That one acro that simply doesnt do well in your tank

Marc2952 · Apr 7, 2021

Have any of you guys ever got an acropora that for some reason dies in your tank no matter how well your tank is doing and how many times you buy it? For me its the tck sour polyp tenuis that i have been lucky enough to get twice from their live sale to no avail. Mines did well for a 2 weeks and last night it just RTN completely from the base up. Every other sps in my tank has been doing phenomenal and parameters are spot on. I test alk everyday and stays consistently between 8.1-8.3. Other parameters are as follows
Cal 450
Mag 1380
Nitrate 10ppm
Phosphate 0.06
Got 4 kessil a360x and 2 reefbrite strips. Even the crem de la creme i got from them is encrusting already so i cant for the life of me know what could be a cause. This is a before and after in a 2 day window.

Marc2952 · Apr 7, 2021

Every other sps i put does well

jda · Apr 7, 2021

For a long time, it was Wet Thumbs Tierra Del Fuego, but then it took off and I grew it into a few dinner plate size pieces over the years. I had long-time trouble with Tyree Pink Lemonade too, but mostly because the frag would fall off of the mount behind the rocks or an urchin would carry a frag away. I currently don't have the best luck with Eclectus Mushrooms - was wanting them to grow like Jawbreakers to sell and trade, but they don't like to do much for me while the JBs are kinda like weeds.

Marc2952 · Apr 7, 2021

jda said:
For a long time, it was Wet Thumbs Tierra Del Fuego, but then it took off and I grew it into a few dinner plate size pieces over the years. I had long-time trouble with Tyree Pink Lemonade too, but mostly because the frag would fall off of the mount behind the rocks or an urchin would carry a frag away. I currently don't have the best luck with Eclectus Mushrooms - was wanting them to grow like Jawbreakers to sell and trade, but they don't like to do much for me while the JBs are kinda like weeds.

Interesting i guess we all got that one coral that simply doesnt like our tanks for some reason. Strange since mushrooms are considered very easy to keep.

jda · Apr 7, 2021

The expensive mushrooms are melters... or else they would be cheap mushrooms.

Marc2952 · Apr 8, 2021

jda said:
The expensive mushrooms are melters... or else they would be cheap mushrooms.

True true lol

NanoBoxes · Apr 9, 2021

Most millis...will do awesome for weeks and then overnight, bleached white. Walt Disneys never make it either.

DivingTheWorld · Apr 10, 2021

For me it was Vivid Rainbow. I didn’t kill it, but I could never get it to color up. I tried a few times then just gave up. Too many other nice corals that do great in my tank to waste time on that one.

Stigigemla · Apr 10, 2021

In the nature all kinds of corals dont grow everywhere. It can depend on predators, water values, streams, temperature or something that only happens one time each year.
Knowing that it would be at least very extreme to imagine that all corals could thrive in the same tank.

There are so very many different Acroporas that are found in very different waters.
Some live in murky water near river outlets where the water composition changes with the tide and others over the water level in low tide.
Other again live in deep water where the water composition is very stable and the flow is going in 1 direction 24/7. Or in high flow channels near the surface in a barrier reef.

If any coral You really want to have does not look good I would suggest to try to find reports on how it lives in the nature and compare with reports on the corals that do best in Your tank. If it is grown by a coral breeder try to find out how they do with this specific coral.

PeterC99 · Apr 10, 2021

Thank you for this post @Stigigemla! Puts into perspective our unique ecosystem (out aquariums) and the incredible balance of nature. With this in mind, I find it truly amazing that we are able to keep these beautiful corals, fish, etc.

Marc2952 · Apr 10, 2021

tommyBrittle said:
Most millis...will do awesome for weeks and then overnight, bleached white. Walt Disneys never make it either.

That happened to me with a BC milli but then i got an ASD milli and its doing just fine.

Marc2952 · Apr 10, 2021

tommyBrittle said:
Most millis...will do awesome for weeks and then overnight, bleached white. Walt Disneys never make it either.

Interesting as my walt disney is probably the most hardy acro i have in my tank apart from my oregon tort.

ThePhoReefer · Apr 11, 2021

Marc2952 said:
Every other sps i put does well

What nutrients and dkh?

Marc2952 · Apr 11, 2021

CaliDanhReef said:
What nutrients and dkh?

Nitrates 10ppm
Phosphate 0.03-0.06
Alk stays at 8.3

Justin Swinney · Apr 14, 2021

I’ve killed a few Matt v rainbow envy’s and 2 of 3 RR Pink Floyd’s. The third is I tiny little piece that didn’t die that has like 3 polyps.

ctnguye3 · Apr 14, 2021

Marc2952 said:
Interesting as my walt disney is probably the most hardy acro i have in my tank apart from my oregon tort.

Same! My Walt Disney and Oregon have gone through a lot and doing great. For my tank, its the PC Rainbow, my first attempt completely brown out on me and eventually RTN. I'm on my second attempt, its doing okay, its starting to also brown a little but if dies on me, I give up. lol

jda · Apr 14, 2021

If you constantly struggle with some particular corals and others of the same ilk do fine and it is not just luck (fell between the rocks, etc.), then lower your residual N and P values but keep on feeding a lot. Wider spectrum can help too with some. They all come from the ocean where this is what they have and some acropora will struggle and die with higher residual N and P levels while some will be perfectly fine... all of them will do great with high availability. Never cut back on import to lower N and P levels - just raise export. In the end, you might just decide that it is not worth it to keep this or that, which is really smart and mature if it is a fight to provide them with something that is hard for you.

BTW - everybody struggles with PC Rainbow at times. Some can never do anything with it and a lot can get it to grow, but if it is mostly red and not rainbow, then it is not you. You have to let this one go, along with Vivid Rainbow Delight. ...both beautiful when going well, but can be a frustrating for even the best.

brahm · Apr 14, 2021

I'd look more at the source than the piece and try to find the differences between your systems. Was the placement the same in both instances, did it come from the same person? Some acro's simply don't travel well. Some are acclimated to people running on one end of the "acceptable" spectrum, maybe they are carbon dosing and you aren't? Where your tank might be stable the parameters and location may be different than the source.

Is this piece from a chop shop, are they letting it heal? Is it something that was captive-raised, if your tank is healthy I'd start looking at the differences between the source?

Also, the whole name game makes things more complicated in some cases. I know when I would get some wild species back in the days like Acropora Samoensis I struggled with them until I did some research and found they were from upper reef crests - http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/species_factsheets/species_factsheet_summary/acropora-samoensis/

So I nuked it with as much flow and light as possibly could and poof it took off.

....but the same can happen with corals of similar species I have 5 millepora/prostrata I had 1 that was doing much better than the rest so I put the others near it and 2 of the 5 we're not happy at all until I moved them into less light and higher flow.

If I ever find I'm having trouble I try to ask as many questions as I can from the seller about their tank and where they had it placed.

I'm currently dealing with this now, with a very finky acro lost most of the original piece within the first 24 hours, then what was left started to come back and heal, then poof let go again, then heal, then let go again, and now healing. Luckily I got a large frag and was able to break it up into 4 frags that I was able to test around my tank looking for that sweat spot, I also ended up having to drop the average temp by a degree. All the other corals (nearly a dozen) from the same seller did great w/out a hiccup.

Chris Spaulding · Apr 14, 2021

I can grow the PC rainbow like a weed but for the life of me I can not get a JF Foxflame to grow. It just sits there and I see some growth on the plug but it has been there for a year and a half with very little to no growth.