Most Troublesome Coral...

MechEng99

aka Reef'd Up
What would cause one acro in particular to STN every late summer/ early fall for the past 3 years? I've had this acropora valida for 3 years, and come August/September, it starts looking like concrete and STN's from the base up. I'll frag it...all the frags will continue to STN...until October comes...and it stops. It's only one coral that does this - I've had it in various tanks...various size frags...various places in the tank...various flow rates...whatever. Obviously, this isn't an issue at the moment, so I'm just asking out of curiousity.

My only thought is outside influence. We sometimes open our windows that time of year depending on weather, but our tanks are in a room on the other side of the house from where we open windows. We also tend to run our A/C less then too. But, if this were the case, I'd expect this in the spring too. Temp is always 79-81, pH is always right around 8.2. I have never noticed a chemical problem when this is going on...and like I said, no other corals were affected.

I know corals spawn around that time too, but I've never noticed any sign of spawning from this coral.

Any thoughts?
 
Is there anything you're changing at the 4-month point? Does it seem to come on with the change in season...or does it happen in the middle of a season?
 
Is it possible ph swings due to closing up the house in cooler weathaer and causing there to be less oxygen available? Not really sure if you close up cause I have no clue where "everywhere" is...
 
Typically the largest change in seasons for me is the Temperature swings. I tend to adjust things so the fluctuations are the same. You sure the temp does not differ at these times of the year???
 
What causes 1 acro to stn/rtn and every other acro in your tank is looking awsome. Sometimes things can not be explained, but i wish i could figure this out. Since i have had this acro for over 2 years and now its gone.
 
Currently in *lovely* Ohio. Temp is controlled/monitored, so no crazy temp or pH swings. It's only one coral...I don't get it. It's not flow or lighting since I have a million bajillion frags all over the place that STN at the same time. Hum...so weird. I mean, I can literally predict when the coral is going to start STN...I'll check...and sure enough! It affects frags as well as larger corals.

What about some sort of pathogen or something that blooms in late summer? Validas seem pretty susceptible to everything, so why not a pathogen? Anyone know of anything like that? Ugh, I'm stumped. As much as I hate to say it, I almost wish this coral wouldn't recover...I'm sick of fragging it every year.
 
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