***Poor Acans!***

SerpentSlick

SerpentSlick

Member
Okay, so I'm really concerned about my scans. For the past 4 months or so my acans have been growing and reproducing really well but the last month I've had one frag melt away, others retract quite a bit, and all of them lose a lot of color. Some of my parameters were off such as low Ak and pH and the acans were doing just fine but now that I've "corrected" my water quality my acans are doing poorly.

Any ideas?

My last tests have been a few days ago but my acans have been getting worse for some time.

Parameters(roughly as last time tested):

Ph 7.9-8.1 depending on time
Ak 9-11
Cal 440
Mag 1250-1400
sal 1.025
temp 79.5
Amm 0
nitrate 0
Nitrite 0

Running: GFO, carbon, UV, heavy skimming, refuge, chiller @ 80f<, T5hoX6, ATI and Geismann bulbs from 4/12.

...not sure what else you need.

Please help!!!

62Gal rimless, crystal 30 trigger sys refuge, Apex controller, 60 plus lbs figi, and I'm not
 
I raised ph, Ak,iodine, and theother parameters. The stats were a bit low but I got them closer to normal and things got worse with the acans.
 
No water change? New lights?
Be sure and test in the morning for most accurate reading. Evening readings dont matter.
 
Perhaps a a delayed reaction, or the fact that the corrections where not slow enough. Remember statblity is the most important thing in our tanks.
 
how far off was things before you corrected them? Also you may have stripped the water to much and causing them to not be happy.
 
Alk 8-9, Ca <380, pH 7.8, mag 1250, iodine <.02, nitrate nitrite and ammonia were still at 0 ppm.

These numbers were not good and I paid attention because I bleached out some SPS and angered my softies and LPS but my acans were looking great and growing like crazy. Now it's the opposite. I don't get it.

If my hammer and candy cane are looking great why wouldn't my acans look good too?
 
Ok well iodine is something you really should never need to dose because if you read enough about it that with regular water changes you replace the amount you need. I don't think that is your issue. I am curious where you phosphates sit. That is where I would start. Alk of 8 or 9 and a bit low of calcium wouldn't be enough to cause them to die. My sps tank sits at 8.3 dkh almost rock solid. I once had big issues with stonies having problems. I discontinued GAC, UV and stepped up water changes from every other week to once a week and things came back to life quick. I found I was stripping to much from the water. Only other question is new brand or new box/bucket of salt? I have had that issue a year ago where I bought a new bucket and reef went down hill, bought a fresh bucket and a couple of water changes later life is better again.
 
I did switch brands of salt recently. I wonder if that's it.

What is GAC? GFO and carbon? I doubt I have a phosphate issue. I only have a small amount of hair algae and I'm running GFO.
 
Changing Salt can upset some things if done too quickly.

GAC: Granular Activated Carbon
GFO: Granulated Ferric Oxide

If your seeing Hair Algae, there is a phosphate (or Nitrate) problem.

-Ray
 
To be honest you may never figure out what happened or what is happening since it seems you changed a lot of variables in such a short time while attempting to fix something which is completely understandable. What I do know is acans are pretty tolerant of water conditions and that they in general like medium light and medium flow (which in itself means different things to different people). If I had to guess at one thing I would put my money on something like a sudden phosphate change. How much GFO did you do at once?
 
I switched from red sea coral pro to brightwell neomarine and I didn't blend the transition at all. In fact, I didn't know that was a "no no" until a recent Mr saltwatertank post.

It sounds like that could be the culprit. I have been running rox 8.0 and bulk reef supply GFO long before this issue. I had to switch salt because the red sea pro always had precipitation and smelled funny. I didnt know I had to blend the salt mixes though.

I have a second 28 gal tank that is that is three or four months old that is fully cycled with no "funny business" going on. Should I just acclimate(sp?) the acans to the other tank and see if that would help or is that more risky?
 
Oh, and the tank has tested 0 ppm for nitrates for over a year so I would imagine I have traces of phosphates but its hard to think I have much because I always run my gfo reactor.
 
SerpentSlick said:
I switched from red sea coral pro to brightwell neomarine and I didn't blend the transition at all. In fact, I didn't know that was a "no no" until a recent Mr saltwatertank post.

It sounds like that could be the culprit. I have been running rox 8.0 and bulk reef supply GFO long before this issue. I had to switch salt because the red sea pro always had precipitation and smelled funny. I didnt know I had to blend the salt mixes though.

I have a second 28 gal tank that is that is three or four months old that is fully cycled with no "funny business" going on. Should I just acclimate(sp?) the acans to the other tank and see if that would help or is that more risky?
Click to expand...

My LFS owner is a good friend and was like man you got to try brightwell salt it is so much better than reef crystals!!! For a few months I said nope I will stay with RC. One day he gave me a bucket and said try it. I did 3 water changes with it. First one was 50/50 second and third was 100% Brightwell I lost some corals to it. I switched backed to reef crystals did a 10% every other day for 10 days and saw what had declined get better. I took half a bucket back to him and said please don't make suggestions to me in the future. Had this issues 2 years ago with oceanic salt. Funny thing is now he doesnt carry brightwell salt at all.
 
My next salt is going to be aquavitro salinity. I've heard the best things about that salt.

What do you think about it?

Also, do you not have precipitation and sulfur smells with the red sea coral pro?
 
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