Acan Lords slowly dying

[DerekG4]

My Acan lords just started to randomly close and die. I have about 7 different pieces of acans and 3 of them are having problems. One of them was opening just fine then the next day just started to close up completely and right now one of the heads just died (It has about 9 left) and the rest of the heads are turning transparent. A green one that isn't opening as big as it should and one of the heads appear to have a bite on it and right now a bit of the skeleton is showing. Another one that I bought somewhat recently (I bought it freshly fragged from a colony) and now it appears a head that it had on the side is starting to open up nicely. Problem is, a chunk of it is white (Not a pure, bright white but it's definitely white. It also appears to be part of the acan, doesn't look like there's a fungus on top of it or anything) not sure if it's like that because it's been closed for a while and that side of it hasn't gotten light.

I'm not sure what are the params but I can tell you just about every other coral is flourishing and growing at a rapid pace.

My fish aren't to blame for it, (I have a Starry Blenny, a Yellow Tang, a Blue Tang, a Yellow Coris wrasse, and a Royal Gramma) but if there's something to blame, at least for one of the acans, is a cleaner shrimp, which I've never seen intentionally eat a coral (I've seen him take the food out of their mouths)


I just have 2 questions:
1. What's going on with them?
2. Do acan lords die completely if one head dies? If so, should I frag the rest to save it?

Sorry about all the blue, I don't know why iPhone cameras take pictures like that for aquariums

 

[rt67ghy]

I would test your water just to know nothing is seriously wrong with it. The cause of the problem could be too much light. How much light and flow are they getting?

 

[DerekG4]

I do know salinity is at 27, which is the usual (24-28) can't be that, everything else is opening fine, Ammonia, Nitrate, and Nitrite are at 0, phosphates I believe at 0.8 or something like that. Not sure of calcium and Alkalinity. The red ones were perfectly fine before, light wise I'd say medium but on the border of being high light, flow was decent, not too much or too little.

 

[rt67ghy]

I'd test alk because once it goes below 7 dkh it starts to affect sps and lps corals.

 

[Reef Frog]

Bleaching is consistent with the light being too intense. If you add poor levels of calcium, alkalinity & magnesium you could compound the problem. I would test immediately for them and shoot for levels close to Ca: 425 ppm Alk:8 dKH Mg: 1300ppm. Do you dose these elements or relying on water changes. Depending on your coral load, you may need to look into supplementation.

If phosphate is truly .8 ppm, that's too high and should be addressed IMO. I didn't follow your salinity readings. They should read 1.026 or 35 ppt on a calibrated refractometer.

You've got a few things going on at once and I would correct them all. It's hard to say which individual straw is breaking the camel's back. Good luck in getting it all sorted out.

 

[Relativity]

You have to feed each polyp in order for them to live

 

[DerekG4]

I'll do a quick test right now, not sure if should be completely reliable as it says the chemicals are expired.

For the salinity I meant to say 1.027. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I'm used to removing the 1.0- and just say the last 2 digits.

Can't be dying due to food. I've had it for 4 months (In my old 30 gallon tank) without feeding it and it was opening nicely every day. Its had its days where it'll randomly close but longest they've lasted was 2 days, and no damage out of any of those times. Ever since I moved them to the 150, I've fed them once or twice roughly every week. They don't really NEED food in order to survive, they have zooxanthallae after all, although they do grow slower without feeding for sure (Then again, it depends on the coral whether it wants to grow fast or slow lol)

I think it may be the calcium or magnesium levels, personally. I'll add some magnesium soon. Couldn't have been the spot I've had it on because of flow and lighting, its always been the same, nothing changed, and before it was opening very nicely.

Not really sure if the phosphate really is at .8, I just through a random digit, to be honest. Although there is a bit of hair algae starting to grow which is annoying me.

 

[Ohioreef1700]

dip them all

 

[Ohioreef1700]

and also stick to a regular feeding schedule the more feeding the more healthier the acan will become

 

[inthedeep2]

I feel your pain just lost 6 frags also.
all were in the tank for 8months and thriving then one day poof melted away nothing helped dipping, shade, lower/higher flow.
good luck hope you can figure it out

 

[nuttyd]

Second the check alk. Had a small bout with sps losing polyps and thats was to blame. Fixed that and they are growing back.

 

[Burr Ridge Fish]

Band saw, frag whats left.
too much light will do it, they don't really like high light.

 

[rt67ghy]

I'll do a quick test right now, not sure if should be completely reliable as it says the chemicals are expired.

I wouldn't use expired reagents; your results will be pretty much useless.

I'd get someone else to test for alk if you don't have a test kit for it or take your water sample to your LFS. Keeping alk is the second most important thing to test after sg in a reef aquarium. Mg won't be an issue if you do regular WCs. Ca only becomes an issue and needs to be dosed if you have a lot of stony corals, they're growing well and it falls below 400ppm.

 

[DerekG4]

Can't be due to light, one my acans is in pretty high light (Won't open anywhere else) and is actually higher than the one that's dying. I guess I'll have to frag it, 4 heads have died already.

Everything else is doing wonderful, my zoas, mushrooms (My red mushroom started to close up, doesn't look like something worth worrying about though), other acans, leathers (Finger leathers, colt, and toadstool), montis (Green and red Capricornis and I'm not sure of the other one's name, I just know it encrusts) encrusting pavona (been growing rapidly) chalices, leptostrea, favias, open brains, and a tiny blue acro I just bought recently (about a month and a half), this acan is the only thing that's dying really (Other than another red montipora I have that's getting near 24/7 anemone tentacles on it that I can't move)

It may be expired but most of the time it read practically the same as a regular one.

Only reason I stopped regular feedings (I fed all corals every 3 days) is because algae is starting to come up, so I'm trying to add as little food as possible.

 

[jayball]

You have to feed each polyp in order for them to live

That is most certainly not true. First off polyps share the energy that comes from food. Second they will capture food that the fish miss in addition to the fish waste. Last, the Zooxanthellae produce the vast majority of energy the coral needs to survive combined with incidental food capture. Supplemental feeding is a great way to keep polyps open during the day and increase growth though.

 

[DerekG4]

Did the test, Calcium is at 420, alk at 8, and phosphate at 0.25

I don't have a test kit for magnesium

 

[JWhittle]

could someone kindly ID these acans please.. new to reef central dont know how to start a thread?

thanks