Help- New 1st acropora base white w/ patches

[bigwavereef]

So I've been reading up on acropora care before acquiring a beautiful aussie blue tip colony but I couldn't find much information on what to expect with it's behavior as it adjust to its environment besides the typical change color's. Of course preventive maintenance is key so I'm always on the look out for tell tale signs but before I jump the gun/ I want to get some opinions.

Here are pictures of the tank and said acro. The Blue pic is when it was first put in the tank polyps out 3 weeks ago... the rest are the pics I just took after a re-arrange of the tank yesterday finally placing this colony at the very top of the tank. It's been slowly turning a fleshy auburn colorhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/76154176@N08/

Readings

I'm diligent with my top-off's and water changes & use crystal sea salt so i don't dose.

Nitrate- 20ppm
Nitrite- 0
Alk(Kh)-300ppm
PH- 8.4

Sg -1.026

This piece was under halides at the LFS my setup here's a pic of it in his setup
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395654_341645045853897_148577358494001_1373553_799368619_n.jpg

Now I was expecting to be some change of color going from that to my 96watt HOt5's (2 10,000K & 2 actinics)but is this spot whiting normal or is it stressed as hell? Also I should mention that this piece was had a healthy arm fragged the day before I bought it...so maybe this would explain the color as I've read a white base and under branches is normal but I wanna nip any tissue degeneration as quickly as possible if necessary.I'm worried it could be an infestation or something else and want to know if i should frag it or not. I was contemplating a dip in coral revive after reading about it around here just to be safe...but again don't want to if not necessary

So there's a bunch of factor's at play here and I just need some help and advice as I've been watching, and observing and wanna see if this is normal.

Obviously my yellow clown goby could be stressing this guy out as it's his favorite thing to perch in and on ever since it was added...possible explanation for the lack of polyp extension though it usually only opens at night, but I haven't seen that happen over the last week & a half. I've never seen him nip at the polyps.. he rubs against and in between the branches and pecks slime here & there but it hasn't seemed too aggressive.

I currently have a red slime outbreak and my phosphates are probably a little high...I plan on combating the slime by increasing the flow with adding another powerhead as my current flow rate is lower than I'd like at 30.25gph

Anyway thoughts? The tips are still a blue hue, and after my recent re-arrange top part was knocked off so i put it on a plug. I also just picked up a $5 frag of green acro that's in the middle so I'll be keeping my eye on that as well. I've babbled on but wanted to give as much info as possible but thought it'd help:fun2:

Any experience or insight would be great!!!!:bounce2:

 

[victornator333]

Nitrate needs to be near 0 for sps

 

[victornator333]

also i dont think you have enough light. the actinic bulbs are not giving you any PAR. those are just for color. You definitely need to revamp setup for SPS

 

[bigwavereef]

Is this RTN? Should I frag this out? :uzi:

I have 4.5 watts per gallon and have read that acro's can do fine under HOt5's.

 

[daveonbass]

Should be plenty of light. But without knowing your other parameters its hard to say. So see if you can find out the calcium and mag levels. Also what kind of flow. And are you feeding anything...cause corals do need to eat.

 

[bigwavereef]

Should be plenty of light. But without knowing your other parameters its hard to say. So see if you can find out the calcium and mag levels. Also what kind of flow. And are you feeding anything...cause corals do need to eat.

Did you see the pics? I'm getting another powerhead this week to total 1105 gph for my 20 gallon. I feed a combo of flakes and brine shrimp. I also have zooplex but use it sparingly so i don't overload the tank

 

[Reef Bass]

Watts per gallon is not a good way to measure lighting. Par is.

You say you are on top of your water chemistry, yet your alkalinity as reported at 300ppm translates to a dkh of over 16! Are you sure about that??

You don't list your calcium or magnesium.

I suggest getting your water quality in order first.

 

[OneReef]

That does look like recession. If it gets worse, you may need to frag it. It may grow back and cover it up, but if it gets worse, save what you can, while also figuring out why it did recede to correct it.

 

[bigwavereef]

I figured it was recession, I've been waiting it out and thought it was slowly going away as my acro changed color's but this morning saw a little white growth... So I fraged the colony onto 3 plugs getting rid of the white bases. Now time will tell to see where how these guy's go.:headwally:

 

[bigwavereef]

I added a pic after the fraggin, I didn't get rid of all the white area on some branches but my hopefully she'll do just fine

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76154176@N08/