Help me out! Acans and Wilsoni

Lowefx · Nov 23, 2016

ReefQueen said:
If moving to a lower light spot doesn't help you can try dosing amino acids. This seemed to help my acans

I have Amino's ready to go, but I'm waiting for the zeovit system to be stable. Which I think it is now.

Lighting is basically all brand new. New ballasts for T5s and MH, new bulbs both t5 and MH. 150w mhx2 and 4x54w T5s (2 super atinic, 1 coral plus, 1 purple plus. Mh14k

Elementalj · Nov 24, 2016

Jay_M said:
What was the lighting fixture on the tank you bought these from?

Good question.

Rick.45cal · Nov 24, 2016

Since you are also seeing pale colors in the cephastrea I would surmise that it's a starvation event.
What are you NO3 and PO4 levels? Undetectable?
What is your net system water volume?
Have you accurately measured the flow from the zeolite reactor to match that volume per hour?
How much zeostart are you dosing daily?
What kind/how much carbon are you using?
Where is the carbon located in your system?
Have you tested for Potassium? If so what is it?

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Rick.45cal said:
Since you are also seeing pale colors in the cephastrea I would surmise that it's a starvation event.
What are you NO3 and PO4 levels? Undetectable?
What is your net system water volume?
Have you accurately measured the flow from the zeolite reactor to match that volume per hour?
How much zeostart are you dosing daily?
What kind/how much carbon are you using?
Where is the carbon located in your system?
Have you tested for Potassium? If so what is it?

NO3 & PO4-0
Net water-120-130g
I have not measured water flow from reactor.
I dose zeostart 2x.5ml daily, zeobak 3x week
No carbon yet.
Potassium was 350 yesterday, and I dosed 5 drops of zeovit potassium concentrate yesterday. Probably will start dosing regularly.
I will also measure gph on my reactor after work today.. thanks rick.45cal

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Elementalj said:
Good question.

They came from tanks with 6-8 bulb t5 systems

Elementalj · Nov 24, 2016

I'd bet it's a combination of both starvation, and light. Are the halides on a separate controller?

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Yes. I run halides 4hrs a day. T5s 9hrs

Jay_M · Nov 24, 2016

Lowefx said:
They came from tanks with 6-8 bulb t5 systems

Did they come from a shallow frag tank or the bottom of a 120?

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Jay_M said:
Did they come from a shallow frag tank or the bottom of a 120?

Wilsoni was shallow 5-10", Acans were at the bottom of a tank maybe 15". Both of my acans came from the same tank. Green ones are fine, red ones look deflated.

Elementalj · Nov 24, 2016

Dip them in Lugols, and inspect the plug for anything hanky.

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving everyone following this thread by the way. Thanks for all of the help and support.
If the red acans are looking the same when I get home (under my shelf rock in the shadows), then I will try something different and put it up in more light.

Jay_M · Nov 24, 2016

Right, there's some out there that say greens are easier to keep than reds when it comes to coral. If the green requires PAR of 50 but the red require PAR of 75 (just example) but the tank they were in they were at a PAR of 80 they'd both be happy. But if they are now at a PAR of 50, the green will be happy the red will not.. to say they are the same and should behave the same when one is red and one is green some would argue that's not the case.

This is just a thought, whether there's anything to it or not idk.

Lowefx · Nov 24, 2016

Jay_M said:
Right, there's some out there that say greens are easier to keep than reds when it comes to coral. If the green requires PAR of 50 but the red require PAR of 75 (just example) but the tank they were in they were at a PAR of 80 they'd both be happy. But if they are now at a PAR of 50, the green will be happy the red will not.. to say they are the same and should behave the same when one is red and one is green some would argue that's not the case.

This is just a thought, whether there's anything to it or not idk.

We shall find out!

Jay_M · Nov 24, 2016

Lowefx said:
We shall find out!

Good luck though.. I do hope you get this figured out. They were once of my favorite pieces in my tank. Hopefully when they make their recovery you can send us some pics of them happily ever after!!

-Jay

Rick.45cal · Nov 24, 2016

I've got 5 large colonies of acans that are flourishing in 350+ PAR.

That zeolite reactor is VERY powerful, you ABSOLUTELY need to measure the flow rate and match it to your net water volume. Use the stopwatch feature on your smartphone! You need a 1 Liter container. You are going to time how long it takes to fill the 1 liter container up. Your tank is about 454.2 L. So the flow through the reactor needs to be 454.2L/hr. Which calculates out to filling that 1L container in 7.93 seconds! So adjust the ball valve on that pump so that takes 7.93 seconds (or slightly longer) to fill the 1 liter container. Make sure you err on the side of it taking longer to fill the container than it filling it too fast.

That reactor can starve your corals quick if it is running too fast, or if there is too much zeolite media. I can explain how I measure out the stones if you need me too.

After that is adjusted I would try cutting your zeoStart additions down by 25% and see what happens with your NO3 and PO4. You want to cut back on the zeoStart additions until the nutrient levels start to rise. Then adjust your additions to just keep it there.

Rick.45cal · Nov 24, 2016

You're likely running a high light environment, (which my tank is). You also are most certainly running a ULNS with undetectable nutrients. ULNS and high light environments are a crapshoot IMO. Things can go south in a real hurry, SPS bleaching events happen quick. Easy fix is to run/manage detectable levels of NO3 and PO4.