How to save this Acan? Please Help.

[I<3Reefer]

So my Acan had been doing rough, then it came back and seemed fine, now it's doing terrible again and I think I've been doing "too many" water changes since I was trying to cut down on nitrates, and since I was using reef crystal salt I think my elements became too high, but part of me thinks it's a lighting issue as well. I've had such a hard time dialing in this PrimeHD since i got it a couple months ago. For a while I thought my light was too much... But now I'm thinking the opposite.

I recently elevated the lighting levels and I noticed a couple things, my green star polyp which had all but receded, is looking better than it has in a while since I've "upped" the light.

My OTHER acan colony is at the highest point in the tank, next to a favite, in some of my most direct light, and they look PERFECT, growing very well.

So this morning I moved the bleaching acan closer to the healthy acan,hoping not enough light is my problem.

As of Sunday my levels were as follows (I know many elements are high due to 50% water changes every 4 days with reef crystals, I will now be cutting that with instan ocean)

Salinity 1.025
mag 1700ppm
Calcium 480ppm
Alkalinity 10.5dkh (or as my lfs tested nearly 300ppm)
Nitrates under about 10ppm
PH was 7.8 but I tested before the lights came on in the AM. I think it rests closer to 8-8.1 in mid day.

Please help, my current remedy increased light for the acan and cutting reef crystal water with regular salt, and doing water changes once every 6-7 days instead of 4-5. One additional piece of info, on my 5 gallon tank I have a plastic top which I believe dilutes the light, it's covered in salt and glue lol, and is barely clear anymore... I'm wondering if this is a major issue? I tried removing it and lost a clownfish

 

[I<3Reefer]

here is a photo

 

[I<3Reefer]

as you can see the skeleton is showing where the least light is getting in

 

[KrisReef]

Oops.

 

[steallife904]

You probably made the tank to clean for the acan or LPS in general with the water changes. They also like food. Shut off the pumps for a bit and target feed it. I would also move it to a lower light spot for now. They actually usually prefer lower light. I target feed my acans 1 or 2 times a week but I also feed the tank frozen food during the week. At the moment I would feed this guy directly 3 times a week. Might even do a iodine dip (if you have it) just in case its got an infection but I bet its just hungry and not happy and now not happy with the light.

 

[I<3Reefer]

You probably made the tank to clean for the acan or LPS in general with the water changes. They also like food. Shut off the pumps for a bit and target feed it. I would also move it to a lower light spot for now. They actually usually prefer lower light. I target feed my acans 1 or 2 times a week but I also feed the tank frozen food during the week. At the moment I would feed this guy directly 3 times a week. Might even do a iodine dip (if you have it) just in case its got an infection but I bet its just hungry and not happy and now not happy with the light.

This is prior to moving it to higher light (I just moved it up this morning this photo is from sunday). The patch where the skeleton is peeking through was the back of it which was covered by part of a rock, the absolute lowest spot. If the areas that were in higher light look healthier and the areas that were in the lowest light look to be dying, wouldn't common sense say move it to higher light?

here's a shot of them after feeding last week

 

[I<3Reefer]

Your acan looks fine, (and almost like a Favia the way it is holding itself.)

Stop trying to fix it by changing the lights, water changes, etc and it will acclimate and grow and look like it wants too. If your GSP improved with added light, then I would leave the lights up as GSP is a fairly low light survivor..

receding skeleton and loss of polyp pigmentation looks fine?

 

[I<3Reefer]

Any more advice on this? I just can't believe less light is the answer.... I think I need to remove my lid.

 

[Crazeh]

It doesn't look too bad, but I think the point people are trying to make is that your conditions seem ok so just give it time to recover. Leave the lights and position, as your other corals are suggesting they're ok, and your water parameters seem fine. I agree with the others in that you should just target feed it and keep an eye on it. It's hard for us to see it's health under only (what seems like) blue light pictures, but it just looks ticked off and closed up to me. Like most LPS their skeleton is on their base so it'll be more visible to you if it's closed up, but maybe pictures under whites will be clearer for us?

 

[Retro Reefer]

50% water changes every 4 days is probably your problem they like higher nutrients in the water column, I would do 10% every 3 or 4 weeks with regular IO salt mix.. your mag is to high I would get it down to around 1350, my acans seem to like any light I have them high on rocks right under lighting and also on sand bed. As others have said it’s important to feed these if you want success with them, before your lights come on they should have tentacles extended and will greedily accept food.. chopped mysis and brine mixed with reef Rodis is what I use

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I have acquired some bad looking acans in the past from frag swaps with exposed skeletons. If I just leave them alone they slowly improve. The best improvement for me is ALWAYS noted when I start target feeding them reef roids 2x/week. Tissue growth tends to explode once they start eating regularly. I actually have had two acan frags that looked equally bad, purchased from the same vendor on the same day. One I started feeding right away (1 day after placing in tank) and the other I did not feed for the first month. For that month the one that was fed improved significantly and all exposed skeleton was covered. The one that was not fed looked similar to the day I bought it. Once I started feeding that one it healed very quickly as well. With all my LPS in general, once they start eating growth, color, and polyp extension explode.

 

[I<3Reefer]

50% water changes every 4 days is probably your problem they like higher nutrients in the water column, I would do 10% every 3 or 4 weeks with regular IO salt mix.. your mag is to high I would get it down to around 1350, my acans seem to like any light I have them high on rocks right under lighting and also on sand bed. As others have said it’s important to feed these if you want success with them, before your lights come on they should have tentacles extended and will greedily accept food.. chopped mysis and brine mixed with reef Rodis is what I use

While I agree, mine may be too frequent, 10% every 3-4 weeks would absolutely nuke my tank... It's a 5 gallon... I'm telling you finding the balance between water changes and feedings is insanely hard, almost no room for error. When I cut down on feeding the nitrates stay down.... but then things happen like my ricordea mushroom disappearing because my clean up crew was hungry. Then I feed properly but my tank is covered in glass algae by the end of 8-9 days.... It's a struggle and I cannot wait to move so I can have room for a 75 gallon.

I will change to 30% every 7 days, and I will target feed and maybe get some reef roids (I've just used mysis/brine in the past and usually only feed directly twice a month).

 

[Rcpilot]

I will change to 30% every 7 days, and I will target feed and maybe get some reef roids (I've just used mysis/brine in the past and usually only feed directly twice a month).

So you plan to strip the tank of nutrients by changing water ..... then re-pollute the tank with coral food? I don't see the sound logic here.


You asked... so take the advice already given. Sit down and relax. Stop fiddling with it. 10% water changes once a week or once every 2 weeks... and leave it alone.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

So you plan to strip the tank of nutrients by changing water ..... then re-pollute the tank with coral food? I don't see the sound logic here.


You asked... so take the advice already given. Sit down and relax. Stop fiddling with it. 10% water changes once a week or once every 2 weeks... and leave it alone.

Target feeding is not the same thing as having free floating nutrients in the tank.

 

[Rcpilot]

Target feeding is not the same thing as having free floating nutrients in the tank.

Ohhhhhh

Well then he should ignore all the advice and do as he pleases.

I just don't see the logic in removing (stripping) all the nutrients out of the water column... so he can put more back in.

That would be like saying...
All internal combustion engines, new and old,
will run better after you get 500 miles on the new oil. So it's best to do a complete oil and filter change, and then dump a pint of used differential oil into the crankcase when your finished changing the oil, to simulate the good running effects of the post-500 mile oil.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Ohhhhhh

Well then he should ignore all the advice and do as he pleases. It's his tank.

You stated you did not see the logic in doing large water changes and target feeding. I was explaining that there is a significant difference between the two. Natural reefs run at very low nitrate levels but corals tend to get their nitrogen source from caught food. That is just one example. No one is personally attacking you.

 

[Rcpilot]

You stated you did not see the logic in doing large water changes and target feeding. I was explaining that there is a significant difference between the two. Natural reefs run at very low nitrate levels but corals tend to get their nitrogen source from caught food. That is just one example. No one is personally attacking you.

I don't feel attacked at all. I'm giggling at the illogical course the OP seems bent on.

I just don't see the logic in removing waste... then essentially putting it right back in again. Pick one.

I edited my above post.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I don't feel attacked at all. I'm giggling at the illogical course the OP seems bent on.

I just don't see the logic in removing waste... then essentially putting it right back in again. Pick one.

I edited my above post.

When you target feed a coral that is vastly different than having polluted water. All non-photosynthetic corals can attest to that. You may not agree what he is doing, but it is not illogical.

 

[Rcpilot]

When you target feed a coral that is vastly different than having polluted water. All non-photosynthetic corals can attest to that. You may not agree what he is doing, but it is not illogical.

Fair enough.

I stand by my original advice. Leave it alone for awhile.

 

[I<3Reefer]

Fair enough.

I stand by my original advice. Leave it alone for awhile.

I think you're misunderstanding the scenario. Let me paint a clearer picture.

For a year I have had 5 gallon pico reef. every week I've done a 1.5 gallon water change. I recently noticed some issues with corals looking less than steller and increased algae growth, so I tested nitrates and they were hovering around 25ppm. I increased water changes to 1.5-2 gallons every 4-5 days. This pulled my nitrates down from 25-30ppm to 10ppm. During this process my increased water changes likely elevated my elements to abnormally high levels. None of the other corals seemed to mine, but my acan (who has had issues in the past and just never seems to be consistently "happy") looked awful, in addition to that, a rather new leptoseris frag didn't look awesome, not terrible, but not awesome. I also had an issue in November where I found my temperature was dropping, because the dropped house temperature, and the heater was in the filter section of my evo, and was apparently not in a sufficient place to fully heat my tank, this imo, was the root of some of my coral degrading, all which bounced back well except the acan.

From my understanding, it was in my best interest to revert BACK to once a week, 1.5 gallon water changes (even waiting 8-9 days since the elements were so elevated). But aside from that obvious remedy, I wanted to seek further information. Spot feeding seemed to make sense, except when I spot feed it (in its current weakened state) my hermits just take the food away. So I thought switching to something like reef roids would be more appropriate).

I understand that I likely have too large of a bioload for a 5 gallon. 1 skunk shrimp, 1 clown, 1 tailspot blenny, 2 hermits, 1 turbo snail, 2 nassarius snails. But I'm trying to work with this and be cautious. I'm thinking the clown should be sold to cut my bioload.

However, I don't think I'm overfeeding, as I said suddenly my ricordea mushroom (approx. 1 cm in diameter) literally disappeared, and it's likely my cleanup crew made a snack of them.

if I were to only change to a once a month water change or even 10% once every two weeks, there would be further issues, as that is a DRASTIC change. Perhaps I will only cut back to smaller frequent changes (15-20% every 6 days?) by 10% every 2 weeks will ruin my tank. I know I'm relatively a newb, but I know enough to know that.