Acan growth affected by Kenya Tree?

Emma01 · Dec 17, 2018

Hi. I’m new to reef2reef
I’ve had my reef tank for about 2.5-3years now, and it has very much been softie coral based (Kenya tree and mushrooms) Also got cleaner shrimp, starfish, clown fish and hermit crab. It’s 30litre nano cube (and will be upgrading soon to Red Sea 170

)

So anyway my question is.....
I’ve recently added Acan frag (about 2 months-ish ago) and in the first week or so it grew 2 new heads, and all of a sudden just seems to have stopped growing/spreading.
All polyps extend beautifully and generally looks healthy. Nothing seems to be eating it, and there’s no other coral near by to be stinging it etc. I also did have a hammer head that just seemed to shrivel up and die!

All parameters are in check.
Can a Kenya tree/mushrooms (which also haven’t really grown/spread) affect the growth of the acans and LPS corals?
My Kenya tree has grown like a weed in the 2-3 years I’ve had it. And has quadrupled in size (if not more)
I use D-D H2Ocean Pro salt and RO water and strict on my weekly water changes.
It’s this kind of thing that puts me off having my Red Sea 170 if I can’t even keep these ones alive

Hope someone can give me a little advice. Thanks in advance.

Reefing Madness · Dec 17, 2018

It can, using its toxins. Are you running Carbon, and as always, can you give us your water params.

Emma01 · Dec 17, 2018

Hi
I’m not running carbon atm, although I recently removed chemipure elite bag as I was unsure whether this was adding to the problem.
My water parameters (done today) are..... (salifert test kit)
Mg= 1275
Ca= 395
KH= 8.3
PH= 8.15
Temp- 25.0 c
Salinity= 1025

Thanks.

Reefing Madness · Dec 18, 2018

Id throw the chemipure back in and raise my CA to 420
What are your Phosphates and Nitrates?

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Hi.
Ok I’ll put the chemipure back in.
Phosphates-0
Nitrates- <1.

I’ve recently switched to the DDO H20 ocean pro salt from another pre-mixed brand, which it seemed was bad quality salt. Am I doing too little water changes with this new salt in order to get the Ca, KH raised?. I change 10%weekly.
Thanks

Ruben's Reef · Dec 18, 2018

!!! Welcome to R2R @Emma01 !!! Can you post some pics of your tank ? Did you switch the salt slowly with a WC?

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Hi.
Yes I switched salts slowly. I changed approx 2-2.5L on the first week, then increased to 3L and so on the following weeks and now I’m doing 10% (5-6L weekly)
I’m wondering whether the salt that was previously in there combined with this one is not really increasing the KH+ Ca much and do I do a bigger WC or more frequently over a course of a week???
Here’s the pics, although due to the size of the tank I’m obviously limited to how much I can put in there. Until of course I get a bigger tank, if I can work out my current issue

. Excuse the lid on the tank. It’s a temporary measure. One of my clowns jamp out few months ago

Thanks

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Ruben's Reef · Dec 18, 2018

Nice tank. Your parameters look ok for what you have so maybe the salt change will be the problem until you switch complete.

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Would it be an idea to do a bigger water change? 20% over a course of a week? Or continue with my 10% and wait patiently until the levels (eventually) increase?

ajhudson15 · Dec 18, 2018

Are you feeding the acans directly. With almost no nitrates there isn't much food for them.

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Yes. They get fed direct, I’ve cut a bottle in half, and have a pipette that gets squirted into the hole in the lid of the bottle lid and leave it in there for about 10 minutes with skimmer off.
I feed them LPS pelletmysis. That way my greedy shrimp can’t get to them!

Ruben's Reef · Dec 18, 2018

Emma01 said:
Would it be an idea to do a bigger water change? 20% over a course of a week? Or continue with my 10% and wait patiently until the levels (eventually) increase?

You can do a 20% but remember to keep same salinity and temperature as the DT to avoid some fluctuations.

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

Ok thank, I’ll try that then and wait patiently.
Yes, as you can imagine keeping salinity and temp stable in such a small aquarium is an absolute NIGHTMARE!

andrewkw · Dec 18, 2018

While they can, I am going to say in your case no. I have way more kenya tree and way more micromussas in my tank and both grow well. They are not effected by each other. The kenya trees have basically spread all over my tank over the years. In 2 months you are likely not to notice any notable growth in almost any encrusting LPS unless you are feeding them daily. Enough time has not passed no see growth. How often are you target feeding them? I doubt the change in salts has any effect unless you are using a salt with a huge parameter difference. Given the corals you have there probably isn't much alk/ca consumption.

Finally long term you need to mount the micros. Once they do actually start growing they will have no where to grow and will just end up on the bottom of the plug. To make it easier for them it's best to provide them a ramp so they will take that path to grow vs going under the plug.

Emma01 · Dec 18, 2018

I feed them approx 1 weekly.
I’ve left them on the frag atm as I want to move them easier into the Red Sea 170 that I’ll get
Fab advice though, all appreciated