acro dying on bottom part = poor lighting or high alk, etc?

[CTaylor]

Hi,
I have a new acro, a week in my tank. It's at Par about 225 under Kessil lighting. I have very low PO4, only 5 ppBILLION (hanna ultra low) and very low Nitrate as well.. last tested was barely detectable. I know that is not actually ideal. I am not running and PO4 removers. Alk is about 8 dKH pH about 8.1, temp 80. Good flow. Ca about 430 ppm. Alk is stable within 0.5 every 24 hrs, maybe not stable enough?. I can fix that if I need to. I turn off and on my solenoid for my CA reactor every 24 hrs, which right now keep it 8.1 +/- 0.5 (so it's a slow increase and decrease over 24 hrs). The coral looks very good as far as color and PE. It jsut happens to be slowly dying on one lower corner (slow meaning about 1/2" a day).

From what I have read too high of an alk (based on too low of nutrients like near 0 PO4 and NO3) can be a problem. Though what i see online the corals generally die at the growing tips, which makes sense. So I'm thinking that is not my issue. Being it's on a lower part I'm thinking THIS coral may need more light. But then I don't want to burn it either by moving it to higher light. But I'm sure it will slowly die if I do nothing (this has happened before).

I do not see any bugs, flat worms on it, eggs, etc.
Ideas?

*RELATED: I was going to break off the dead branch and then super glue the first closest live part. Previously in past I have not used the super glue and the coral ended up totally dying in the end. So nothing to lose on that, right?

TY for input!

 

[CTaylor]

Here is a close up pic of the area, the underside of that part of the coral is now dead. I did cover up as much as I could of live coral just beyond the dead skeleton. The other pic is obviously the entire coral. The pics are after superglue applied.
**when it came shipped, the ice pack in the box was physically on top of the bag. The water was chilled, about lower to mid 60's max. So it may have had some death in this area when it first arrived a week ago but I may not have looked close enough.
TY

 

[MondoBongo]

i wouldn't be too concerned about those alk numbers. typically if you're having appreciable problems, the corals die very quickly, or exhibit burnt tips all over, as opposed to just being focused on one area.

i don't have a frame of reference for what 225 PAR means, or the instrument you measure it with, but do you have any other SPS in your tank to use as a gauge? do you have any other fuzzy sticks doing well at that level? i've had more problems giving acros too little light, as opposed to not enough.

acros can be a cruel mistress like that. i recently lost half my Hawkins Echinata colony that's been with me for about 3 years due to a short power outage. everything else in the tank was just fine, but when i got up half the hawkins was dead. why? no idea. why was it only half? another mystery. these fuzzy sticks can be tough.

 

[CTaylor]

Hi Mondo. I have other acros with almost exactly same lighting, par etc. The apr sensor is an apogee, connected to a multimeter. They are looking very good, but also have been in my tank for a week only. But great color and PE. Knock on wood!. This one did have an ice pack on the shipping bag, so I'm thinking that stress may be the trigger (?). I did dip it yesterday in Coral Rx. No visible parasites came off, and it actually looked better after the dip. Prior to dip PE was less.. after it was more again. I know I need to ideally set up a QT tank, just my apt is only 550 sq feet lol, already with 2 aquariums :-D. Ty for inputting

 

[MondoBongo]

i would probably be inclined to believe it is something related to the ice pack. glad to hear the others are doing well!

i would keep an eye on it. there's usually not a whole lot else you can do. your params are in line, so it's up to the coral now to come round.

good luck!