Weak Acro? Or Human Error?

[coralboi56]

Howdy, recently purhcased an acro from my LFS. As I was traveling home, the acro lost color, which I expected it to. I then put it in Coral RX dip and all of his color was lost. Put him in the aquarium and he never made a comeback. He was pretty much dead after a single day which is weird, considering I tried an acro when I first got into the hobby 4 years ago, and even that one lasted a few weeks before it was a goner.

I'm trying to venture into sps, but I really don't want to kill another acro. Is there something I did wrong? Or was it just a weak/ uncared for specimen from the beginning?

It was in a PAR level of around 260-270
Parameters were
Nitrite: .02
Nitrate: 5
Phos: .075
Calc: 535
Mag.1400
Alk: 8.68
SG: 1.025

 

[Bribo12]

Sounds like you got an acro in rough shape imo. Not making a short car ride home would definitely indicate it wasn’t doing well to start with

 

[coralboi56]

Sounds like you got an acro in rough shape imo. Not making a short car ride home would definitely indicate it wasn’t doing well to start with

Hopefully that's true.
1. It makes me feel a lot better lol
2. I'll be sure to look for a healthy and thriving frag next time

 

[SpSDrew]

Describe losing color? Flesh peeling? Just browned out? Bleaching ?

I don’t see an acropora just losing color from a ride home. It won’t look anything like it does under the lights but unless you held it out the window on a warm day, I’m confused by what actually happened.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Describe losing color? Flesh peeling? Just browned out? Bleaching ?

I don’t see an acropora just losing color from a ride home. It won’t look anything like it does under the lights but unless you held it out the window on a warm day, I’m confused by what actually happened.

If I had to guess, his lfs had lights more on the blue side which brought out the florescent colors.

Then in the car under natural light it looked brown.

OP, what is your home tanks lighting spectrum?

If after a day the coral died might suggest water quality.

Do you have any inverts in the tank?

Can you rule out the presence of copper?

 

[coralboi56]

If I had to guess, his lfs had lights more on the blue side which brought out the florescent colors.

Then in the car under natural light it looked brown.

OP, what is your home tanks lighting spectrum?

If after a day the coral died might suggest water quality.

Do you have any inverts in the tank?

Can you rule out the presence of copper?

1. I run a Red Sea 50 with 75% blue and 30% white
2. Water quality is posted in the og post and hasn't deviated much since then
3. Only cuc. Two hermits and a nassarius snail.
4. Have never used copper in the tank and I don't have a QT tank. Copper has not been anywhere near the system

 

[coralboi56]

Describe losing color? Flesh peeling? Just browned out? Bleaching ?

I don’t see an acropora just losing color from a ride home. It won’t look anything like it does under the lights but unless you held it out the window on a warm day, I’m confused by what actually happened.

Only the actual polyps retained their color (bright yellow), but it was just the very tips of them. The polyps never fully emerged once the coral was in the tank.

But yes, by losing color, I meant he browned out at first, but it quickly turned to bleaching

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

1. I run a Red Sea 50 with 75% blue and 30% white
2. Water quality is posted in the og post and hasn't deviated much since then
3. Only cuc. Two hermits and a nassarius snail.
4. Have never used copper in the tank and I don't have a QT tank. Copper has not been anywhere near the system

Hmm,

My next thought would be stability, perhaps parameter(s) swing of some sort.

pH
Temp
Alk

Would be the prime candidates.

Par is low, so that wouldn't be a candidate after 1 day.

Edit: I'm assuming we're dealing with a fairly small tank?

 

[coralboi56]

Hmm,

My next thought would be stability, perhaps parameter(s) swing of some sort.

pH
Temp
Alk

Would be the prime candidates.

Par is low, so that wouldn't be a candidate after 1 day.

Edit: I'm assuming we're dealing with a fairly small tank?

I full test 2x a week and test temp, pH, and salinity daily. Everything was within acceptable parameters (besides the phos a little on the higher side and calcium)
Temp is 77-78
pH is 7.9-8.1
Alk is 11ish after a water change and goes down to 8ish by the day before a water change

Is it possible I light burned it? LFS supposedly keeps their systems at 150-175 PAR. Would putting it at a 270 PAR range right away kill it on day 1?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

(besides the phos a little on the higher side and calcium)
Temp is 77-78
pH is 7.9-8.1

Assuming calibrations are done regularly, None of this would concern me.

Alk is 11ish after a water change and goes down to 8ish by the day before a water change

but this might be worth considering.

Is it possible I light burned it? LFS supposedly keeps their systems at 150-175 PAR. Would putting it at a 270 PAR range right away kill it on day 1?

What was this acro? I highly doubt this to be something that killed it in one day.

Can you shed light on how the coral died? Are you familiar with necrosis? We're you able to observe skin peeling off? Or did the acro simply bleach?

Without more knowledge of your system, a large alk swing like that, can definitely do what you describe.

Who's to say that if the LFS runs low par, perhaps they also keep alk at the very bottom of the spectrum, 6-7?

This is all speculation based on what you provided. There's other things to consider as well. Are you in control of the RODI water? If so, can you provide the TDS numbers? You might be introducing hard metals to the tank and not even know it. And along those lines, when's the last time you inspected the magnets that are submerged in salt? Have they started rusting?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Mny suggestions but please post a pic of the acro itself to help develop dome positive clues

 

[coralboi56]

Assuming calibrations are done regularly, None of this would concern me.

but this might be worth considering.


What was this acro? I highly doubt this to be something that killed it in one day.

Can you shed light on how the coral died? Are you familiar with necrosis? We're you able to observe skin peeling off? Or did the acro simply bleach?

Without more knowledge of your system, a large alk swing like that, can definitely do what you describe.

Who's to say that if the LFS runs low par, perhaps they also keep alk at the very bottom of the spectrum, 6-7?

This is all speculation based on what you provided. There's other things to consider as well. Are you in control of the RODI water? If so, can you provide the TDS numbers? You might be introducing hard metals to the tank and not even know it. And along those lines, when's the last time you inspected the magnets that are submerged in salt? Have they started rusting?

1. Have no idea what Acro it was. Too many color morphs names and not enough exact specie names if you ask me
2. Though I’m not familiar with RTN, it didn’t look like any of the pics. Looked more like a rapid bleach.
3. Like I said, the Alk does that over the course of a week. Not a single day. I got the coral the day after a water change so my alk would’ve been in the high side. But to be fair, I didn’t ask them for all of their water quality parameters
5. Not in control of my RODI, I buy in store for now
6. What magnets??

 

[coralboi56]

Mny suggestions but please post a pic of the acro itself to help develop dome positive clues

I would, but I threw it out a few days ago

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

It's really tough to say. That much of an alk swing in a week is not going to make it easy for you to grow and keep corals.

Could it be the smoking gun in this case? No idea. It seems to fit but...

If you're wanting to try again, I would suggest first sending in a sample of water to one of the reputable for ICP places for testing.

That might shed some light on your situation.