Opinions on my corals and ?

Chef Tommy · Dec 22, 2017

These guys were purchased a month ago. They were Walt Smith corals at my LFS. The acro has white on it and blue tips and the monti seems good and appears to be growing the green on it came out after a week adjusting I guess. Do you all think the acro is coming back after the algae grew?

Running calcium at 420 and alkalinity at 8.5 with BRS additives and also dosing Red Sea Reef Energy. Feeding zooplankton and coral gumbo and also just started gfo.

CoralWealth · Dec 22, 2017

tank looks brand new, how old is it?

The acro is hard to tell but does it have tissue missing from it? it looks severely bleached or dead unfortunately.

Chef Tommy · Dec 22, 2017

codydemmel4 said:
tank looks brand new, how old is it?

The acro is hard to tell but does it have tissue missing from it? it looks severely bleached or dead unfortunately.

Tank is only 4 months in. Will the acro come back since it has lots of blue tips?

BoomCorals · Dec 22, 2017

It's really difficult to tell from the pictures because of the heavy blue. Does the acro ever show any kind of polyps?

XNavyDiver · Dec 22, 2017

Chef Tommy said:
Tank is only 4 months in. Will the acro come back since it has lots of blue tips?

I wouldn't chuck it. If it has color, it has hope. Unless coralline algae covers it from base to tip, they have the ability to bounce back.

Ashish Patel · Dec 22, 2017

I got a coral like that once from Liveaquaria and was from Fiji. It RTN in few weeks and fragged it. SO now I have a small brown frag thats doing well now.

These wild frags don't ship well and are used to natural food and light so can be challenge to have success with them in a new tank. The best thing you can do is give it time and focus on keeping ALK and Nutrients rock solid.

Chef Tommy · Dec 22, 2017

I'm about to add a doser to help keep alk & calcium stable. I'll try to get a clearer photo when I get home tonight. There does seem to be polyps on the blue tips at night when lights go out. That's when I feed Reef Energy from Red Sea.

nashorn · Dec 22, 2017

Chef Tommy said:
Tank is only 4 months in. Will the acro come back since it has lots of blue tips?

4 mo ? Too new
Sps tanks usually ready in about a year
Once you can grow coaline then try some frags
Start with a few old school ones like green slimmer

Dilan Patel · Dec 22, 2017

I would not say the tank is too new. To me as long as the tank is stable sps corals can thrive in a new tank. Stability is key if you keep alk calc,salinity.etc all stable. and that coral still has PE and color than you have a nice chance of bringing it back. Will you post some test results for the following: Magnesium,Calcium,Alkalinity,Phosphate,Nitrate,Salinity. This will be helpful on determining if any adjustments are needed to help further your success with these corals

Jason mack · Dec 22, 2017

Tank is definitely too new for sps .. the monti is a more forgiving coral and might pull through .. the acro is difficult too tell , would need too see it in white light ..

Krzydmnd · Dec 22, 2017

Saying a tank is definitely too new for sps at 4 months is a broad, sweeping statement and could scare someone else who may read this down the line lol. My tank is now hitting the 5 month mark and I'm growing millies, anacropra, acros, chalice, Leptastrea, Monti, acan, Lobo, digitata all successfully.

YMMV but my tank mates would disagree with your comment. [emoji16][emoji6]

Luno · Dec 22, 2017

There's no reason a new tank can't keep, grow and flourish sps. Provided the reefer knows what their doing.

Luno · Dec 22, 2017

Also op it's hard to understand your question? Did something happen to your coral or tank? Are you asking if it's healthy ATM? Is there a previous photo of it? Also it is hard to tell much with the blues turned up too high

reefndude · Dec 22, 2017

My last tank was over 5 years old. Unfortunately something happened and it literally died overnight. New tank has been up and running for 5 or 6 months now. Acros have been in for about 2 months now. They look to be doing good. Biggest difference betwwen now and 5 years agois I know what to look for in my acros and able to keep the tank stable.

Jason mack · Dec 23, 2017

Krzydmnd said:
Saying a tank is definitely too new for sps at 4 months is a broad, sweeping statement and could scare someone else who may read this down the line lol. My tank is now hitting the 5 month mark and I'm growing millies, anacropra, acros, chalice, Leptastrea, Monti, acan, Lobo, digitata all successfully.

YMMV but my tank mates would disagree with your comment. [emoji16][emoji6]

I agree with you to a point , but sps need stable conditions , and usually a beginner and his tank don’t have the understanding or stability in their tanks too do this ..Of course there are always exceptions too the rule ..

Mattrg02 · Dec 23, 2017

Start new tank with premium live rock and bam, established tank. We spend so much on frags, then go cheap on the rocks.

When I started my tank, I bought all new live rock from my LFS.

Chef Tommy · Dec 23, 2017

Thanks for all the input!

Trying to post a better photo there.
Ca 420
Alk 8.5
Mag 1300 ish
Salinity at 34
Nitrate 5 ish

Also running gfo

Tank has mix of zoa, softy, lps and gorgornians which all are doing well and about a year old which moved from my nano. The acro has the only trouble. I run t5 on this tank and when the corals moved they all appear to have grown or opened up more in the 4 months. I added the acro and monti a month ago and after 2 weeks the green polyps on the monti came out but the acro started to become covered with algae but, the tips have become blue and even seemed to grow out a tad in this past month.

Wonder if I should frag the blue tips which one is about an inch long.

Really appreciate all of your feedback! This has been a really great forum!!!

Dilan Patel · Dec 24, 2017

So it looks like everything below the blue tips either stn/rtn or just died somehow. if you can I would frag the good pieces maake sure to not keep any of the dead tissue on your frags. Your parameters seem fine to me as well just keep them stable.

Chef Tommy · Dec 27, 2017

I fragged the 2 blue tips last night so I'll keep you updated. I just glued them to a piece of live rock in the tank. They appear fine this morning. Should I look for encrusting first?

Ashish Patel · Dec 27, 2017

apparently these fish like to eat all day (but then again so do tangs), so I find they do better in established reef which has pods and live food. I used a autofeeder initaly and had it drop in small amount of pellets but now do 1 large frozen food feeding per day.. Don't think there is a shortage of food in my system now.