Rainbow Acro Help... Is there any hope for it?

A Beard · Dec 10, 2019

Have had a rainbow acro frag for ~2 months that I noticed that it just started shedding tissue. Recently had another frag die the same way. Is there any hope to save this one? All others seem to be doing good. The toadstool is closed due to an urchin annoying it.

Tank Parameters
Temp 78
Salinity 1.026
pH - 8
Alk - 8.8 dkh
Ca - 460 ppm
Mg - 1337 ppm
NO3 - 40 ppm
PO4 - .12 ppm

Just started carbon dosing with NOPOxto bring the PO4 and NO3 down further as I have been having a bit of an algae issue. The pH is lower than I like but it has been stable. I am planning on getting a CO2 scrubber for the protein skimmer to see if that helps with the pH. Any help is much appreciated.

GabeM · Dec 10, 2019

I think your NO3 is very high. You will need to find a way to outcompete the algae to remove the nitrates.

What lights are you using?

Neoalchemist · Dec 10, 2019

How far and how fast have you already brought po4 down? Any other recent issues like in the past month or so?
I would probably dip it and frag any unhealthy tissue and hope for the best check carefully for pests in the dip water and inspect close for bite marks or anything else.

Neoalchemist · Dec 10, 2019

Some corals just won't tolerate high no3 while others are just fine with it.

A Beard · Dec 10, 2019

Neoalchemist said:
How far and how fast have you already brought po4 down? Any other recent issues like in the past month or so?
I would probably dip it and frag any unhealthy tissue and hope for the best check carefully for pests in the dip water and inspect close for bite marks or anything else.

The PO4 was at .6ppm when I started dosing the nopox. It dropped to .12 over a week and has been steady there. NO3 has come down a bit from 50 ppm but hasn't gone any further down. Going to slowly start increasing the dosing 1ml at a time to see if that helps.

Running kessil ap700 at 60 % about 10 in above the surface. Have an mp40 and an mp10 so there should be plenty of flow and light

Neoalchemist · Dec 10, 2019

A Beard said:
The PO4 was at .6ppm when I started dosing the nopox. It dropped to .12 over a week and has been steady there. NO3 has come down a bit from 50 ppm but hasn't gone any further down. Going to slowly start increasing the dosing 1ml at a time to see if that helps.

Running kessil ap700 at 60 % about 10 in above the surface. Have an mp40 and an mp10 so there should be plenty of flow and light

I was a bit worried about that, I believe you probably dropped your po4 way too fast. Damage is done though, so just slow it down a bit especially when you get even close to the targets.