My First Acro Not Doing Well

[ac4570]

Hi all,

I’ hoping someone can help me with my issue with the first acro I’ve ever owned. I’ve had it for about 1.5 months and it was looking good until about 2 days ago. I’ve attached a pic of what it looks like now.
I have a 22g 36x12x12 tank with 2 AI primes.
Alk - 8.65
Cal - 457
Mag - 1270
Phos - 0.2
Nitrate - 5
I checked par at the acro and it is around 300-320
Thanks!

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

How is the flow? Also ph? Open a window for some fresh air if you can. The only other thing is your ro water. Make sure it’s zero tds. These corals need good random flow.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Are your PO4 at .2 or .02?

 

[ac4570]

I have a pretty good amount of flow going to it. I’m using a ice cap 2k gyre with the flow cycling up and down regularly.
My ph is 8.4 during the day and 8.1 at night, I do have a window open in the room and am using a CO2 scrubber. Currently reading 0 tds.
while the amount of flow is random, it does only go in one direction from the gyre.

 

[ac4570]

Are your PO4 at .2 or .02?

0.2

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

How often are you checking alk and are you dosing?

 

[ReeferWarrant]

That's pretty high, you want below .10 from what I have seen. Also, looks like hair algae growing on it making me think you arent getting good flow in that area.

I'm trying my first acro as well and I'm in a similar situation. RTN to the base though, the flesh facing the light seems healthy.

 

[ac4570]

How often are you checking alk and are you dosing?

I have my apex trident checking 4 times a day and rechecking with a Hannah checker at least once a week. I’m currently dosing 7ml a day of tropic Marin carbocalcium.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Your Nitrates and Phosphates are out of balance. With Phosphate that high you would want you Nitrates closer to 25. Generally speaking I try for NO3 around 10-20 and PO4 around.08-1.4. I would work to lower your PO4.

 

[ac4570]

That's pretty high, you want below .10 from what I have seen. Also, looks like hair algae growing on it making me think you arent getting good flow in that area.

I'm trying my first acro as well and I'm in a similar situation. RTN to the base though, the flesh facing the light seems healthy.

I’ve seen people talk about success keeping it a little higher on the forum, but ideally I’d like it lower. I’ve been struggling to keep the phosphate low while keeping any nitrates in the tank. I’m running a fuge with cheato but it isn’t seeming to help. The hair algae is pretty new, but it does flow a lot with the current when my flow cycle is on high.

 

[ac4570]

Your Nitrates and Phosphates are out of balance. With Phosphate that high you would want you Nitrates closer to 25. Generally speaking I try for NO3 around 10-20 and PO4 around.08-1.4. I would work to lower your PO4.

I have been trying to lower my po4 without depleting my nitrates completely but have been unsuccessful so far:/

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Also how old is your tank and are you using 0 tds rodi water?

 

[ac4570]

Also how old is your tank and are you using 0 tds rodi water?

I have been running it for a little over 8 months now and yes 0tds RODI.

 

[melanotaenia]

1. How old is the tank?
2. Did you start with live rock or dry rock?
3. What changes have you made (if any) to the tank in the past few months (including adding chemicals, medias, maintenance, etc.)
4. Do you have any photos of the Acro when it was doing well?

 

[ReeferWarrant]

@SawCJack00, how do you figure the correct proportion to Nitrates and Phosphates? Why does that matter to the coral? Taking a stab at Acros as well and curious how that correlates.

 

[vetteguy53081]

To accomplish your goal, add. Mid sized pouch of chemipure elite which will keep both phosphate and nitrate levels in check

recommended targets are:
Temp 77-79
Salinity 1.025
Ph 8.2
Alk 8-9
Mag. 1300
Ca. 440
Nitrate. < .04
Phosphate. < .04
Ammonia. < .03
MODERATE LIGHT AND WATER FLOW

MAKE ANY ADJUSTMENTS GRADUALLY

What test kits are you using?
RODI water or tap water from faucet?

 

[ReeferWarrant]

@ac4570 I've had the reverse luck with Chaeto, granted I just have a 32g AIO. I ended up using Phosban and planning on GFO for long term use.

Total guess on my part, but probably cut back your Chaeto so that its a smaller amount of Nitrates & Phosphates being reduced from the tank? Do sections at a time and figure how that affects the tank?

 

[ac4570]

1. How old is the tank?
2. Did you start with live rock or dry rock?
3. What changes have you made (if any) to the tank in the past few months (including adding chemicals, medias, maintenance, etc.)
4. Do you have any photos of the Acro when it was doing well?

1. Little over 8 months
2. Started with CaribSea Liferock
3. I did add cheato and new pods probably 3 months ago, no no additives or changes to my maintenance
4. Sadly no, I should have taken some

Thanks everyone for the replies by the way!

 

[melanotaenia]

No, adding Chemipure is not a good idea, I would not add any media to the tank because it is just going to upset the Acro more and will probably lead to it shedding even more tissue.

You need some biodiversity in the tank in my opinion; do you have a source for a few small pieces of cured live rock?

Also check here: https://ipsf.com/

Don't make any other changes to your routine for now. Keep your parameters as stable as possible for the next few months, especially ALK/CA+

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

@SawCJack00, how do you figure the correct proportion to Nitrates and Phosphates? Why does that matter to the coral? Taking a stab at Acros as well and curious how that correlates.

This won't be a very scientific explanation, and I'm sure that there are others who can explain it better, but most successful SPS keepers have found that keeping Nitrates and Phosphates in a ratio of around NO3 5 and PO4 .04 does very well with low ALK (around 7). I keep my ALK around 8.5 and at that level the corals seems to grow and color up best when my NO3 and PO4 are higher. Honestly I'm not sure how the corals know, but they are very much impacted if either NO3 or PO4 gets out of this balance.