Did I kill my Acan corals?! Please say it ain't so!

[DodgerDave]

Hi All

I just recently completed a 3 day blackout on my tank due to cyano issues. I uncovered my tank on Sunday morning. I provided my tank with about 5 hours of light on Sunday. I'm back to normal 8 hour light schedule today.

The blackout helped my live rock a lot! There's still some areas that are still infected, but it actually got a bit better today (2nd day with lights on the tank). When I came home from work, the top back area of the rock looked better and noticed 1 banded trochus and 1 nerite on the cyano area. Hoping since the cyano isn't as thick, the snails are going to work on it.

Livestock wise, i lost 1 nerite and my skunk cleaner shrimp.

Coral wise, my alveopora coral polyps haven't extended, but i can see the polyps today about to poke out of the skeleton. I was expecting it was going to take my alveopora coral the longest to recover.

 

But I'm very worried about my acan "island". First off, I'll show you some before and after photos.

 

Before the blackout:

 

After the blackout:

 

I'm worried mostly about the pink acan on the right part of the "island". It's lost a lot of color and it looks like a lot of the "flesh" is gone? The other 2 acans aren't looking so hot, but as i mentioned, the pink one looks like hell.

 

It's only the second day with the lights on since the 3 day blackout, but still worried.

Any suggestions on what I should do? I was planning on feeding my coral reef roids on Wednesday, but should I move it up to Tuesday? By the looks of it, will my acans survive?

 

Bonus question, anyone ID what the heck that yellow thing is under the pink acan?

 

Thanks everyone!

[NorthGaHillbilly]

They defiantly seemed to have bleached out, reef roids arnt substantial enough for acans, IMO, Id feed them a meatier food asap. But they dont look like there receding at all so I expect you can bring them back.

[n0rk]

They're not dead, but they're not healthy.

 

Keep them in relatively low light for now, you're likely going to have to reacclimate them while they rebuild their pigment balance.

 

Feed them as hard as you dare, for now their feeding response will be somewhat retarded so as little competition as you can offer them, the better. More food will allow them to recover faster, but then you risk ruining your water quality in the process so stay on top of it. At work I typically use a mix of quality frozen foods, amino acids, and a few powdered zooplankton complexes which provides a pretty good result for damaged corals.

 

Also, that yellow thing is a sponge.

[Mike Savage]

The yellow looks like a sponge. Give your acans a couple days with low light, they should be fine if that is the only issue. I don't see what size your tank is but if it is small (like 8 gallons or less) then the death of the snail could cause a crash. (A water change would help) I had a Trochus die in my 8 gallon a couple months ago and the tank is finally looking better but not great yet.

Ha! I guess I need to type faster!

[DodgerDave]

Wow, thank you so much for the quick responses!

 

 

They defiantly seemed to have bleached out, reef roids arnt substantial enough for acans, IMO, Id feed them a meatier food asap. But they dont look like there receding at all so I expect you can bring them back.

 

I don't have meatier food, so I just completed a small reef roid feeding to my corals, aiming mostly on the acans.

 

 

They're not dead, but they're not healthy.

 

Keep them in relatively low light for now, you're likely going to have to reacclimate them while they rebuild their pigment balance.

 

Feed them as hard as you dare, for now their feeding response will be somewhat retarded so as little competition as you can offer them, the better. More food will allow them to recover faster, but then you risk ruining your water quality in the process so stay on top of it. At work I typically use a mix of quality frozen foods, amino acids, and a few powdered zooplankton complexes which provides a pretty good result for damaged corals.

 

Also, that yellow thing is a sponge.

 

As previously mentioned, I did a reef roid feeding. The main reason I'm scared of doing a lot of feeding is that it will bring back the cyano problem. I do have some zoo plankton, so maybe I'll do a night feeding tomorrow or Wednesday.

 

 

The yellow looks like a sponge. Give your acans a couple days with low light, they should be fine if that is the only issue. I don't see what size your tank is but if it is small (like 8 gallons or less) then the death of the snail could cause a crash. (A water change would help) I had a Trochus die in my 8 gallon a couple months ago and the tank is finally looking better but not great yet.

Ha! I guess I need to type faster!

 

Spot on my friend! I have a 8 gallon JBJ nano-cube! I did a big water change last Wednesday, a day before the blackout. I did another big water change on Sunday when I uncovered the tank. I'm planning another water change on this coming Thursday.

 

Thanks again for the quick responses guys! This site is the best and I'm glad I discovered this treasure trove of information.

 

EDIT: Is a sponge bad for the reef tank? Do I leave it along or try to remove?

[Mike Savage]

Sponge is good and pretty. The only time I don't like it is if it is getting between the polyps of my zoas.

[NorthGaHillbilly]

fish pellets aught to do a decent job, dropped directly onto them.

[gus6464]

Cyano a lot of times occurs because of insuficient flow and not because of too much feeding. Another thing you can do with cyano is spot dosing hydrogen peroxide instead of a blackout.

 

I would also buy some Fauna Marin LPS Ultra cubes as they are very meaty and acans love it.

[DodgerDave]

Damn, I had a minor tank crash....

Came home today and my clown fish was dead. It was attached to the freaking intake pump of my hydor 180 GPH circulation pump.

My alveopora was dead too. The skeleton was turning brown, the polyps I saw just about to peak out of the skeleton were all over the tank. My acan corals still look like crap.

I'm really bummed out right now....

[NorthGaHillbilly]

Damn, I had a minor tank crash....

Came home today and my clown fish was dead. It was attached to the freaking intake pump of my hydor 180 GPH circulation pump.

My alveopora was dead too. The skeleton was turning brown, the polyps I saw just about to peak out of the skeleton were all over the tank. My acan corals still look like crap.

I'm really bummed out right now....

I hate to hear it man, did you do any tests to look for a cause?

[wobar]

I would guess that your losses and acan unhappiness are caused by a water quality issue, not a 3 day blackout. A blackout shouldn't have killed your snail and shrimp.

[opaquelace]

I would stop with the blackout and find the actual cause of the cyano and not just a solution. Cyano is usually caused by poor water quality and low flow. I would perform some significant water changes and think about adding another power head somewhere within the tank.

[DodgerDave]

Hi everyone.

Thanks so much for your comments, support, and suggestions.

Well, I learn something new everyday regarding reefing. I knew that doing a blackout was risky and I lost this bet.

I added an additional hydor 100 PGH to my tank. I'm thinking this extra circulation should help prevent cyano now.

Thanks again everyone.

[NorthGaHillbilly]

Hi everyone.

Thanks so much for your comments, support, and suggestions.

Well, I learn something new everyday regarding reefing. I knew that doing a blackout was risky and I lost this bet.

I added an additional hydor 100 PGH to my tank. I'm thinking this extra circulation should help prevent cyano now.

Thanks again everyone.

The black out isnt what caused you problems man, did you ever do any tests to get an idea on parameters?

[Mariaface]

The flow isn't going to fix the cyano issue; fixing the surplus of nutrients is. Flow just helps keep the cyano from matting down too much.

[DodgerDave]

The black out isnt what caused you problems man, did you ever do any tests to get an idea on parameters?

 

The black out isnt what caused you problems man, did you ever do any tests to get an idea on parameters?

 

Well....i've never done a parameter test on my water. Yeah, I know it's not the way to go, but since it's a 8 gallon pico and I do large water changes, I didn't think it was a problem. Obviously, I'm rethinking it and plan on getting a test system. I'm going to acquaintance house tomorrow and will take water to check. I'm going to see how water tests are done properly and buy a system soon after.

But I'm sure I know what initially caused the problem. I used to overfeed my tank like crazy. 2 fish and 1 shrimp in my tank and i feed pellets twice a day (good amounts each time). I've backed off and feed every other day and not so much at a time.

 

The flow isn't going to fix the cyano issue; fixing the surplus of nutrients is. Flow just helps keep the cyano from matting down too much.

 

Yeah, as stated above, I'm doing my best to solve the surplus of nutrients problem. Other than feeding pellets every other day for my fish, i spot feed reef roids once a week for my coral.

 

Feeding fish is much less now.....during the blackout, i lost my skunk cleaner shrimp (he loved eating the pellets!). A few days after the blackout, my clown fish died (got sucked into the intake of one of my circulation pumps...RIP).

 

So my tank is now "normal" for a 8 gallon tank...just 1 fish. But I plan on getting a small skunk cleaner shrimp in the near future.

[Mariaface]

How about feeding a small amount once a day? Make sure that the temperature in the tank accounts for how much you're feeding, because a higher temperature means a higher metabolism, means higher food needs.