Never had success with Acros

[GammaYankee]

Need some advice from ARC members. I have a 20 gallon display tank running for a year now. I have tried acros multiple times, some of them even started to encrust on the rock, but they all eventually died. I am just not sure what is going on. Here are some parameters of my tank:
Tmp: 77-78 F
NO3: 10 ppm
Ph: 7.7 - 8.1
Alk: 7.0
Cal: 420
Mg: 1400
Salt: 34.8

I do 10% weekly water change, and I only have a six line wrasse, a clownfish and a goby in the tank. I placed the acro on top of my rock works and they are receiving about 300-400 par. I acclimate them well, by moving them slowing from the sand bed to the top of the rock over weeks. I would say my tank is semi-stable. Maybe I can pay more attention to the water temperature when I do water change.

The only "weird" thing that I did was placing the acro directly on the rock, instead of gluing the plug to the rock. I just prefer a natural look.

Any idea what might be wrong? Thanks a lot.

 

[GammaYankee]

The acros/sps I have tried:
ASD rainbow milli, Vivid Supercake, green slimmer, a random purple acro ...

Other SPS are doing fine in my tank:
Purple stylo, birdsnest, bubble gum digi, kung pao monti...

 

[civics14]

When it comes to acros, I find it all comes down to stability. Your parameters in a single test doesn't tell us much, it's the #'s over time that matters and how much the fluctuate.

• What are you dosing? How often? Manual or on a doser?
• How often are you testing?
• What's your phosphate level?
• Have you looked to make sure you don't have any AEFW or other bugs?
• When the acros die off, what are the symptoms?

 

[GammaYankee]

@civics14 Thanks a lot for your reply.

• I am dosing brightwell two parts, via DOS.
• I test my ALK and NO3 everyweek. CAL and MG every other week. SALT and PH are based on Apex probes.
• My Phosphate is zero, tested using Redsea test kit. (I am not sure why, but this is what it reads every time...)
• I don't see and AEFW, but I do have some vermetid snails and tiny hydrois (not those colony ones).
• My acros die over night, they just turn white suddenly and seems to be RTN.

 

[civics14]

From my experience acros dying overnight / RTN usually involves some type of swing in parameters.

Your alk - when you test weekly, does it fluctuate much or stay pretty consistent? also, just to confirm, all your test are still good and aren't expired?

 

[GammaYankee]

Yes, my test agents are still good, they don't expire till 2024/11.

My alk stays pretty much the same, around 6.8-7.3. Should I test more often?

 

[GammaYankee]

My plan is to start testing daily for about two weeks and if the water chemistry is stable, I may try some hardy acros... Do you have any recommendation?

 

[civics14]

I have this green tenuis that is super hardy and grows like a weed. You’re welcome to a frag to test if you’d like.

 

[GammaYankee]

That's very nice of you. Thanks. I will contact you once I am sure that my tank is relatively stable.

 

[acandoit]

birdsnest and green slimers were always the corals I started with to get things dialed in.

 

[civics14]

My plan is to start testing daily for about two weeks and if the water chemistry is stable, I may try some hardy acros... Do you have any recommendation?

Also, I wouldn't test daily. I would space it out to every other day or every 3 days, that's what I typically do when I first start out to adjust my calc reactor. Daily consumption fluctuates to much, so an average of 2-3 days is much better. However, if you're doing it weekly and its only fluctuating that .5 across 7 days, that's not much at all. As long as its getting slowly corrected back.

Are you making your own water?

 

[Rainblood]

Your alk seems pretty low. Even if it is consistently low …maybe that has a factor?

 

[GammaYankee]

Your alk seems pretty low. Even if it is consistently low …maybe that has a factor?

Should I slowly raise it to around 8?

Also, I wouldn't test daily. I would space it out to every other day or every 3 days, that's what I typically do when I first start out to adjust my calc reactor. Daily consumption fluctuates to much, so an average of 2-3 days is much better. However, if you're doing it weekly and its only fluctuating that .5 across 7 days, that's not much at all. As long as its getting slowly corrected back.

Are you making your own water?

Yes, I am making my own water with RODI. The TDS is 0.

 

[civics14]

Should I slowly raise it to around 8?


Yes, I am making my own water with RODI. The TDS is 0.

My feeling about #'s is avoid chasing a specific #. You just have to be in range and keep it fairly stable. Above 7 is within acceptable range. I kept my tank between 7 - 7.5 for the longest, but recently raised it to closer to 8 since I am dosing nitrates now.

I never seen a stable tank that have acros encrust then RTN over night that didn't have some type of swing. When the acros turn white, is it peeling from the base or from the tip?

Have you checked your equipment to make sure nothing is rusting, anyone spraying any aerosol nearby, what are you using to clean your equipment, have you done an ICP test to make sure you don't have any other heavy metals in your water? How often are you putting your hands in the water, could something be on your hands? Are you dosing anything else besides 2 part?

At this point, nothing is standing out to cause RTN over night, so there has to be an underlying factor that is goin on in your water.

 

[GammaYankee]

I never seen a stable tank that have acros encrust then RTN over night that didn't have some type of swing. When the acros turn white, is it peeling from the base or from the tip?

It was peeling from the base. And I can see flesh peeling of from the stem. I will probably do an ICP test next week.

I removed all the vermetid snails around the acros, but cannot get rid of the hydroids. Do you think that may be an issue?

 

[billyocean]

Zero p04 isn't good and can starve your acros. I try to stay around .1 but at least .04ish would help.

 

[billyocean]

Definatley another factor if its rtn overnight after being healthy for a while.

 

[GammaYankee]

Zero p04 isn't good and can starve your acros. I try to stay around .1 but at least .04ish would help.

I am also puzzled. I have relatively high NO3 but zero PO4. Not sure what is wrong. I will test again this week.
I do run my algae reactor for long period of time, trying to lower the NO3. Is it possible that the chaeto consumes all the PO4 without depleting NO3?

 

[billyocean]

Quite possibly it does. How that works in relation to absorbing it before acros can, I don't know. The alk is on the lower end and you said you use a 2 part....but ph is pretty low as well. I wonder if the brightwell is like a bicarbonate (baking soda) or carbonate (soda ash). Soda ash will boost that ph some or kalkwasser is another avenue to boost ph. I feel like it's a combo of low alk, po4, ph but as civics said that shouldnt make an encursted coral rtn overnight unless its a one off rarity. At that point i think bugs, swings, bacterial....

 

[Burritosanchito]

If your alk is 7 that’s super low. I’d suggest 10-12. That’s likely why your pH is low as well.