrea

 

[Redfoxtang]

Agreed looks like new growth!! Excess nutrients will stunt the growth on acro frags as well.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I saw that on a few pieces a few months back. I thought it was just stress from some swings I was having because it stopped now and things are looking fine.

What kind of swings? and how long did it take for things to rebound?

It's just new growth

Generally white tips or edges mean new growth .
They look great !

Agreed looks like new growth!! Excess nutrients will stunt the growth on acro frags as well.

Unfortunately I don’t think it’s new growth. This looks different in person than the characteristic white/light colored growth ring. These spots almost look dry. And in some cases these spots don’t appear as a line around the growing edge, they are sometimes splotchy. Plus things have been pretty stagnant in terms of growth for a few months despite the corals looking nice. As for nutrients I’ve got 5ppm nitrate (on salifert) and 0.037 phosphate (calculated from Hanna ULR phosphorus).

Not zoa growth. Looks very much like either psammacora coral or cyphastrea
I say cyphastrea

???

 

[vetteguy53081]

cyphastrea is a coral

 

[Brandon McHenry]

cyphastrea is a coral

I’m not sure what you mean, these are all acropora.

 

[vetteguy53081]

cyphastrea is a low light LPS coral. Psammocora is an encrusting stony coral, not acro.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

What kind of swings? and how long did it take for things to rebound?





Unfortunately I don’t think it’s new growth. This looks different in person than the characteristic white/light colored growth ring. These spots almost look dry. And in some cases these spots don’t appear as a line around the growing edge, they are sometimes splotchy. Plus things have been pretty stagnant in terms of growth for a few months despite the corals looking nice. As for nutrients I’ve got 5ppm nitrate (on salifert) and 0.037 phosphate (calculated from Hanna ULR phosphorus).



???

I had about the same parameters but my nutrients were fluctuating a tad and I was trying to get my filtration running right. I was dosing everything by hand once a day. Vinegar dose and two part but the vinegar got spread out in a few pours. So nothing was swinging big I just think it was enough for the coral to show some weak points. It would take a week or so for the funny spots to heal back. I was seeing odd cyano type stuff in spots at that point and was using some bacteria to help the tank rebound from a tank downsize. I have seen new growth like that in uln systems where the new zoox couldn’t keep up but this was a bit different and patchy around the edges and mostly in the areas that were well lit. Could have just been an odd bacteria, I dunno really.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I had about the same parameters but my nutrients were fluctuating a tad and I was trying to get my filtration running right. I was dosing everything by hand once a day. Vinegar dose and two part but the vinegar got spread out in a few pours. So nothing was swinging big I just think it was enough for the coral to show some weak points. It would take a week or so for the funny spots to heal back. I was seeing odd cyano type stuff in spots at that point and was using some bacteria to help the tank rebound from a tank downsize. I have seen new growth like that in uln systems where the new zoox couldn’t keep up but this was a bit different and patchy around the edges and mostly in the areas that were well lit. Could have just been an odd bacteria, I dunno really.

Hmm that’s really strange. As far as I know I don’t have much in the way of swings. And yeah I agree this is different than new growth, these spots are very patchy. I’m pretty lost, I’ve kept acros for a while but haven’t seen this type of issue.

 

[homer1475]

Not zoa growth. Looks very much like either psammacora coral or cyphastrea
I say cyphastrea

cyphastrea is a coral

cyphastrea is a low light LPS coral. Psammocora is an encrusting stony coral, not acro.

What?

Every coral the OP posted is an acro.

First couple pics do look weird, but the last pic is just new growth ring.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

The bottom part of the last pic could have. When new growth at one point but the top part of it has the patchy skeleton showing which is not new growth.
The first fourth and top circle in the fifth picture look like healthy edges to me for the most part. The others defiantly have thin flesh in the circled areas. If none of them have started to do this and kept getting worst I would not worry and keep things going and it should stop.
How many other people think it’s all new growth? I am surprised no one else is with me on this one.

 

[ScottR]

Looks like new growth and the polyps are just beginning to form. The skeleton will form first, then the polyps will start to grow in. I guess you’re referring to the polyps starting grow in? Looks healthy to me.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

OP maybe you should get some better pics to show them what your seeing. Apparently everyone’s new growth around here starts with skeleton! New growth for me will be bright healthy fluffy coral edge with normally a white ring around the area of rock it’s encrusting. I do see what most are seeing, not all your pics are showing what your talking about. Some of it does look like normal healthy coral but a few spots are not.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Hi all! Thank you so much for the opinions. I am going to try to get some better pictures because I don’t think these are showing what I am trying to represent. I am very confident that this is not new growth. These corals have been in my system for many months and unfortunately have not grown much at all (despite looking quite healthy). These spots show up randomly and the tissue looks dry, white and patchy and over the course of a week or two the spots heal back up and occasionally new spots will reappear. I don’t have a macro lens for the camera I am using so I can try with my iPhone and my polyplab lens to try to get some different pictures today. If anyone has a suggestion for getting a better picture let me know!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

So these are definitely not the best pictures but they are all I could get that close up to the issue. Hopefully this shows the “dryness” a little bit better. I also included a few pictures of these spots on the montis as well. Let me know what you think.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Do you have any emerald crabs or large Mexican turbo snails? I wondered if what I saw was from the emeralds parking next to a colony for a day or two or snails bumping them.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Do you have any emerald crabs or large Mexican turbo snails? I wondered if what I saw was from the emeralds parking next to a colony for a day or two or snails bumping them.

I have two small emerald crabs. No mexican turbos but a few banded trochus.