Never had success with Acros

Burritosanchito said:
If your alk is 7 that’s super low. I’d suggest 10-12. That’s likely why your pH is low as well.
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Disagree. While 7 is on the lower side for tanks that is what NSW is and is much more forgiving than 10-12dkh for acros in terms of life. 10-12 dkh will promote a lot of growth, not the best color, if you have the proper higher nutrients to sustain the growth and not burn the tips of the acros. My previous post mentioned things that could raise the ph....and furthermore the home could be high in c02 so some fresh air could help.

My alk is about 8dkh most of the time
Screenshot_20231213_191407_APEXFusion.jpg
 
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billyocean said:
Disagree. While 7 is on the lower side for tanks that is what NWS is and is much more forgiving than 10-12dkh for acros in terms of life. 10-12 dkh will promote a lot of growth, not the best color, if you have the proper higher nutrients to sustain the growth and not burn the tips of the acros. My previous post mentioned things that could raise the ph....and furthermore the home could be high in c02 so some fresh air could help.

My alk is about 8dkh most of the time
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I am slowly raising my ALK to 8-9, and I am already using a CO2 scrubber. I guess I might need to calibrate my PH probe again. And I agree with you, 10-11 ALK might be too high and if for some reason the acros' growth slow down, I can easily overdose ALK without a trident and biweekly testing...
 
I aim for about .08-.12 po04. As long as I'm .05 I'm ok...just to have a buffer from bottoming out..up to .2 is on the high side for me so that's why I aim for those numbers. N03 10-20 and preferably 15-20...again..more of a buffer from bottoming out. Don't really go for a ratio or put any thought into the "Redfield ratio". As long as my numbers are somewhere in there I feel OK about it.
 
Guys, now my bubble gum digi isn't doing well. It starts to develop some sort of white fluffs... IDK what are these.

IMG_2561.jpg


Tank parameters are stable.
ALK: 8.8
CAL: 420
Mg: 1330
SALT: 34.4
NO4: 0.3
 
do you have any pests?
i had a similar problem with my encrusting montis for a time and couldnt figure it out. then one night a saw asterina stars having a buffet. those little shits were munching on a lot of encrusting sps - montis, spongodes, lepto.
 
Haven't seen anything... I did add a Emerald crab recently, but I haven't seen it hanging out on those digi... Will keep an eye on it.
 
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Definately looks like something eating it as far as what I can tell. N03 is pretty low...what's your p04?
 
I have the exact same issue. Blastos, zoas, hammers all look good. Monti's, Gonis, sps all come to my tank to slowly die. I have one Purple Stylophora that has been slowly dying for almost 4 months now, still has live tissue, just recedes every so slightly week to week that looks very similar to your last pictured coral the top one. I even have a brain coral that's now slowly receding which I got about a month ago.

I had really low nitrates and phosphates that I have corrected. I only run my skimmer for 4 hours a day as I was running too clean. I occasionally add an alk buffer as I am also around 7.5-8 but I hold and havent dropped or spiked at all, but everything else is within range. Trying now to not add anything and see if I can just coast for a while at same parameters before I add another "canary" coral. Driving me nuts never had these issues.
 
dustin said:
I have the exact same issue. Blastos, zoas, hammers all look good. Monti's, Gonis, sps all come to my tank to slowly die. I have one Purple Stylophora that has been slowly dying for almost 4 months now, still has live tissue, just recedes every so slightly week to week that looks very similar to your last pictured coral the top one. I even have a brain coral that's now slowly receding which I got about a month ago.

I had really low nitrates and phosphates that I have corrected. I only run my skimmer for 4 hours a day as I was running too clean. I occasionally add an alk buffer as I am also around 7.5-8 but I hold and havent dropped or spiked at all, but everything else is within range. Trying now to not add anything and see if I can just coast for a while at same parameters before I add another "canary" coral. Driving me nuts never had these issues.
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By alk buffer do you mean an alk additive like esv, red sea, baking soda, soda ash or kalk. Have you done any icp testing to get a ballpark idea of anything that you may not know about?
 
The p04 is on the edge of bottoming out and within testing variation range of being bottomed out but it's probably not. It's a thin line to walk though. N03 at least 5-10 gives you a little buffer from zero. The other numbers look fine. I'm not a number chaser but prefer p04 about .08 and n03 15-20 in my stick heavy tank. It really just gives me a good buffer in case things drop to keep me from bottoming out.
 
billyocean said:
The p04 is on the edge of bottoming out and within testing variation range of being bottomed out but it's probably not. It's a thin line to walk though. N03 at least 5-10 gives you a little buffer from zero. The other numbers look fine. I'm not a number chaser but prefer p04 about .08 and n03 15-20 in my stick heavy tank. It really just gives me a good buffer in case things drop to keep me from bottoming out.
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Yea, I am not chasing numbers either. It was really a surprise to me that my NO3 are almost bottomed out, since it has always been around 30-40... Maybe my tank start to mature now.
I will try to increase feeding and maybe get a few more fish.
 
Rock/sand also absorb p04 and until saturation occurs the p04 may remain low so testing is key. Overfeeding is one way but the drawback is extra unwanted waste. Dosing is another way that's cleaner but the drawback is dosing. Either way, if you get those nutrients up it's a start. Take it slow and eliminate one potential problem at a time and it will eventually show itself.
 
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