Acro bleaching

[rcmania]

About a week ago i found the acro on the sand bed. It had been knocked off the plug some how. I reattached it to the plu but dont know how long it has been on the sand bed. My tank is a year old and only have a few SPS and a couple LPS. the other SPS look great. However this acro is bleaching from the bottom up. I have noticed two feelers coming out of one of the polyp. I pulled it out of the tank today and did a coral dip and placed it back.

My lighting is AI Sol blues
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 15ppm
Phosphate almost 0
calcium 480
DKH 7
Mag 1400

I have to reactors on low flow. One is activated carbon and the other is Phosban.

Ill post a pic

 

[rcmania]

Here is a before and after shot.

 

[lynchmob3000]

I would turn the reactor with phosban off, especially since your phosphate is undetectable. Your corals are being starved. Feed reef roids, oyster feast.

 

[lynchmob3000]

This may help with your green algae too. I've seen gfo cause algae when it's not needed

 

[rcmania]

Thanks for the reply.

I do feed the tank reef chili, DTs phyto and also fresh baby brine. I just recently started dosing Fuel as well.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Np.

How bid is your tank and what's your lighting schedule like? Intensity and time schedule?

 

[lynchmob3000]

No problem.

Given your test is accurate with the nitrate I would say you need to get that down a bit, maybe vodka dose or a product similar.
I'm much happier with higher phosphate with low nitrate anyday.

 

[rcmania]

My tank is 220 gallon

My lights are as follow

Royal Blue on at 7am and ramp up to 50% by 11:30 and maintain 50% until 4:30pm and ramp down to 0 at 9:00pm

Blue on at 6am and ramp up to 55% at 11:00, maintaining until 5:00pm and ramping down to 0 by 10pm

white on at 8am and ramp up to 20% at 9am holding at 20% until 10am, ramping up again to 40%, then holding at 40% for 15 mins before ramping back down to 20% 3:00 and holding 20% until 4:00pm and ramping down to 0 at 8:00pm


My other SPS seem to be doing pretty good with growth. Im still adjusting and learning these lights.

 

[rcmania]

Here is what it looks like today.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Ouch. She's probably as good as dead. I would cut that middle branch and glue it right back to the rock. I'm not led expert but I do have 2 maxspect razors, a g3 eco and a Gen 1 eco and on all my tanks they ramp up to 75 80% blues and my whites one the maxspect up to 65 and hold for 5 to 6 hours. Think about how people run 250 halides, full throttle for up to 8 hours.

I would try to add 5 percent a week til I got it up higher. A friend up mine has 24 ai sol blues on a 300 gallon which peak at 100% on blues, something like 75 whites.

With all this said I had a sick tang that couldn't handle the high lighting of my razors, swimming figure 8 s until I turned them down to something like 35 percent. All my sps turned brownish and some of the lower positioned acros started to stn from the base, not getting enough light. So I took the fish out and turned them back up and all the acros grew over the dead spots. Ai sols are good but not too powerful.

Your acros probably didn't get enough light when it fell and it's still having a hard time.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Did you stop using the gfo?

 

[rcmania]

Thanks for the info. I have turned the phosban reactor off but still have my carbon running. This sucks because these corals are my favorite and this is the second one that has killed over. The first one I thought it was due to me not being able to dose all the time. I have since installed a 4 pump dosing unit that keeps all my levels in check. Now I need a par meter but dont wanna drop the money on one.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Np. Good luck. Looks like your algae isn't as bad now

 

[PaleHorse]

Thanks for the info. I have turned the phosban reactor off but still have my carbon running. This sucks because these corals are my favorite and this is the second one that has killed over. The first one I thought it was due to me not being able to dose all the time. I have since installed a 4 pump dosing unit that keeps all my levels in check. Now I need a par meter but dont wanna drop the money on one.

just use a lux meter on your phone and convert it. .0141 :fish2:

 

[ontop27]

Most people say that if you have algae and zero phosphate it is because the algae is sucking it up. I cant say I ever heard of gfo causing algae and I can't imagine that is possible, I can believe however that old remover may leach it back into the water. If you have any of that acro left cut it and reglue it. It's not bleaching, the whole thing would be white. It is stn'ing (slow tissue necrosis)

 

[lynchmob3000]

Low phosphate is caused by gfo usually. So it can cause it. That's why it usually goes away after you discontinue use.

 

[ontop27]

Low phosphate is caused by gfo usually. So it can cause it. That's why it usually goes away after you discontinue use.

What goes away algae?? You want low phosphate... I think around .03 or so which generally most kits people use (api) can't really test you need something like a hannah

 

[crs751]

This is probably a dumb question but what lumens should we be looking for on an SPS tank? I downloaded a lux meter app to my phone and need some guidance on lumen output. I have Ai Sols also.

 

[lynchmob3000]

Running it lower like scares me compared to it being high.

 

[rcmania]

I cycle my phosphate on and off. ill run it for a few weeks then turn it off for a few weeks. As for the lux app, ill have to look into that. Ill cut whats left. I wonder if that hitchhiker is killing it.