Two acros have stopped any PE

[MHG]

so out of about 20 frags, I have a green birdsnest that has grown to a nice colony, some encrusting on most of the other frags but slow. a Rose milly that has doubled in size. However, I have two acros that have not shown any PE in weeks. The color is still the same. below is the bigger unidentified acro... It has turned from a brownish purple to a pale blue back to a nice purple since I got it. about 3 weeks ago the PE stopped. Day or night... The color on the photo is not the best...

I dose AA, have no leathers only some button polyps and armor of god polyps. AOG has doubles and the buttom polyps grow a few here and there. Most zoas have done nothing much.

I dose two part and run a chiller so my temp is quite stable. PH goes from about 8.1 at night to 8.35 in the day.

Tha tank is 9 months old and I feed heavily. Only 5 fish... so I feed reefnutrician, oyster feast, phyto and also reefsmoothie... I stagger them a different one each night.

I ran a poly filter for a couple of weeks just in case. I stopped carbon 2 weeks ago...


I think this acro is a gonner but I cant figure it out.

 

[REEF SMAC]

I hate it when they do that and you don't know why.

It's only a guess here. Can't really make out much from the photo.

Looks like something is making it unhappy for sure.

What is the color supposed to be for this particular coral? Is it supposed to be that light of a color? Looks almost a little bleached. What kind of light is it getting?
Are your other corals showing light colors like that?

What kind of flow is it getting?

My other guess would be that your Alk is lower than what you think it is, or dipping lower at sometime throughout the day or night when you are not testing it. You're riding it kinda to the low side

Where is your salinity? Are you sure it's accurate?

 

[MHG]

Well it is my oldest coral. It has been there since early march. Well started on the bottom and worked its way up there... The flow is moderate indirect. I have a 750 korillia and a cranked mp10 and a little 290 korillia. All shooting in different directions at different heights. The polyps were waving back and forth so I am guessing it was ok as far as flow. I did try to point my return at it for a week but all that did was cause any floating algae or ditritus To stick to it...

I am using a refractometer and I can only assume it is accurate. I calibrate at every use.
Like I said the color in the photo is off. It is not that white or blotchy in real life. It is the same color is has been for a couple of months.


My lights were initially too high and after I got my hands on a par meter I cut them back to 20 percent and started slowly turning them back up after my green birds nest recovered its color.. I am up to about 40% which is about 250 par on this acro.

The other acro I am having problems within acro and purple tip acro of some sort. It was browning while my frag rack was at the bottom. They mother colony is in a guys tank with closer to 500 par. That is my target par on top of the reef but I am only at about 325 right now... So I a assuming that one just wants more light.

Ouse mostly Redsea test kits. Since I am ULNS my alk needs to stay in the 7's. Any higher and I get STN...

 

[basser1]

Looks like it's getting blasted with light. You may want to cut it down to 30%.

 

[MHG]

Well at 250 par I hope not....

 

[basser1]

All acros adapt differently, I'm just giving you my observation.

 

[toothman]

You may be over cleaning the water with gfo, carbon, biopellets, I would remove the gfo and carbon and see if there is a difference. I would also try some oyster feast.

Led light are also much brighter than they appear, could be that.

 

[REEF SMAC]

You may be over cleaning the water with gfo, carbon, biopellets, I would remove the gfo and carbon and see if there is a difference. I would also try some oyster feast.

Led light are also much brighter than they appear, could be that.

Yah, I would agree.
Maybe even pull the boipellets too for a while or reduce the amount of them.
Let your NO3 and PO4 rise up slightly and see if that helps things improve.

 

[MedRed]

I wouldn't start changing things for two unhappy corals if everything else is happy and your parameters are good and stable.

 

[MHG]

I wouldn't start changing things for two unhappy corals if everything else is happy and your parameters are good and stable.

I am tending to lean that way as well. Except for a bout of stn when my alk jumped a bit. most are happy although growing slow.

I do agree that the water may be too clean and I did stop the carbon, but if I stop the GFO my phosphates jump, stunt growth and grow HA....

I am starting pohls xtra special to see if that helps fill in some of what the corals may be missing in a ULNS... I have read good things about it...

I do use oyster feast.

 

[SpinyReef]

pests perhaps. aefw & red bugs do force polyps to retract

 

[MHG]

Well I think I figured it out....vermatid snails.... I did not know what it was. I have a couple dozen of these and I noticed a new one about the time the bigger acro stopped PE... I think it was irritated and starved eventually . I pinched as many as I can find.... That big acro has been loosing tissue the last couple of days... The encrusted base still has some glow under the blue lights so I hope it recovers....

 

[MHG]

After a couple of weeks of dosing Pohls coral vitalizer and XTRA special, the peach and purple acro is coloring back up. PE is starting to come back...The larger unknown is almost dead. I am still thinking those vermatid snails were annoying it and it starved.... I now look for them and nip them whenever they are near any corals.