Is my Acro in Trouble?

IslandLifeReef · Apr 30, 2018

I've had this Teal Temptation that I got from @WWC for a little over two weeks. After a week of watching it in the bottom of my tank, I called @WWC to see if it was OK to move it to its final spot. After getting the go ahead, I placed it 18" below the light, which is 8" below the water line. Now, I've noticed a little more white on the tips and a small spot on top, but I think this may be new growth. I would like to hear your opinions. BTW, I do have the lights on an acclimation schedule. Here are some pictures and my parameters are; ALK-7.8, Calcium-425, Sg-1.025, Nitrate-1.5ppm, Phosphate-.04ppm, Mag-1300, and temp 77-78.

Thanks again for any ideas or suggestions.

Tahoe61 · Apr 30, 2018

Looks like new growth to me.

Second Shot · Apr 30, 2018

Looks like tip burn. Any Alk swings?

rogero · Apr 30, 2018

I would said, check your alk may be to high.

happyhourhero · Apr 30, 2018

Looks like brunt tips, especially in the last pic. Any alk swings?

Flippers4pups · Apr 30, 2018

Looks like new growth to me. Light and water pramameter acclimation will take some time to color up. Give it some time to do so.

IslandLifeReef · Apr 30, 2018

Second Shot said:
Looks like tip burn. Any Alk swings?

rogero said:
I would said, check your alk may be to high.

happyhourhero said:
Looks like brunt tips, especially in the last pic. Any alk swings?

There haven't been any Alk swings. The Alk has been steady at 7.8 for months.

IslandLifeReef · Apr 30, 2018

Flippers4pups said:
Looks like new growth to me. Light and water pramameter acclimation will take some time to color up. Give it some time to do so.

Tahoe61 said:
Looks like new growth to me.

Thanks. I have seen new growth at the base where the frag was glued to the plug and that growth has the same coloration.

Tahoe61 · Apr 30, 2018

happyhourhero said:
Looks like brunt tips, especially in the last pic. Any alk swings?

Yeah I could see that.

I have also seen a ton of Acropora come in with bruised tip (for lack of a better word) from shipping.

Macdaddynick1 · Apr 30, 2018

IslandLifeReef said:
Thanks. I have seen new growth at the base where the frag was glued to the plug and that growth has the same coloration.

Those are definitely burnt tips. The likely cause is the light shock, in a low nutrient environment. From what I’ve read the usual cause of the burnt tips with alk or the light is that the coral starts laying the skeleton so fast and since the nutrient level is on a lower side the tissue at the growth point thins out and can’t keep up with the skeletal growth. Overall the coral looks healthy though,I would suggest feeding your fish slightly more over the next several days and hopefully it will heal up quickly for you.

IslandLifeReef · Apr 30, 2018

Ok, so don't do anything major. I will feed a little more and turn my skimmer down just a little to try to raise the nutrients a little.

2Wheelsonly · Apr 30, 2018

without a doubt burnt tips, there are slight specs of algae growing on them which means dead tips. New growth would look super clean and very white. I had this happen to 70% of my frags six months ago, problems went away after 1 week of trace elements. Turns out my water change schedule sucked. Starvation or alk swing is my vote...

AquamanE · Apr 30, 2018

New growth. I see no algae, and if you did see a little bit, who cares. He said ALK was steady at 7.8. Let it be!

Macdaddynick1 · Apr 30, 2018

AquamanE said:
New growth. I see no algae, and if you did see a little bit, who cares. He said ALK was steady at 7.8. Let it be!

These areas of the coral are dead.

SUS · May 1, 2018

Not trying to hijack, but i think I’ve got the same thing going on. Alk is consistent. No other chemistry changes. But nitrates consistently low @ 2ppm with dosing flourish nitrogen and phosphates hover around .03 (Hanna)

This was 4-14

4-20

4-29

This has happened to a few other acros as well over the last few months. No clue what what to do... I’ve got a pretty heavy bio load (20 fish in a 130 gal) feed 4-5 times per day. Only run a skimmer, no carbon, no biopellets or anything else.

Macdaddynick1 · May 1, 2018

SUS said:
Not trying to hijack, but i think I’ve got the same thing going on. Alk is consistent. No other chemistry changes. But nitrates consistently low @ 2ppm with dosing flourish nitrogen and phosphates hover around .03 (Hanna)

This was 4-14

4-20

4-29

This has happened to a few other acros as well over the last few months. No clue what what to do... I’ve got a pretty heavy bio load (20 fish in a 130 gal) feed 4-5 times per day. Only run a skimmer, no carbon, no biopellets or anything else.

2ppm no3 is not that low, may be you should stop dosing it and jus feed your fish daily. Also out of curiosity have your ph ever drop below 7.8 at night?

Edit: what have you changed after 4/14 ?

SUS · May 1, 2018

Macdaddynick1 said:
2ppm no3 is not that low, may be you should stop dosing it and jus feed your fish daily. Also out of curiosity have your ph ever drop below 7.8 at night?

Edit: what have you changed after 4/14 ?

If I don’t dose weekly, my nitrates go to zero. Like I said, I feed the fish 4-5 times per day (3 with Apex AFS, then at least one other time).

According to my apex, PH varies from 8.2-8.7 throughout the day.

Nothing has changed since 4-14. That’s why I’m so baffled. Same thing happened to this acro back in March. It recovered and now happening again. I also lost a tenuis completely last time (in March) and my SC orange passion appears to be starting the same thing

Thanks

SUS · May 1, 2018

I should also add that I had an ICP test done on 4-14. Nothing really out of whack. Boron a little high. Bromine low. And Mg a bit high (1495). Though I’ve read similar results with people that also use Fritz salt. Thinking of changing...

SUS · May 1, 2018

I test my Alk every two days. For the last month it’s been 9-9.5. Thinking the combo of high light (2x250 watt radiums plus 4x54watt t5’s) plus higher alk plus low nutrients has just made the corals weak. So any small change, they react? Just my theory

Luno · May 1, 2018

I've never understood the acclimation to light thing. The frag likely came from a frag tank which likely had stronger lighting then most of the people who buy them. So why would you need to acclimate a coral to light when it probably came from equal to or greater light than you are providing on a regular basis. I mean if your putting out and got your corals used to something absurd like 1000 par yeah ok I may understand coming from say 400 par.

But generally I think lighting acclimation is silly and often may be the cause of this sort of stuff get it used to low light and then move it straight higher. Like get it used to say 200 par low and then all of a sudden move it upto 400+.