Need some help with me acro please..

[Veganbrian]

I got some acropora and staghorn 4 days ago. Mounted some frags and kept the big colonies. The staghorn had a little tissue damage when i got it so thats nothing new. But, my acro is not doing great. I thought it was just from the superglue but i am not thinking that anymore as its spreading and tissue seems to be falling off. I had my korillia 425 blasting on it for two days but moved the korillia so its not blasting it anymore thinking it could of been flow. I am running 4x24w t5 over a 20 gallon with a 20 gallon sump and refugium. Anyways ill let pics speak.


First heres my params:
Cal:450
Mag 1350
Alk: 9.4
Ammonia:0
Nitrate: says 0
Phos: says 0 but its a API kit so who knows
PH: is low 7.6 I dont know how to raise it.
Salinity: 1.026

Yesterday acro shot:

Today acro shot:

Here they both are:

The frags have polyp extention and color is already coming back on the bottoms:

Dont be to harsh on me as these are my first real SPS besides monticap. Please just help contrucive criticism. Thank you!

 

[returnofsid]

YIKES. I would double check your Alkalinity, with a more accurate test kit, such as Salifert. Any time I've had SPS corals suffer rapid tissue recession, such as this, it's ALWAYS been due to an Alkalinity issue.

 

[Veganbrian]

I do use the sailfert kit for alk, cal, and mag. What should it be at?

 

[Mufasa31]

9.4 for Alk should be good.

What type of lighting do you have?

In the past, I've had to cut where the tissue damage ended and re-attach to the rock.

 

[TulsaTye]

What part of ur setup do u dose at?

 

[-Logzor]

Your levels look pretty good, might not be getting enough light. Based on how your digi is growing it's struggling to get enough light, it should be growing more dense and compact.

 

[Veganbrian]

I have the current 4x24w running UVL actinic, Actinic white and 2 454s.

I dose into my overflow box which seperates into my refugium on one side and into a bubble trap on the other which both lead into my return pump. dosing 2 part.

 

[Veganbrian]

Your levels look pretty good, might not be getting enough light. Based on how your digi is growing it's struggling to get enough light, it should be growing more dense and compact.

I JUST got these SPS 4 days ago. It was growing that way when i got it.

 

[-Logzor]

I JUST got these SPS 4 days ago. It was growing that way when i got it.

Since that is the case, the coral's response to the move is RTN'ing and is not necessarily indicative of poor water parameters. Super glue just above the RTN area to save the coral otherwise it will continue until the entire thing is bleach-white-dead. Although it's pretty wide-spread, I would frag it up, actually.

 

[Pkunk35]

brian, i'm not an expert with sps but in my experience when i've seen that kind of rapid tissue loss I immediately frag the healthy tips as the colony can die within days. I have also had some success with superglue on the receding tissue, but this colony may be receding too rapidly and widely for that.

I'm surprised you have a low pH with all the macros. I would identify the cause of the low pH and try to slowly correct that (have the LFS double check your params, get a more reliable pH kit or meter). Here's an article on pH: Low pH: Causes and Cures by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Do you use any kalk in your top off? If i recall you just got a ATO, you could try adding a bit of kalk in your top off, just please read up on kalk dosing first if you are not familiar.

 

[Steven R]

That is RTN Rapid tissue necrosis I do believe I would put super glue around the edges of it and that should stop it how is your ALK is it stabil all the time acros are super picky when it comes to ALK swings. Good luck I hope you can save it.

 

[JonnyJ]

Super gluing a rtn'ing coral is hit or miss. Frag as much of a healthy portion possible and hope for the best.

 

[Veganbrian]

Thank you everyone. Im going to just frag all the healthy bits. I did get a New ATO just so have i can dose Kalk so that should help me some. Yea idk whats up with the PH, makes no sense, its always been stable and now its just low. Thanks again!

 

[gmoney243]

where did you get the corals from? did they have color when you got them? did you dip them and if so with what? they could be infected with redbugs or AEFW.
how did you acclimate them? if they were stressed from what other tank they were in they could stress and rtn from your different params.
could be different lighting types and if you just stuck them up top they could be reacting negatively.

 

[Steve175]

I agree with diagnosis of RTN and plan to frag.

 

[TulsaTye]

I use to have a low pH problem, then I added a bubbler and it solved the problem. It jumped up about .3 after adding the bubbler!

 

[Nht]

I use to have a low pH problem, then I added a bubbler and it solved the problem. It jumped up about .3 after adding the bubbler!

What's the "bubbler"??

 

[slapshot]

I would call the STN if it was RTN it would be gone already. Frag it its your best bet. IME STN is caused by one of two reasons: AEFW or an Alk issue. You might try taking a water sample to your LFS just to double check your test kit. When you frag it try an iodine rinse in a white bucket just to check for AEFW. Good luck and sorry! It sucks to have to cut up nice colonies.