Flesh peeling off base of Acroporia

[I Want Corals]

I have been baffled for some time, now I am seeking help and answers from those who have matured SPS reef tanks.

I have been in and out of the hobby multiple times throughout my life.

For now my new current set up which has been running since July is a 150gallon Reef tank I have at least 180lbs of live rock. A sump that holds roughly 60 gallons of water and a 4 - 5inch sand bed.

I have had multiple issues since I set this tank up.

Originally in a day I would have large temp swings from 73 to 76 I would loose an occasional Acro about 1 a month.

I was keeping my reef tank at 76 and I was still having flesh come off of my SPS corals near the base. So I talked to local stores and they thought that the temp. was too cold for these corals and suggested that I increase temp to 79
I also purchased a heater / chiller controller I have 3 heaters combine are 1100watts total. Now, I keep the reef tank at a consistent 79 - 78 The heater will turn on when the tank reaches 78

Once the heater part was stable on my reef tank I started seeing more and more cases of this flesh at the base peeling off I was hoping it fixed it. :sad2:

2nd) I still have the flesh coming off the base of these acros I have fragged numerous times they do good for awhile and then end up in the same issue. I do not believe it is RTN and I feel like its a AKH problem.

So this past week I told my self I will resolve this problem once and for all. I started to test everything everyday to see if I see anything wrong. I use all saliferts test kits only.

11/16
DKH 8.0 I thought this was low so used a ALK Calculator and added 2 tbs of baking soda not baked to raise level.

11/17
DKH 10.2 I was trying to shoot for 11DKH so I added 1more TBS figured each tbs brought it up to 1.0

Calcium at this time was 610. I used a total of 1.0mm and the syringe was at.78 when the color finally changed. I added both together gave me 610

11/18
DKH was now at 16.6dkh
Calcium is now at 600
Mag 1770
Po4 less than 1.0

11/19
DKH is now at 15.0

I'm still noticing that the flesh is coming off at the base of my Acro am I burning the corals with the high levels above?

I plan on doing a water change I have no idea how much I should do. I can easily do up to a 75gallon water change if needed at one time with premixed saltwater.

I am using both coralife and instant ocean sea salt I have about 5 buckets of each and coralife has calcium at about 500 and instant ocean is less so I usually mix them.

I appreciate anyone for taking their time and helping me I really want to enjoy my tank not pulling my hair out all the time.

Please see pictures attached. I really hope to resolve this problem once and for all.

 

[NaturalReef]

Hi Iwant,

First things first. Slow down........your Dkh @8 was perfect. Your attempt to keep increasing alk caused major instability in your tank hence your acros being unhappy and causing the tissue necrosis. I would not dose your tank and let it naturally fall back down to 8. 11-16 dkh is a fine line to run and if you have low nutrients at these levels you can say goodbye to your acros.

You didn’t say how many Acro frags you have in your tank, but I would bet water changes alone would take care of your stability issues and allow your acros to recover. They won’t start growing and consuming alk and calcium till they get that stability. Let the alk fall to 8, do a 10-20% water change a week till you get stable and find some good reliable test kits and test alk,calc,mag every day till you see where things are and what your corals are actually consuming.

When they start growing and water changes aren’t keeping up, I would ditch the powder and buy something like Red Sea foundation abc in liquid form that gives you a little cup that measures ML. Follow the instructions on dosing and go slow. Any big dkh swings will melt your acros. Hang in there, you will get it!

 

[codydemmel4]

Hi Iwant,

First things first. Slow down........your Dkh @8 was perfect. Your attempt to keep increasing alk caused major instability in your tank hence your acros being unhappy and causing the tissue necrosis. I would not dose your tank and let it naturally fall back down to 8. 11-16 dkh is a fine line to run and if you have low nutrients at these levels you can say goodbye to your acros.

You didn’t say how many Acro frags you have in your tank, but I would bet water changes alone would take care of your stability issues and allow your acros to recover. They won’t start growing and consuming alk and calcium till they get that stability. Let the alk fall to 8, do a 10-20% water change a week till you get stable and find some good reliable test kits and test alk,calc,mag every day till you see where things are and what your corals are actually consuming.

When they start growing and water changes aren’t keeping up, I would ditch the powder and buy something like Red Sea foundation abc in liquid form that gives you a little cup that measures ML. Follow the instructions on dosing and go slow. Any big dkh swings will melt your acros. Hang in there, you will get it!

Yup I second this. The jump from 8 to 16.6 Alk in two days maybe unfortunately kill all your acros, maybe not right away but unfortunately you will probably see a decline in all your acros for a month or two, even if you get everything stable. Hopefully that doesnt happen to you, but it usually happens to people who have a big jump in alk.

like the previous poster said, keep everything simple and keeping alk around 8 would be good. Your calcium and Mag are very high too.