Tissue receeding on Acro

[Frag Factory]

Hey all,

 

Past week or so I've noticed my Acropora frag has looked a bit sad.

 

I've had the coral about a month, it's been happy. Good polyp extension and great colour. This week though it's not looked great.

 

 

 

 

I did spot my emerald crab at the base looking like he was looking for algea off it but didn't think much of it. 

 

Parameters:

Salinity: 1.025

0ppm ammonia, nitrite

Kh is 11 (red Sea black bucket salt)

 

Last week for the first time my nitrate gave a 0ppm reading.

 

I do a 20% water change everyweek without fail, I use an ATO. I don't dose anything.

 

Conditions are stable, and the only change is my nitrates dropping to 0ppm. I'm going to add some bioballs to try and keep those between 2ppm and 5ppm.

 

Does this look like my crab is enjoying a snack, or is something going on?

 

What's the best course to take?

 

No other corals in my tank seem to have an issue. Even goniopora or montipora.

[A Little Blue]

I would dip it in Rx and or iodine base dip to see if there are any pests. Iodine also helps with bacterial infections. 

If it’s browning out, try to give it a little more light. 

[Euphylin me]

i would check your parameters. how does alk//nitrates look? sps are fairly intolerant of alk,ph, or nitrate swings

[Euphylin me]

also, test your parameters every day for a week twice a day. once while the tank is at its peak photo period during the day (if your lights are on for 8 hours test after they have been on for 4) and once at night after the lights have been off for 4 hours. graph the results and see if there are any swings in ph or alk. 

[Frag Factory]

7 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

I would dip it in Rx and or iodine base dip to see if there are any pests. Iodine also helps with bacterial infections. 

If it’s browning out, try to give it a little more light. 

Good suggestion, I'll pick up some Rx tomorrow.

 

2 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

i would check your parameters. how does alk//nitrates look? sps are fairly intolerant of alk,ph, or nitrate swings

Other than nitrates which have dropped from 5ppm to 0ppm in 2 weeks or so, no swings can be seen in Alk or anything else.

[Euphylin me]

Just now, Frag Factory said:

Good suggestion, I'll pick up some Rx tomorrow.

 

Other than nitrates which have dropped from 5ppm to 0ppm in 2 weeks or so, no swings can be seen in Alk or anything else.

then i would try and move to a brighter spot in the tank and how is the flow on it?

[A Little Blue]

Also, more sensitive acros might crap out in ultra low nutrient tank with Alk this high. If you run your Alk at 11, make sure your nutrients are also high. Amino acids + acropower is a good start. 

[Frag Factory]

18 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

then i would try and move to a brighter spot in the tank and how is the flow on it?

Flow is 44x tank volume. It's not in direct flow.

 

I can move it, I'll try that 🙂

6 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

Also, more sensitive acros might crap out in ultra low nutrient tank with Alk this high. If you run your Alk at 11, make sure your nutrients are also high. Amino acids + acropower is a good start. 

Yeah, I was a little concerned about that. I've been trying to boost it but my liverock seems to have matured to be overly efficient. 

[Euphylin me]

sorry i didnt read the top (skipped right past it lol) yes, some acros love pristine waters while others like a touch of nutrients to the water. i would try what @A Little Blue has suggested. i dose kent essential elements and would recommend. and ive used acropower as well and have seen good results

[A Little Blue]

4 minutes ago, Euphylin me said:

sorry i didnt read the top (skipped right past it lol) yes, some acros love pristine waters while others like a touch of nutrients to the water. i would try what @A Little Blue has suggested. i dose kent essential elements and would recommend. and ive used acropower as well and have seen good results

No, it’s a balance between light, Alk and nutrients. Do a quick google search on it. There are also vids seminars on YouTube on the subject. It’s helpful. 

[Euphylin me]

31 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

No, it’s a balance between light, Alk and nutrients. Do a quick google search on it. There are also vids seminars on YouTube on the subject. It’s helpful. 

the suggested dosing is full of trace elements. thats why i suggested moving it to a brighter spot and and monitoring alk and other nutrients over the course of a week....to see what is consumed and if there are any swings. pristine meaning low of the side of nitrate/phosphate. ive kept them in very low nitrate/phosphate tanks with high lighting and trace element balancing and have seen good growth....."nutrients" are a vague term but i do agree that you have to find the balance between those 3....different species prefer different things but if do agree that if the alk is high the nitrate needs to be higher....same the other way around low alk needs lower nitrate

[Euphylin me]

however @Frag Factory, your acro seems to be browning out. i would raise the nitrates a tad but that isnt the problem here. if it is browning out, it needs more light and potentially higher flow (generally speaking)

[Frag Factory]

I've taken the frag off the rock and put it on a frag rack just below the surface.  There's a bit more flow there also. 

 

It's as bit slimed up as I did have to yoink it out of the milliput. 

 

I also noticed... There are only white patched on the side of the coral that the crab can access... 

 

I'll pick up some acropower and Rx tomorrow from the LFS and monitor the frag. Today is water change day but I'm going to skip that this week and try and boost nutrients. I'll feed my LFS and give my frogfish and extra shrimp to create a little waste also.

 

Will keep updating, thanks for the help guys 🙂

[RustyRocket]

If flow and lighting hasn't changed then I would say, there might have been temp, Alk or Phosphate swing or spikes between your testings. I'm been trying acros too, they are so finicky.

 

You tank is about 7 to 10 gallons right? Parameters are unstable in such a small body of water. Not even kidding but your predator fish could have finish digestion and let out a massive poop one time, it would be enough to bring up phospates by 0.1 or 0.2 before being adsorbed by the algaes in the tank. 

[Frag Factory]

1 minute ago, Euphylin me said:

however @Frag Factory, your acro seems to be browning out. i would raise the nitrates a tad but that isnt the problem here. if it is browning out, it needs more light and potentially higher flow (generally speaking)

I've moved it up towards the surface next to the filter outlet and obviously closer to the light. I'll give it a couple of days before I tweak my AI Prime program to boost light through there 🙂

[Euphylin me]

Just now, Frag Factory said:

I've moved it up towards the surface next to the filter outlet and obviously closer to the light. I'll give it a couple of days before I tweak my AI Prime program to boost light through there 🙂

i would slowly add more light and if you are increasing light then yes, increase the nitrates by a little bit. low nitrate and high lighting=bleaching so just monitor it and who knows...maybe the crab was stressing it out too much 

[A Little Blue]

I agree. Adjust to more intense light in gradual steps. And dip to make sure that it is pest free. After dip, check dipping solution for flat worms, spiders and other pests. If you find any, you might have to dip couple more times over the next few weeks. Don’t change your routine for now. Do what you usually do as far as water change is concerned. And don’t overfeed. It will cause more harm than good. If you want to raise your nutrient levels, use something like Aqua-vitro Fuel (or similar), acro power and live phytoplankton if you can get it. 

Good luck. 

 

[specore]

Is their actually a loss of tissue or just loss of polyp extension and/or browning?  If it's just browning and not extending it could be still settling in.  1 month isn't very long and it is likely still adjusting.  

[A Little Blue]

5 minutes ago, specore said:

Is their actually a loss of tissue or just loss of polyp extension and/or browning?  If it's just browning and not extending it could be still settling in.  1 month isn't very long and it is likely still adjusting.  

I think he said there were some white spots/patches. That could indicate pests or something else nibbling on it. 

Unless it is a slow tissue lost which gives it a 50/50 chance of survival. That’s why I suggested a pest control dip, following with iodine dip. He can also apply iodine directly to areas most affected. Use q-tip to apply, let it soak in for a minute then rinse in clean water. 

[Frag Factory]

3 hours ago, specore said:

Is their actually a loss of tissue or just loss of polyp extension and/or browning?  If it's just browning and not extending it could be still settling in.  1 month isn't very long and it is likely still adjusting.  

It certainly looks like it is, my phone is probably struggling to pick up the colour.

 

It's got white spots (about 1/4") in various places. They seem to have developed over the last week or so.

 

Gut feeling is the crab had something to do with it. Spots are only on the side of the coral the crab can reach and I've seen him "picking algea" from the coral a few times.

[Frag Factory]

Little update for you all.

 

I picked up some "reef primer" for a coral dip, LFS didn't have RX and recommended this instead. I trust them, they are pretty good.

 

Did this on Saturday, no bugs or pests were found and polyps have been retracted since...

 

Fingers crossed.

 

I'm beginning to wonder if my light settings need tweaking. I would love some SPS in my tank in the upper and mid levels, if you guys have a moment take a look here?
 

 

[Frag Factory]

Figured it's update time.

 

I don't think I have any pests, dipping bought nothing and I've spent an hour with a magnifying glass looking for critters. 

 

I've ordered some Acropower amino acids, should be here soon. 

 

But from moving the coral up, it looks better. The green sheen is coming back already and white spots are not growing... So things are steady.

 

I'm going to bump up my light by 1w per week until I hit 35w and see what happens.

 

The montipora setosa frag I bought at the same time as the Acro has gained noticeable mass in the last few weeks.

 

The more this goes on, the more I suspect the crab... My Acan is now looking a bit sad today, I found my crab all over it this morning. 😤

[Clown79]

High alk low nutrients creates issues with stony corals. With low nutrients you want to stick with params closer to nsw. 

 

 

I wouldn't chase ph. Alot if us don't even test it. It fluctuates all day. 

 

Focus on alk and stability because it's the 1 parameter that causes issues. Alk also works with ph.