Please help with acropora bleaching

[Rennurdoar]

I don't think it's something messing with it because I've had 2 acros in the system for a couple of months and I've only had 1 problems with corals and that was my urchin eating algae of the side of this little hammer but than he ate the entire thing

Sometimes acros can do that, just rtn overnight with no cause to be found. Hopefully it's just something with stability or water parameters that'll be easy to correct!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I've been trying to save these for about two weeks now. I got 2 new acros because my other colony was doing good but than it started bleaching. I dose kalkwasser and mag. My parameters are
Kh- 9.7 usally keep it at 9.4 it spiked over night
Calc- 420
Mag- 1220
Ph- 8.1
Salinity- 1.026
No3-2
Mag has been slowly dropping but I dose every once and awhile. Everything else is stable exept my nutrients which was recently 0. Idk my phos levels. Should I do a water change Or what should I do.

There are several reasons this happens and can be as simple as flow or light and things overlooked. Often siphoning dead tissue and brown gel will reverse the process.
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides

 

[Eoka]

There are several reasons this happens and can be as simple as flow or light and things overlooked. Often siphoning dead tissue and brown gel will reverse the process.
Some possible triggers of infection are:
- Alkalinity spike
- Temperature spike
- Salinity spike
- Low dissolved oxygen
- Poor water quality related with phosphate levels up to 5 ppm
- Change in water flow
- Additions of sand
- Changes in brand of salt
- Bad test kits giving faulty results
- Levels of minor elements such as Iodine, Potassium, Strontium
- Light intensity
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides

So I had a .4 alk spike and I know I have low nutrients. But should I do a small water change to replace the trace elements?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I had a .4 alk spike and I know I have low nutrients. But should I do a small water change to replace the trace elements?

Try doing a 2 gallon water change daily for 2 weeks. Will take under 10 minutes and will lower alk and replenish traces daily

 

[dadnjesse]

Bottoming out your Nutrients with GFO is bad. I would stop using it.

 

[Eoka]

Bottoming out your Nutrients with GFO is bad. I would stop using it.

Usally it dosent but I did a large water change at the same time. I don't have enough corals yet were I can keep my nutrients from rising so about every month I need to do a water change or else my phosphate is get to high

 

[Eoka]

But I usally leave my skimmer and gfo on after the water change and that's were I run into problems

 

[Pod_01]

As stated and from my experience use of GFO and sinking phosphate let’s say from 0.05 to 0 will lead to what you have.
My suggestion remove the GFO, keep your skimmer working and hopefully with feeding your PO4 will increase. I would also use some high quality coral food, from my experience Acropora need to eat and there is lot of mouth to feed. Only exception I observed is when people have lot of fish and establish tank, the fish provides the food and in that case coral feeding might not be relevant.
For Acropora my suggestion is to have PO4 above 0.05 especially in new tank.
Another side effect of low PO4 is the collapse of biofilm and this can release nutrients into rock and sand and lead to algae and other issues.

Happy reefing,

 

[MrGisonni]

If my nitrates were that low my corals would not do well at 9.7 dKh. From my personal experience. Get nitrates up and magnesium as well.

 

[Eoka]

I found the problem. I have this extension cord to plug in a wavemaker and my gfo reactor and I unplugged the wavemaker and not the gfo reactor because they have the same looking cord. So my phos was at 0 for awhile.

 

[Eoka]

Try doing a 2 gallon water change daily for 2 weeks. Will take under 10 minutes and will lower alk and replenish traces daily

So I did this twice but I don't want to make a large change in alk so I've just let my corals consume I the alk. I have it down to 9 now. Skimmer off. No gfo but idk if there gonna make its getting pretty bad I've been overfeeding, adding ab+ and phyto to raise my phos. I'm not sure if that's the issue though. I just wanted to reach out and see if you have anymore advice.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I did this twice but I don't want to make a large change in alk so I've just let my corals consume I the alk. I have it down to 9 now. Skimmer off. No gfo but idk if there gonna make its getting pretty bad I've been overfeeding, adding ab+ and phyto to raise my phos. I'm not sure if that's the issue though. I just wanted to reach out and see if you have anymore advice.

AB caused me issues and now I apply it twice a week and have better results especially with po4 and no3 numbers while running skimmer , although skimmer can be a contributor. I use reef roids and normal feeding to raise phos in lieu of additives

 

[Eoka]

AB caused me issues and now I apply it twice a week and have better results especially with po4 and no3 numbers while running skimmer , although skimmer can be a contributor. I use reef roids and normal feeding to raise phos in lieu of additives

I see polpys on one of them so that's proubably a good sighn. I just heard there a 30% chance acros survive rtn so I'm just kinda worried. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Eoka]

AB caused me issues and now I apply it twice a week and have better results especially with po4 and no3 numbers while running skimmer , although skimmer can be a contributor. I use reef roids and normal feeding to raise phos in lieu of additives

So I solved the issue. I wasn't using a di filter so my water had around 12 tds. Should I do a large water change or just keep it slow. All my corals are kinda acting up and the bleaching on the 2 newer acros in the previous pick increased so there chances are very low. I think that's the main problem I was just wondering if I would run into any problems by doing a large water change ad long as the alk is the same?