Is this acro dying?
- Thread starter DiZASTiX
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BigJim
Well-Known Member
It's in bad shape. That much dead tissue is tough to recover from. Do you have other acros? What are your tank parameters? How long have you had the acro? I would probably snip off the parts with algae growing on it and give it a Revive dip. I don't see any indication of acropora eating flatworms or red bugs, so I wouldn't toss it unless it is completely white.
DiZASTiX
Spikeasaurus
I do have another acro, some LPS spread far away, and a monti. It's a hybrid ZEOvit and Aquaforest Probiotic Method tank, ULNS. It was doing fine before lights off yesterday. This is before lights on today.
Acquired under 36 hours ago
Alkalinity: 6.8 - 7.0, over 2 days (Hanna)
Ammonia: 0.2 (RedSea)
Calcium: 630 (Aquaforest)
Copper: 0 (API)
Magnesium: 1360 (RedSea)
Nitrate: 0.5 (RedSea)
Nitrite: 0 (API)
Phosphate: 0 (Hanna)
Salinity: 1.026 - 1.027 (Milwaukee)
RODI TDS Output: 0 (Pen)
Temperature: 27 C
pH: 7.72
Acquired under 36 hours ago
Alkalinity: 6.8 - 7.0, over 2 days (Hanna)
Ammonia: 0.2 (RedSea)
Calcium: 630 (Aquaforest)
Copper: 0 (API)
Magnesium: 1360 (RedSea)
Nitrate: 0.5 (RedSea)
Nitrite: 0 (API)
Phosphate: 0 (Hanna)
Salinity: 1.026 - 1.027 (Milwaukee)
RODI TDS Output: 0 (Pen)
Temperature: 27 C
pH: 7.72
BigJim
Well-Known Member
I would probably double check that ammonia reading. It could be a false result, but ideally you want that to be 0. Your calcium is higher than it needs to be, but I don't think that would cause this issue. I assume you are adding amino acid and other additives with our hybrid method, so the low nutrients would not be an issue. I still think snipping the dead areas and dipping in Revive is the best chance to save it.
You shouldn't have any readable ammonia in a reef tank.
Dilan Patel
2500 Club Member
Could the low Alk and the high calc be causing something?
OriginalUserName
Valuable Member
They seem to heal faster that way, or at least stop losing tissue.
It is certainly not thriving. Calcium is way too high at 620. I would not try and be ULNS with Kessil lights - this is too much to get into here, but ULNS usually works better with T5 and MH where the coral can get all of the high energy that it needs since you are effectively starving them in the water column to get lighter and less zoox in the tissue. However, I do not consider .5n anywhere near ULNS... seawater is usually .05 to .1 and that is just low, not ultra low. If you get 0p from a Hannah Ultra Low, then this might not be good and is certainly ultra low.
The tank looks pretty new and sterile. Although not a perfect indicator, most tanks really start to grow SPS well when the coralline starts to cover everything.
The tank looks pretty new and sterile. Although not a perfect indicator, most tanks really start to grow SPS well when the coralline starts to cover everything.
DiZASTiX
Spikeasaurus
Thank you for the advice, but I'm not totally convinced. This last part seems like "magic in magic out". It's not the coralline. It's the stability. The other stuff: sure. The calcium and magnesium I've been trying to lower for some time now (by falling naturally). They're higher figures, but they're not the cause of sudden KO. We're talking about a coral going from okay to bad in about a day. Is that something that a slightly higher calcium figure can cause?
From a stability perspective, I measure alkalinity every 4-6 hours. It's been declining, if that's an important fact. Declining slowly.
pH has always been low in this apartment unit. Combined with carbon dosing, it just gets lower. I'm going to try Zeovit and Aquaforest to see if I can get a higher pH. There's chasing pH that everyone spouts, and then there's a pH that's just way too low, and mine sometimes in the past got into the sub-7.6 range. With a CO2 scrubber, I now get the figures that I get.
There's something missing in this picture.
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Do you have aragonite in the tank? If so, then it will buffer when the PH gets too low and have a natural floor. What is the PH if you take some tank water outside and aerate it for a while? If it is still low, then you probably have test issues. PH of your tank water when aerated outside should be 8.2 to 8.4. If I had to guess, your PH is well over 8.0 with a CO2 scrubber and the testing/probe is messed up. Everybody thinks that they have a freshly calibrated apex, or whatever, but sub-7.6 PH is really hard to do in actuality.
Declining alk is fine if you are not dosing, but if you are, then you need to turn the doser up so that it stays stable. Calcium should be going down with it in a thriving system... mag too. It might be too much magic, but if coralline cannot calcify, then neither can most coral. Calcium and alk not in balance makes calcification harder... this article is good to understand the balance between the two:
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
I have 10 or 11 good friends who are hard-core ZEOVit users and I cannot ever recall any of them saying that PH was why there were doing it.
Declining alk is fine if you are not dosing, but if you are, then you need to turn the doser up so that it stays stable. Calcium should be going down with it in a thriving system... mag too. It might be too much magic, but if coralline cannot calcify, then neither can most coral. Calcium and alk not in balance makes calcification harder... this article is good to understand the balance between the two:
https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry
I have 10 or 11 good friends who are hard-core ZEOVit users and I cannot ever recall any of them saying that PH was why there were doing it.
DiZASTiX
Spikeasaurus
A fine suggestion. I'll do this for sure.
However, I attest that I calibrate my pH and temperature probes every 4 weeks at maximum. I logged in APEX Fusion the date of last calibration to be 2018.5.22 at 20:04. I do not mess around when it comes to calibrations.
I've been working on that. Every 4-6 hours I re-test alk, and then every 12-24 hours or so I make adjustments based on the prior tests. As far as coralline--what if this was a dry rock only tank? Yesterday I added a bottle of "Coralline in a Bottle," so we might see some coralline in 4-8 weeks.
I never said pH was why I do either Zeovit or Aquaforest Probiotic, either. What I said was that I believe dosing vinegar lowers pH (as vinegar is an acid). Per Randy, dosing all carbon types lowers pH, but dosing vinegar will causing an immediate lowering of pH. To mitigate this concern, I consider substituting Aquaforest's product, which some have pointed out, is not acidic. This will reduce the effect on pH.
I do Zeovit and Aquaforest Probiotic methods because it's a hobby, and hobbies are in part about growing. I kept acros and other SPS in a nutrient rich environment before. Now I want to do something new.
There is usually enough coralline on a frag plug to seed the tank. It gets in just like algae and other stuff that people that start with dry rock do not want.
If you started with dry rock, then this might be a good read:
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/
If you started with dry rock, then this might be a good read:
https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/
