snail eating acropora?

[stephanjupillat]

I've got 2 ORA acropora that I bought as trials for my system. They came in great and I've had them for a couple week, maybe 3. Keeping them on the glass in around 200 par which needs to be kinda high up on the glass.

I noticed a snail on them a week or so ago and the green one lost almost all of it's color. There were only a few spots left that were green. Is this snail eating it? Found him on there again today eating more. This isn't RTN or STN as it only lost it's color after the snail was on there. I figured it had aggravated the acropora and to give it a few days to go back to normal but nope.

I don't know what kind of snail this is but I've only bought what I thought were regular CUC snails. I know it's not a trochus as they have a white foot so not sure what it is.

 

[Cali Reef Life]

I doubt there is a correlation to the frag whiting and the snail on it. Sometimes snails will go on frags and look for algae. I had my tang picking at a chalice I thought then I noticed small amounts of algae on the frag plug. I would check parameters first and since its a new addition could be a lot of things.

 

[minus9]

I'm sorry, but your acropora is dead or nearly all dead. The astraea snail is just doing it's job and cleaning up the algae left on the acro. Also, 200 micro moles is on the low side for acropora. I would check parameters and make sure things are stable. The snail is perfectly fine and a great addition to your CUC. It had nothing to do with your acropora dying.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Either nudibranch or STN which occurs when water temps are too warm or:
- 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
- - Changes in water flow
- Addition of new corals
- - Pesticides
- Airborne Contaminants or sprays

 

[stephanjupillat]

Yeah pretty much anything. Haha. My iodine is very high due to miscalculation buts it’s going down. Don’t dose Lugols iodine. Got levels perfect but after using up the bottle, the new bottle of lugols iodine was much stronger. ICP tests every 6 weeks so it was at 100ppb 2 weeks ago.

Forgot to say 200 par using LED’s so it’s not par. Bare minimum I know but everything I read states 200 par using mostly blue LED’s is sufficient. Chose OAR for being less finicky.

All my numbers state I should be able to grow acropora so will need to keep trying. Thought I did everything right this time. Realized coral rx isn’t recommended, hence I lost my last test acropora after a day or 2. Kermit smooth skin from tidal gardens. Read later smooth skin can be harder so believe the 2 I tried now are sticks. Plenty of other sps are growing. Digi, monti, lepto, prob a few others

Tank is 18 months old
Temp 78, no spikes. Using brs titanium heaters on apex
Salt at 34
no3 is 5 to 7
po4 is .05 to .08
Alk 8.5
Tm pro reef salt
Nopox and tm all for reef on apex dosers
Sulfur denitrator on doser
Brs alk manual daily dosing as sulfur denitrator consumes a lot of it

ICP tests are good, except for last iodine spike

 

[minus9]

I find that Seachem Iodide is much safer to dose, but if you're dosing something, just make sure you're testing for it. 1 to 2 drops per 100 gallons of tank water per day is enough to keep it stable. But that depends on your bio-load? Your numbers seem fine to me, just put the frags in good lighting and flow, then see how it goes. I would find a good local source for acropora and use some tester frags before you start spending money. Frags on a rack next to the glass are usually not a good way to start, just find a nice spot in the rock where they should go and plant them there. You can use a little super glue to keep them from falling, once they establish themselves, then you can glue them down for good.