Is my Acro in Trouble?

[Luno]

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

What do you consider low nutrients? At phos 0.02 and nitrate at 1, cabin running 25/7 and a uv sterilizer my water is pretty clear. If I have alk above 8.3 things start to go bad.

 

[SUS]

What do you consider low nutrients? At phos 0.02 and nitrate at 1, cabin running 25/7 and a uv sterilizer my water is pretty clear. If I have alk above 8.3 things start to go bad.

A few posts up I state my nutrients are 2ppm nitrate and .03 Phosphate. With heavy feeding and dosing flourish nitrogen

 

[Luno]

A few posts up I state my nutrients are 2ppm nitrate and .03 Phosphate. With heavy feeding and dosing flourish nitrogen

Running carbon? Any other water clarifying stuff? Alk may defs be a bit high, in general just depends obviously the rest of your tank is used to that level?

 

[SUS]

Running carbon? Any other water clarifying stuff? Alk may defs be a bit high, in general just depends obviously the rest of your tank is used to that level?

I was running carbon, but it hadn’t been changed in like 6-8 weeks. When I noticed the burnt tips I took it offline.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

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

Funny I’ve had the same things happen to me. Some Corals get burnt tips and tenius just die. I should have said, what have you done a week before? As your coral was colorful and laying the base fast forward a few days later it browned out, I.e. something must’ve changed. If I were you, I would think about any little meaningless thing you’ve done before 4/14. Corals take a few days to react to any change. I’ve had the same issue happen to me a few times, main one it was cause by chloramines in my RO water. Some Corals would do great other Corals would just whiter away. I wasn’t able to keep tenius for a long time they would just die because my potassium was at 350 once I raised it to 400 I was able to keep teniuses again. Another time I’ve had a similar issue is when I overdosed kno3 and iodine. Finally I would suggest lowering your alk under 8 and stop dosing nitrates. Try using PE mysis. Don’t be so concerned with keeping that no3 up, as long as fish is well fed and poops then your Corals will be ok. Hope any of this helps you pin point your issue.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

These areas of the coral are dead.

There are polyps in the tips and new polyps on the light areas. How could that area be dead if it is getting new polyps. Why do you say that those areas are dead?

 

[jda]

Light acclimation is not just about quantity, but also about quality.

Not all light sources have the same quality of light. With a source like Mh or T5, the light is quality, so all that you have to worry about is PAR (quantity). With LEDs, some diodes have harsh/nasty peaks that need to be kept low (mostly on the whiter side) and quality can be an issue since every panels uses different diodes... along with also quantity.

With LED burnt tips this can happen two ways - initial from way-too-much, or over time as having just slightly too much will slowly wear-down the coral. I would turn the white way down, lower the blues as well. If you have T5s, then run a steady diet of them for a while.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

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!

I am going to increase my feeding for my fish a little to try to bring the nitrates up slowly. Otherwise, I am going to just watch it for a while.

 

[Second Shot]

There are polyps in the tips and new polyps on the light areas. How could that area be dead if it is getting new polyps. Why do you say that those areas are dead?

The flesh is gone on those circled parts. It’s only skeleton. Algae will be growing there in a few days.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

It's funny how different people can see different things in the same picture.;Nurse;Vamp Some see new growth, some see burnt tips, others see dead skeleton. I guess that's what makes diagnosing problems so hard. You never really know what's going on. Looking at pictures from a week ago, it looks to me like the the coral has actually grown, but without a grid behind it, it's hard to tell. I can definitely see encrusting growing at the bottom, which looks the same as the color at the tips, mostly white with a little bit of color speckled in with it. One thing is clear, the white hasn't moved down from the tips towards the base, and after seeing this for about 4 days, there hasn't been any algae on it yet. My Monti and 3 other acro's are doing well as are my Leptosaris and LPS. So for now, I think I'll stay the course unless something drastic happens.

 

[Second Shot]

FWIW the burnt tips and dead skeleton are one and the same. If everything is stable now it may not progress any more. You will know for sure in a couple days when the algae starts growing on it lol

 

[jda]

It is undeniably burnt tips. Sorry. You will have to deal with the death on the circled areas.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

It is undeniably burnt tips. Sorry. You will have to deal with the death on the circled areas.

So if it is dead in the circled areas, how do you deal with it?

 

[jda]

You wait for it to get healthy and growing. Then you snip off the tips down to good flesh. They will heal over the cut. They can heal faster than they can grow over the dead areas - dead areas get algae that keeps the coral tissue at bay some.

You need to make sure that the burning has arrested first. Then wait for it to grow some to make sure that health is good.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

You wait for it to get healthy and growing. Then you snip off the tips down to good flesh. They will heal over the cut. They can heal faster than they can grow over the dead areas - dead areas get algae that keeps the coral tissue at bay some.

You need to make sure that the burning has arrested first. Then wait for it to grow some to make sure that health is good.

Thanks.

 

[jda]

I know that this might not make you feel better, but a friend of mine burnt all of the tips on both a Tricolor Valida and Fox Flame the size of volleyballs after moving to LED. He had to snip 1/2 inch off of every single tip once the damage stopped - he said that this took him hours. They eventually recovered and you cannot tell now, but it did set them back for a while.

You can get past this if you solve the root issue and have patience. Good luck.

 

[happyhourhero]

I wish I would have taken pictures of the event but I nuked the tips off of Paletta Pink Tip, Fox Flame, Castells Banana Table, Red Planet, Indigo tipped stag, green austera and forest fire digi. I had to chop parts of branches off of all of these. Each recovered and is now growing well.

FWIW, any frags I get from WWC, I always just mount where i will want them and they never even lose color. There is no need to light acclimate them unless you are hitting them harder than WWC is with radions.