What is this growing on my LPS Skeleton?

NickNiz · May 2, 2017

So I've had an Acan frag since I started my tank, and it's been slowly on the decline... Last time I was home (I'm a college student) I started feeding Reef Roids and they were on the rise. This was about 5 weeks ago.

I came home last night, and the Acan's were barely visible. Some of them even bailed. I noticed something blurry on the skeleton, and need help IDing it. This is happening to a lot of my other corals and they are beginning to recede as well. Is there a CUC member I can get to take care of this? Emerald crab and Turbo snail seem to leave it alone.

Tank is a 12 gallon Nano Cube. Will post water params later if necessary but I can currently say that salinity/calcium/mag/alk are where they should be. Did a 3-gallon water change yesterday and plan on doing a 4/5 gallon WC today... The tank was looking nasty when I got home.

NickNiz · May 2, 2017

Here are some of the other corals before and after. Keep in mind these were taken 5 weeks apart...

BEFORE

AFTER (And these are starting to look better after yesterdays water change)

saltyfilmfolks · May 2, 2017

What are your parameters. Especially the No3 po4 and Alk.
Are you running a lot of chemical media? I would say pull it out.

NickNiz · May 2, 2017

I did a 5 gal (~40%) WC this morning before work... Nitrate then was at 30 and is now hovering around 5. Phosphates are low, matching the lightest color on my API RM test kit. As for Alk, which isn't included in the test kit, the guy at the LFS said params were "good" this afternoon.

I think I found the culprit when I did my water change. My Koralia pump was turned off. I think the person taking care of the tank forgot to plug it back in after feeding the Roids... The only flow in the tank was the very very weak output from the rotating Koralia filter nozzle... I think the stuff on the frags is bacteria or diatoms... Either way I gave my corals a good pressure washing with a turkey baster. Waiting for them to open up, and begin to nurture them back to health with lots of feedings and small WCs over the next few weeks.

Would you guys recommend daily feeding for the Acans until they look better? I know they're voracious eaters and look best after eating... (obviously I'd do several WCs to keep nitrate down)

prsnlty · May 7, 2017

NickNiz said:
I did a 5 gal (~40%) WC this morning before work... Nitrate then was at 30 and is now hovering around 5. Phosphates are low, matching the lightest color on my API RM test kit. As for Alk, which isn't included in the test kit, the guy at the LFS said params were "good" this afternoon.

I think I found the culprit when I did my water change. My Koralia pump was turned off. I think the person taking care of the tank forgot to plug it back in after feeding the Roids... The only flow in the tank was the very very weak output from the rotating Koralia filter nozzle... I think the stuff on the frags is bacteria or diatoms... Either way I gave my corals a good pressure washing with a turkey baster. Waiting for them to open up, and begin to nurture them back to health with lots of feedings and small WCs over the next few weeks.

Would you guys recommend daily feeding for the Acans until they look better? I know they're voracious eaters and look best after eating... (obviously I'd do several WCs to keep nitrate down)

A couple of things you need to do. Get a better po4 test kit. Api is terrible, I suggest at least salifert, the same for no3 and get your own alk kit also salifert. They really aren't that expensive - check ebay. To say alk is "ok" only means it is in a general safe zone, that doesn't tell you if it's fluctuating or not. Keeping your alkalinity stable at all times is the best thing you can do for your corals along with keeping no3 around 5 ppm and po4 .02 - .o6.

Next, although Reef roids is a great product I would suggest getting some Frozen cyclops and or mysis and target feed your acans so that you're not polluting your tank. They don't need a whole lot at one time. They need a meaty food with protein in it. Reef Roids alone isn't enough

Edit to add: feed them small amounts every other day. They will pull from the water column in between. Remember you do not want to pollute your tank.

NickNiz · May 7, 2017

prsnlty said:
A couple of things you need to do. Get a better po4 test kit. Api is terrible, I suggest at least salifert, the same for no3 and get your own alk kit also salifert. They really aren't that expensive - check ebay. To say alk is "ok" only means it is in a general safe zone, that doesn't tell you if it's fluctuating or not. Keeping your alkalinity stable at all times is the best thing you can do for your corals along with keeping no3 around 5 ppm and po4 .02 - .o6.

Next, although Reef roids is a great product I would suggest getting some Frozen cyclops and or mysis and target feed your acans so that you're not polluting your tank. They don't need a whole lot at one time. They need a meaty food with protein in it. Reef Roids alone isn't enough
Edit to add: feed them small amounts every other day. They will pull from the water column in between. Remember you do not want to pollute your tank.

Thank you for the insight!!! My normal routine is Reef Roids 2x per week and Mysis every day... Feeding more often is just to bring the corals back to good health, and it really seems to be working. I've been doing 2 gallon changes every other day too to keep Params in check! A lot of the Acans are still so shrunken up that Mysis won't fit in the polyp, and I've been carefully targeting the Roids from a pipet for them.

And I know my test kit sucks. I need to invest but tbh I don't check all that often because I do 30-40% changes every week. The only reason this happened was because of me being away for 5 weeks.

Anyways here is a progress pic of the corals if anyone is interested. Going to cut back on reef Roids now since they're looking a lot better. The orange Acans are still looking very sad but at least you can see the polyps now.

prsnlty · May 7, 2017

They look like they're bouncing back

the reason I suggested Cyclops over Reef roids is because of the protein in it as well it's all very teeny tiny meaty food. Another suggestion is very small sinking pellets with high protein in them. I think your roommate was probably not even feeding them very often during that five weeks

Good luck and I'm happy to see them getting well!

NickNiz · May 7, 2017

Thank you! I think he was just dumping the Roids into the tank as well and not targeting. And I've used cyclo-peeze a ton in the past! Unfortunately the store I got it from closed and the one I go to now doesn't sell it.

I'll definitely have to look into the pellets though.

prsnlty · May 7, 2017

NickNiz said:
Thank you! I think he was just dumping the Roids into the tank as well and not targeting. And I've used cyclo-peeze a ton in the past! Unfortunately the store I got it from closed and the one I go to now doesn't sell it. I'll definitely have to look into the pellets though.

You're welcome

see if they carry these ... the 1st is the same thing is what you've been using but they're more likely to carry this if they don't carry the other one anymore