Rainbow Acan Looking Deflated

[Fishbone]

I have multiple frags of most of my Acans many right next to one another. Sometimes one colony will get ****** and deflat for a day or two and the other clone colony right next to it will be just fine.When overall my Acans not looking as fluffy as they should be I just do a 20percent water change and typically the next day everything looks great again. When in doubt I move them to lower flow and less light. As long as you feed them they hardly need any light.

 

[beatsbymd]

See! I knew your Kh was low. glad you tested it. I know everyone's tank is different, but for me, every time a coral is deflated especially my Acans, it's bc a level is off. Usually Kh. Dose it and you'll be fine!
-Mia

WoW!!! didn't expect for this thread to take off as it has. Let me give some background info on the tank. its a 20long frag tank plumed with a 10gallon sump. After rock displacement in the sump i have a total volume of about 23 gallons. No skimmer just tons of rubble rock filling the entire middle chamber in the sump. I have 1unit of chemiPure Elite. Light the tank with 2 kessil A150 15kOceanBlue and an mp10 for flow on constant wave mode. i move the acan about once a week when doing water changes but never seen adverse affects as it has stayed plump with tenticals out at ALL TIMES. Colors up even more and more everyday and i feed it MicroFauna LPS Pellets about once or twice a week, maybe more if im not lazy. I do a water change every weekend and clean up all debris off the floor which is easy with a bear bottom tank. Do a 5 gallon WC with premixed water from LFS and they use FRITZ brand salt.

Now that all the technical SHIZZLE-WIZLE is put out there i think i figured out the problem thanks to you guys suggestion to check my parameters stating a similar experience when alk and cal are low.
Thinking my levels are perfect due to constant maintenance i never thought to check so i did and Lo and BeHOLD my ALK is LOW!!! tested twice to make sure i didn't botch the results and found my Levels to be at 2.3Meq/L = 6.4DKH Using RedSea Pro kit
i didn't check my Cal as i am too tired tonight and its a bit of a longer test but will be buffering the sustem tonight, Now that that is sorted out, any suggestion on keeping my alk up and stable?

 

[CaliforniaCoralCo]

Yeah, like a couple others said on here, boost up your alkalinity. But do it slowly or it can affect other corals in your tank.
Happy reefing!

 

[BottomCoastReefs]

i Buffered with Kent Buffer last night, but Not much should be affected in my frag tank, i have about 3-400 polyps of Zoas and Palys and about 4 SPS frags... wonder if the amount of Zoas and Palys are what contribute to my Alk dropping and not being able to be replenished with water changes. Usually a Water change should boost those levels back up which is why it is important to do constant water changes to keep levels from fluctuation much, but i literally got that low Alk test result the day after doing a water change so it looks like im going to have to start dosing or find other means of replenishing Alk.

 

[Eckolancer]

What salt are you using? Have you tested the fresh salt water? Maybe its time to start dosing. I don't think zoas and polys are going to suck up the alk. Coraline and sps/lps will take it. Have you checked your other levels?

 

[BottomCoastReefs]

haven't checked the other levels but ill test a batch of water when i get some from the LFS tomorrow. Mainly Z's and P's in the tank other than the Acan, 1 head of CandyCane and 5 sps frags between 1.5-2.5inch in size. And no coraline in the tank yet. i am Thinking this FRITZ Salt is just garbage though, pending test results of the new batch tomorrow i might be switching to AquaVitro or Tropic Marin. ill post result tomorrow.

 

[Eckolancer]

I'm not a fan a aquavitro over priced tropic marine pro is pretty good. But look up online for fritz being recalled also here is one link about levels in the bad batch http://www.bayoureefkeeping.com/topic/9982-fritz-complete-marine-salt/

 

[BottomCoastReefs]

Tested the levels in my frag tank and after buffering last night they all seem to be in acceptable ranges
Red Sea pro Kit

Salinity/Specific Gravity: 1.023/30
Alk: 8.4DKH 3.0Meq/L
Mag: 1220
Cal: 395

Now for info on the premixed LFS water, i always keep one 5gallon jug of SaltWater handy. That being said the way i handle my water changes is i have the one Jug of saltwater sitting here at home, and when it comes around to doing my water change, i go out to the fish store and by a freshly mixed 5 gallons of SaltWater and go home. when i get home i do a water change with the 5gallons of Saltwater that was sitting here that was bought the week prior and set the new jug SaltWater aside for water change the following week. This may seem a bit of a silly ritual but i do this so that i always have 5gallons of SaltWater mixed and on hand in case of an emergency.
I tested the Alk in the 5Gallon jug of SW that i have sitting here for my next water change and the result is 6.35Dkh 2.25Meq/L The salinity is exactly the same as the frag tank at 1.023 salinity / 30 SpecificGravity
Im wondering if the Alk is low due to my weekly water changes being preformed with water that has been sitting around for a week. Any ideas?

 

[Eckolancer]

I would try to bring up salinity closer to 1.027 keep alk around 8.5-9 also bring up cal above 400 and mag above 1300. Alk shouldn't disappear in a bucket with nothing in it. Have you tested the fish store water for phosphates? My guess is they have some. Almost all the stores around me have some. There's even a couple stores that are using close to tap water for the water they sell. Depending on the salt they use alk being that low might be normal or that fritz salt.

 

[DVeit]

1.027 seems pretty extreme for fish/coral setup. I've done tons of research and read several studies of natural reefs. 1.025 should be ideal for a coral/fish setup, 1.026 max. Also keeping your Mg around 1400-1500 will help growth and help maintain any algae issues. Definitely keep calcium over 400. I personally have best results between 450-500 ca, and 9.5 dKh. Just to note- All my corals are thriving and growth is phenomenal right now. Only thing I've had a slight issue with is my acan deflating. I also use Red Sea coral pro salt.

 

[BottomCoastReefs]

DVeit
do you Dose anything, or how are you maintaining those levels?
i'm just cringing at the thought of dosing again after crashing my last system with overdosing being a factor, all in all it seems like a headache if i don't have a controller and pumps to dose for me.

 

[BottomCoastReefs]

I would try to bring up salinity closer to 1.027 keep alk around 8.5-9 also bring up cal above 400 and mag above 1300. Alk shouldn't disappear in a bucket with nothing in it. Have you tested the fish store water for phosphates? My guess is they have some. Almost all the stores around me have some. There's even a couple stores that are using close to tap water for the water they sell. Depending on the salt they use alk being that low might be normal or that fritz salt.

My LFS has a top notch Ro/Di system, on top of that they are a fish store second and service tanks as the main part of their business so im sure these guys replace their Ro/Di filters constantly. Ive tested for phosphates before and came up with none so if i don't have any than my LFS shouldn't since i use their water, but ill do a test again just to make sure things haven't changed as my last Phosphate test was maybe 1-2 months ago.

 

[DVeit]

DVeit
do you Dose anything, or how are you maintaining those levels?
i'm just cringing at the thought of dosing again after crashing my last system with overdosing being a factor, all in all it seems like a headache if i don't have a controller and pumps to dose for me.

I dose seachem reef builder Mg, carbonate alk (kh), and Ca. It's all powders and I dose them manually by mixing it in a plastic cup with fresh water and pouring it into my sump. Pretty hard to OD. Just dose how it says too and check levels the following day.

 

[mrcoffee2]

Like others said it is probably related to levels. Run some tests if you can.

Also don't rule out opportunistic feeders. A peppermint shrimp will devour a unhappy Acan at night and you would never know the difference! I have had this happen to me with 3 different acans and a welly

 

[pickupman66]

would elevated phosphates cause this? i tested last night and mine were .11 on my hannah. I know its not ideal but until last week, mine looked quite happy. nice and fluffy. now, they look very deflated and Blah.

now other changes that have happened

1. added a new light system on Friday the 1st. went from using a DM132E with blues at 100% and whites at 75% plus a pair of chinese Blue/whites at the same levels to a Lumentek Pro 240 hitting a peak of 60% in the middle o the day.
2. On the 7th I added a Potters angel. have not seen him come close to the acans at all. was in a reef previously with no issues. I have watched and watched and never seen him touch close enough to them to disturb.
3. did a water change on the 9th. 10 gallons in my 80 gallons total system. using Seachem reef mix.

going to test Alk and calcium tonight but my tank is mostly Zoas with a few LPS. My hammer and torch look amazing.

 

[Eckolancer]

Most fish stores make there money servicing tanks. Just saying they don't have enough foot traffic. Its good that they are maintaining the filters. A lot are not that good about it. Plus they can use it as buy this well your tank needs this tactic. Angels will nip at any coral just have to catch them they may do it out of hunger algae between heads or just tasting till they find one they like.
Deveit
I don't disagree with salinity just stating that 1.023 is pretty low for corals. I do keep mine at 1.027 never above may drop to 1.025 for short time. Stabilize your levels and figure out how much your tank uses daily. Dose till your levels are up where you want them. Wait 2 days check levels dose recommend amount for your tank size and how much levels dropped. Check again in 2 days. Once you find out what it takes you may want to invest in dosers. I did manual dosing for about 5 years now not sure how Or why I did it that way for so long. Like mr coffee said some shrimp will take a liking to them also check at night for creatures like worms or snails or anything that could be messing with them.

 

[Eckolancer]

Forgot to add phosphates at .11 are ok but getting to the high end. I used to rise up to .2 then dose lanthanum chlorides or a phosphate remover. Would drop levels down fast and you will need filter socks to catch stringy white stuff.

 

[pickupman66]

I've got lantham chloride and 200 micron socks. I forgot I had that. Alk was 9.975. Calcium was 470. PH is between 7.75 and 7.85 daily. Temp is 78.5.


As for the angel he has not touched them or even near then.

 

[pickupman66]

Here are photos of what I am dealing with.

 

[Eckolancer]

Looks like to much flow hitting them so no chance for food to settle on them to eat.