Lunchbucket
Premium Member
Mchava - see if you can find that thead and post it for me
cward - it's receeded over months.
Lunchbucket
cward - it's receeded over months.
Lunchbucket
Mysterious recession
- Thread starter Lunchbucket
- Start date
Stoney Mahony
New member
Whats your salinity? I have noticed running your tank at 1.027-8 for a week or two will cause some base recession.
Lobster
Premium Member
Im thinking Mchava may be on the right track. I had this type of recession in acroporas in my previous tank, which was DSB-based. They'd grow great and suddenly start to receed at the base, and the green coloration on the skeleton would appear (from the base up).
Just curious, if you frag it, does the frag encrust and grow normally? I wonder what would happen if you took two frags of the same size, and attach one to that rock and another to a non-porous substrate that is incapable of retaining phosphate.
The overly-low-nutrient theory is interesting too though. Ive been reading up on this, though for different reasons. Im running a 50g BB system with cooked rock, a Deltec APF600, and no fish. My corals are growing great, but Im having a hard time getting good colors out of them.
Just curious, if you frag it, does the frag encrust and grow normally? I wonder what would happen if you took two frags of the same size, and attach one to that rock and another to a non-porous substrate that is incapable of retaining phosphate.
The overly-low-nutrient theory is interesting too though. Ive been reading up on this, though for different reasons. Im running a 50g BB system with cooked rock, a Deltec APF600, and no fish. My corals are growing great, but Im having a hard time getting good colors out of them.
Wade2185
New member
Lunchbucket - Do you use Kalk for topoff? I recently upgraded to a larger tank and I was having problems keeping my PH above 7.9. I also had Bryopsis algae problems. I started use Kalk for all of my topoff so that I could keep my PH up. To my surprise once I started using Kalk for the topoff all of my Bryopsis slowly died over about a month. I have heard that Kalk can help precipitate phosphates?
jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
I was also told my corals "wick" up phosphates from the rock......LOAD OF BS!!! I've seen acros thrive in high phosphate tanks with no mass die off.
You guys are going to think I'm crazy but a few months back I lost 75% of my acros. I exhusted every possibility you can think of i.e. treat for flatworms several times, tested water on hanna meter + different testkits, check for copper + electical current etc...
Anyhow, on all my corals that were slowly receeding I noticed at night small stars would be at the area of the coral losing tissue. I thought they were just eating alage or detritus. I started picking these stars off of healthy corals (at night) and saw recession under the stars. Since I added 3 harlequin shrimps my starfish population has gone down and I haven't lost a coral......Many swear these stars are harmless..I dunno
Lobster,
I ran my 65gal fishless, no feeeding and the colors were very faded. Adding many fish and feeding brings out the colors.
You guys are going to think I'm crazy but a few months back I lost 75% of my acros. I exhusted every possibility you can think of i.e. treat for flatworms several times, tested water on hanna meter + different testkits, check for copper + electical current etc...
Anyhow, on all my corals that were slowly receeding I noticed at night small stars would be at the area of the coral losing tissue. I thought they were just eating alage or detritus. I started picking these stars off of healthy corals (at night) and saw recession under the stars. Since I added 3 harlequin shrimps my starfish population has gone down and I haven't lost a coral......Many swear these stars are harmless..I dunno
Lobster,
I ran my 65gal fishless, no feeeding and the colors were very faded. Adding many fish and feeding brings out the colors.
Stoney Mahony
New member
Yeah, I dunno but I have a friend that swears he put in 3 long spine urchins and within a matter of weeks, they had eaten all the bryopsis in his tank. Personally, I was having a massive bryopsis problem in another one of my tanks(Softy/Clam tank) for about a year. Nothing I did would phase it. My Kole tank eats it but not fast enough so I was manually pulling about once a month. Well, long story short I needed the W/D filter off of it for instant bio filtration on a QT tank set up so I stole it and put a brand new W/D on the softy tank(figured the live rock could handle filtration while the new filter became established). That was 4 weeks ago and all of my bryopsis has dissapeared since. Over a year dealing with that crap and now it seems that it was just a build up of nutrients in the filter that was fueling the bryopsis.
RichConley
New member
Lunchbucket, theres definitely something wrong here on a nutrient level. With that much flow, and with that skimmer, hair algae just shouldnt be an issue, even without phosphate removers.
Whats the story on your rock? Was it cooked? Was your tank an absolute mess before the current BB setup, or was it in good shape?
With the current equipment, I'm going to assume you're using RO, not feeding phyto, etc.
FME, if its got algae anywhere in its name, urchins will eat it.
clkwrk
Active member
Byropsis is a different beast and I can say my tank raised long spine will not touch byropsis. Neither will my 3 tangs.
And the stuff was still hanging around even when I had 0 po4, 0 NO3 and lightened coral colors.
I will say its possible that the rocks are holding way more po4 than what is avilable in the water . I have seen po4 wicking and it is very possible . To this day I still have the green skeletons saved. Any time I have noticed po4 wicking it has alays happened on an older rock or one that wasn't part of the rocks that I cooked.
And the stuff was still hanging around even when I had 0 po4, 0 NO3 and lightened coral colors.
I will say its possible that the rocks are holding way more po4 than what is avilable in the water . I have seen po4 wicking and it is very possible . To this day I still have the green skeletons saved. Any time I have noticed po4 wicking it has alays happened on an older rock or one that wasn't part of the rocks that I cooked.
wife no likey
New member
Just re: bryopsis, I think that one of the reasons that it's so tenacious is that the fern-like structure allows it to trap particulate matter that gets metabolized. I did however get some sea slugs (elysia diomedea) that munch on it. They do have a tendency to get sucked into intakes, etc.
As to the wicking effect, I had
a wild colony (abrotanoides) that was completely unattached to anything get the green tint after some TN showed up. Possibly the skeleton itself tends to absorb some of the P?
As to the wicking effect, I had
a wild colony (abrotanoides) that was completely unattached to anything get the green tint after some TN showed up. Possibly the skeleton itself tends to absorb some of the P?
NuclearReefs
Active member
Have those corals been in the same place for a long time?
Im going with PO4 and the water flow where they are at is less that it was before.. Growth of corals changing / blocking water movement in your tank which might be creating some dead water space and allowing PO4 to build up ....
I put a UV sterilizer on my tank and kept my PH high and byopsis went away.......
Im going with PO4 and the water flow where they are at is less that it was before.. Growth of corals changing / blocking water movement in your tank which might be creating some dead water space and allowing PO4 to build up ....
I put a UV sterilizer on my tank and kept my PH high and byopsis went away.......
oligotrophic
New member
Lunch,
just saw the picture you posted, it does look like PO4 wicking, coming directly from the rock directly below the colony. I have seen this before, but the depth of the green tint in your picture is even darker than the samples I've seen, I'd place a higher probability towards PO4 wicking than any other stressor in suspect.
Also, you mentioned it took months to develope, that points back to PO4 wicking.
I've also read people place a thicker layer of glue/epoxy between rock and colony to stop PO4 wicking.
This should be recoverable but you need to react soon, and whichever action you take, keep stress to a minimum to the colony which in turns increases the chance/time to recovery.
Just a suggestion (depending on the level and rate of tissue recession) -- You may want to firstly separate colony from rock, allow it to recover from that stress of removal, then a few days later introduce another supporting structure to your colony.
Cheers
just saw the picture you posted, it does look like PO4 wicking, coming directly from the rock directly below the colony. I have seen this before, but the depth of the green tint in your picture is even darker than the samples I've seen, I'd place a higher probability towards PO4 wicking than any other stressor in suspect.
Also, you mentioned it took months to develope, that points back to PO4 wicking.
I've also read people place a thicker layer of glue/epoxy between rock and colony to stop PO4 wicking.
This should be recoverable but you need to react soon, and whichever action you take, keep stress to a minimum to the colony which in turns increases the chance/time to recovery.
Just a suggestion (depending on the level and rate of tissue recession) -- You may want to firstly separate colony from rock, allow it to recover from that stress of removal, then a few days later introduce another supporting structure to your colony.
Cheers
Lunchbucket:
Id think about NuclearReefs questions about water flow if you can't find any other reasons.
I have recession at the bases of my acros every now and again, and often it's due to one of my powerheads stopping (fins on the impellers break off my MJ's over time). Once I restore the flow they slowly grow back over the area that was damaged.
Just a thought, since it's going so slowly and not in days like RTN.
Id think about NuclearReefs questions about water flow if you can't find any other reasons.
I have recession at the bases of my acros every now and again, and often it's due to one of my powerheads stopping (fins on the impellers break off my MJ's over time). Once I restore the flow they slowly grow back over the area that was damaged.
Just a thought, since it's going so slowly and not in days like RTN.
RichConley
New member
Right.
They may just be cleaning up a sick coral though.
KevinFJB
Member
I have the same issue with three acros that have been in my tank for 1.5-2 years. No other acros affected and have checked for AEFW (which I've had and was able to identify following the advice on the threads here at RC - give the coral an iodine dip which allows you to squirt them off of the colony with a turkey baster more easily).
As far as I can tell, the problem I'm having is due to a recent refresh of Rowaphos in my reactor. I think I was a little too confident and added a fairly large new batch a few weeks ago. I have turned off the reactor entirely a few days ago and things seem to be stabilizing - as in tissue recession slowed and all other acros looking good in terms of color. You may want to try and turn off your PO4 reactor and/or run it only a few hours a day at first.
As far as I can tell, the problem I'm having is due to a recent refresh of Rowaphos in my reactor. I think I was a little too confident and added a fairly large new batch a few weeks ago. I have turned off the reactor entirely a few days ago and things seem to be stabilizing - as in tissue recession slowed and all other acros looking good in terms of color. You may want to try and turn off your PO4 reactor and/or run it only a few hours a day at first.
jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
or they might be eating it
