Please help, acro turning white in patches

freddi36

New member
Last week I bought this acro. It has been doing fine, but yesterday and today I have notices it's starting to turn white. I have read that AEFW do this marks but I cant see any on the coral. I did dip it in iodine today right before the picture was taken, and I think the white marks turned even whiter after that! There was no pests coming off. Also, the lights make the white look more white than it is.. it looks more brown-white

DSC_2398.jpg

My levels are fine..

Also, I got a Gobiodon okinawae. It has been eating some of the polyps on a tricolor frag and left similar marks.. Not so big though..
 
Levels are fine = what are the levels. and with acros its not about having fine levels...alk can be anywhere from 7-14+ and calc can be anywhere from 360-500+, its more about avoiding rapid changes in these parameters. When I see acros with that smooth skin I usually suspect high phosphates or low light as its a sign of slow to no growth. This rule doesn't apply to deepwaters and other naturally smooth skinned acros. Posting some parameters could be helpful. Also are those diatoms on the rock? If so the tank hasn't finished maturing yet most likely and your parameters may be more likely top fluctuate.
Just some thoughts...but I wouldn't blame the fish quite yet.
 
Levels
Kh-7,7
Ca-440ppm
Mg-1300ppm
NO3-5ppm
PO4-have no good testkit, but closely to zero.
Sg-1.025
Temp-well, this goes up and down because of the temperature now in the summer. But not under 25°C and not over 27,5°C.

Also, I dose vodka to keep the nutrients down. I also dose redsea reeffoundation ABC+ every day.

About the smooth skin, in the store it stood a bit shady, but now its right under my LED panel. When I came home I saw that the parts of it that stood in the shade was morde brown, but the rest a nice blue green color. As you can se, the tips are not smooth skinned, and these parts was in good light.

The diatoms are just on the background, not a single little patch on any rock.

I got six other sps, a Stylophora, a Poccillopora, a deepwater Acro, a Monti cap, a tricolor frag and a Montipora hoffmeister, all doing just fine :)
 
I upgraded to this tank about a month ago, but all the LR came from my old tank wich was about 2,5 years old, and some from a friends tank, also old and cycled.

At the LFS it was under a razor. I have seen a bit PE at the tips, but not so much.

I believe that you will say that the tank is to young for sps, but since my old sps was doing, and is doing just fine I thought it would be okay.
 
You said you see polyp ext on the coral in the brown spots:

dip the sps and see if any thing comes off
Move the coral into a little more light and see from there.
 
do you have the same lights from where you got them?

Are you running a skimmer?

do you have enough flow?

lighting times/type of lights?
 
Didn't test for ammonia, but now after four weeks that would be cycled. As I wrote, bought the coral about a week ago and the problems started two-three days ago.

I did dip the coral today and nothing came off.

No, not exactly the same lights. At the LFS it was under a razor LED, I have got a DIY LED.
Yes, I do run a skimmer and it skimm a lot of black junk due to the vodka dosing.

Installed a Jebao wp25 last weekend so yes, plenty of good flow in the tank. It's about 40 gallons btw

Tonight I saw some polyp extension on the coral. (live in sweden so it's late evening here now..)
 
Looks like its getting to much light to fast. Lower it for a few weeks until it gets used to the new surroundings. Nice piece good luck with it.
 
Looks like its getting to much light to fast. Lower it for a few weeks until it gets used to the new surroundings. Nice piece good luck with it.

Noticed a thing today that would speek for your suggestion, the white patches are just were it's smooth skinned. And someone wrote that Acros could get smooth skinned if they don't get enough light. So perhaps the parts that have stood in low light now got chocked when they are under brighter lights?

Anyhow, the "bleaching", or whatever you could call this, seems to have stopped! And I see nice PE on the tips/parts that is nicely colored every night/morning now :)
 
I'm happy to say that this piece looks awesome now, almost all blue with even bluer growth tips :)
Will post pic tomorrow
 
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