Phosphates

[phljess]

Since I can not get Ron, maybe you guys can help me. I was wondering what was causing recession on one of my acros. I have looked at my parameters and such. I am at a loss. The only thing I can think of is phosphate wicking coming from the base up. I did not see any pests on the coral and it has grown well for over 9 months and started to decline last month. The only real reason I could deduce was phosphates in the rock because once it is fragged, the frags seem to do fine. What do you guys think?

 

[H.crispa]

Pictures, Phil, pictures.
I doubt phosphate is "wicking" up from anywhere. That stuff is going to be in solution in the water column itself. Could it be chemical warfare from some other coral near the base? I've seen die-off on the undersides of coral not getting light.

Crazy thing is, after my power outage and subsequent ammonia spike, I have one acro that the flesh died off on the topside where it gets the most light, another where the flesh is dying back on the bottom away from the light and a third that is just losing flesh all over the place. Only the acros though, not any of the other sps.

 

[phljess]

I am not sure what made it recess a t the base, I think it was either lack of flow at the base or phosphate wicking. Anyway, I do not have any pics of the damage because I fragged the acro to stop the recession and discarded the dead base. I did however leave the good part of the acro on the original rock and it has not continued to recede so it was probably lack of flow around the base.