please help! tips of acro dying!

Ralph ATL

Ralph ATL

Formerly mysterybox
Please help! It appears the tips are dying, and are not growth. The polyps are receding from the tips. The acro has been in tank for 3 weeks. Over the past month, Phosphate had been at levels from a high of .25 to a low of .10! (Hair algae bloom going on, but should go away since phosphate level has finally been controlled! Today they are at zero using Salifert and LaMott (Merk test is on the way) All other water perimeters are good. If it's from phosphate, will they recover? Can they recover?

Ammonia=0
trates & trites=0
Calcium=390
Alk= 3.89 / 10.9
PH= 8.2
Salt=1.26
temp=80









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102583upload3.jpg
 
If you maintain your phosphates at 0 or darn near 0, over a long period of time, yes they will recover. Remember that SPS like stability, they get stressed when the param swing back and forth. So if you maintain a stable environment they will recover and do fine.
 
I just measured phosphate again (Salifert) again, and it shows less than .03. Should I cut the tips off of the acro? Do you think it was the phosphate?
 
Usually tip burn is caused by too much constant flow or your dKH is too high (alk burn). Try lowering it slowly as not to shock all the corals.
 
my tips have died with to much alk and to little alk (when i didnt have a calcium reactor and was dosing manually)

phosphates sound not to bad
 
Your parameter seems to be right. Are you sure those tips are sign of dying and not sign of growing? hard to tell from the pictures.
 
I don't believe the tips are growth (but they could?), because the polyps have receded from the tip area, and also, 3 of the tips look grayish with a little brown algae on it (it looks like a smokers tooth) and 1 tip had some small brown matter swinging off the end of it. The lights are 10 inches from the tips.

Would phosphate cause that? Phosphate right now is undetectable with Sailfert. However, it was fairly high over the past month. It slowly lowered until it became undetectable last night & today.
 
Two more possibilities, U.V. burning and excess oxygen in the tips causing toxicity and tissue recession. These two maladies are interrelated. Do you have a U.V. shield over your halide? When did you last change the bulbs/lighting equipment? What was the lighting like in the LFS? A significant increase could cause toxic oxygen production in the uppermost extremities as the coral cannot adjust to the more intense light/altered spectrum in such a rapid jump. If you suspect U.V. burning and or oxygen toxicity due to zooxanthellae producing more than can be consumed in such a short period of transition, move the coral to a lower position and very gradually move it up over a number of weeks. Also, if you locally apply an iodine supplement to the affected areas of the coral, i believe it can help the coral to alleviate the symptoms of excess oxygen toxicity and restore healthy growth.
 
Yes, I have a UV shield over them! The LFS had a rotating 400 MH. I only have 2 x 150! (I had 3, but I sent it back). It could be, I just don't where to start?????? I moved the light forward, so the acro is in indirect light. I have faced the Seio (M820) more towards the Acro (It's 18 inches away from it, I had it directed at the back wall) Phosphates are undetectable still! ANYTHING ELSE? Thanks so far!
 
mystery box: I have had the same thing happen to me. I am still battling it slightly. It's only on a ferw acros, while others look amazing. Theya re in different flow spots(meaning some with higher current, come with a little less), so I don't think it's flow. My temp. dowsn't swing, and lighting isn't super strong either. The only answer I could come up with was that I added a remote DSB and it seemed to happen relatively within the same timeframe. I don't think anything was bad or anything in the ssand, I just think adding the sand bed changed the water chemistry drastic enough(that all my acros were accustomed to); that it casuse tip recession or burning.
P7090018.jpg

P7090019.jpg


A few samples of a few of my suffering acrosl although since the picture I believe things are starting to get better(or more stable again) becasue the burnig has not proceded any further. IMO, I don't think it was the phosphates that could do this, I think something else ahd a big role in this happening. No other changes to your tank recently??
 
no changes at all! all parameters have been solid except phosphates that have gone steadily down. 2 things, however, that are very minute that I don't think could have caused it:
1. salinity changed from 1.26 to 1.265 and
2. I left the seio 820 off for 6 hours by mistake last week. Other than that, nothing.
 
I don't think it has to be parameters, either.
-Starting to use phosphate remover?
-Start running Carbon?
-Done a water change w/ new salt?
-Tank running cooler or warmer than usual?

.....something like this. not so much, nitrates, phosphates, etc. I think whatever is causing this can not be measured, all my levels are fine, as well.
Where the acros doing this before you started to "fix" your phosphate problem?
 
I moved the Seio 820 toward the back wall again (this time I raised it up a few inches) because it looked like the polyps were moving too rapidly on the Acro. (They still move back & forth, but not as much "tug")

ruzt81, weeks before I added the acro I was getting my phosphates down to manageable levels. I was using phosban. On June 25 I put the Acro in, and on June 27 I switched to ROWA. I had no troubles until this week.
 
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