Acan starting to show skeleton at night but looks healthy during the day

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

this acan was my first coral and I’ve had it for about 4 months but about a week ago I noticed when the lights would go off and it would close up for the night around the edges it was starting to show some skeleton but during the day it looks puffy and happy what could it be?? All of my levels have only gotten better sense I got it I use to have low Alk and Mag phosphate has always been 0.0 nitrate has moved around a little but I’ve been able to keep it between 8-10 for the past couple weeks

Alk-8.4dkh
pH-8.6
Calcium-500
Mag-1320
Nitrate-8.5
Phosphate-0.0
Salinity-.025

blaxsun · May 4, 2022

You probably want a bit more phosphate (most likely unrelated). Any nibblers in the tank?

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

blaxsun said:
You probably want a bit more phosphate (most likely unrelated). Any nibblers in the tank?

No, all I have in my tank is clownfish, purple tang, whitetail tang, firefish, royal grammas, longnose hawk fish, shrimp, hermit crabs, and conch snails as far as I know none of those eat coral. I know I’m trying to bring my phosphate up a little when I first started I thought you want it at 0.0 so I was running Gfo and carbon but I learned and I haven’t been running Gfo for about 2 months. I’m confused because it looks really good in the day( I don’t have a picture I can post one tomorrow)

blaxsun · May 4, 2022

You have an "evening" picture. Maybe just keep an eye on it and take a new evening picture every day so you can compare and see if it's getting worse.

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

blaxsun said:
You have an "evening" picture. Maybe just keep an eye on it and take a new evening picture every day so you can compare and see if it's getting worse.

That’s what I did and it is getting worse the first pic I took 3-4 days ago and it was only showing 4 spikes at the bottom

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

Snyderman3 said:
That’s what I did and it is getting worse the first pic I took 3-4 days ago and it was only showing 4 spikes at the bottom

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

blaxsun said:
You have an "evening" picture. Maybe just keep an eye on it and take a new evening picture every day so you can compare and see if it's getting worse.

The only other think I can think of is maybe my water filters needed to be replaced so I did I’m just waiting on a membrane should be coming in tomorrow then I’m going to do a big water change just incase I have high TDS from the old filters I also ordered a TDS meter for my RODI water that comes in Friday.

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

blaxsun said:
You probably want a bit more phosphate (most likely unrelated). Any nibblers in the tank?

I also have a feather duster that has been declining in health one of its crowns completely fell off and the other one lost a lot of the little strands but it seems to be doing better over the past couple days all my other coral and animals seem fine

vetteguy53081 · May 4, 2022

They do sghrink a little with lights down and off however looks like recession . Are you feeding this coral?
Some causes will be:
Low ph
Low or high salinity
temp too warm
Low calcium
Inadequate lighting

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
They do sghrink a little with lights down and off however looks like recession . Are you feeding this coral?
Some causes will be:
Low ph
Low or high salinity
temp too warm
Low calcium
Inadequate lighting

All my levels are at the bottom of the first post my temp is 80F also I’m not sure what my PAR is but it has been in the same spot for 4 months and I haven’t changed anything with the lights I might try to move it up a few inches because my tank is on the deep side and it’s at the bottom

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
They do sghrink a little with lights down and off however looks like recession . Are you feeding this coral?
Some causes will be:
Low ph
Low or high salinity
temp too warm
Low calcium
Inadequate lighting

Yes I have been feeding it occasionally a few times a month and once I noticed this I have been feeding every other 2 days with a mix of frozen mysis and reef roids

vetteguy53081 · May 4, 2022

Snyderman3 said:
Yes I have been feeding it occasionally a few times a month and once I noticed this I have been feeding every other 2 days with a mix of frozen mysis and reef roids

Stay with mysis for now. Calcium is a little elevated and likely raising PH, also elevated

PH - 8.1-8.3
CA 400-440

Snyderman3 · May 4, 2022

vetteguy53081 said:
Stay with mysis for now. Calcium is a little elevated and likely raising PH, also elevated

PH - 8.1-8.3
CA 400-440

Yes I have been bringing calcium down slowly it was over 550 a few months ago and my Alk was around 6 dkh and my mag was 1220 so I started dosing Alk and mag I don’t know how else to bring down CA it has been coming down super slow. This is what I’m confused about all my numbers have only gotten better.

agame2021 · May 5, 2022

Mine are so picky they get unhappy with the slightest swing in phos or ammonia(accidentally dropped the skimmer cup 2 times…)

Snyderman3 · May 5, 2022

agame2021 said:
Mine are so picky they get unhappy with the slightest swing in phos or ammonia(accidentally dropped the skimmer cup 2 times…)

Makes sense but I’m just confused because all of my levels have only gotten better and it seemed fine when my Alk and mag was too low also I had a swing in nitrate but that was over a month ago it was at 15 then I dosed a little too much bacteria and it came down to 1 then I didn’t change my filter floss of a couple weeks and then it was at 10 and ever sense I have been between 8-10 I have been really focusing on trying to keep everything stable even if it’s off by a little I am trying to adjust super slow but I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with this. I was just starting to feel good about everything and starting to fell like I was getting the hang of all this

UkiahTheTurtle · May 5, 2022

Saw you have 2 tangs how big is the tank

agame2021 · May 5, 2022

Snyderman3 said:
Makes sense but I’m just confused because all of my levels have only gotten better and it seemed fine when my Alk and mag was too low also I had a swing in nitrate but that was over a month ago it was at 15 then I dosed a little too much bacteria and it came down to 1 then I didn’t change my filter floss of a couple weeks and then it was at 10 and ever sense I have been between 8-10 I have been really focusing on trying to keep everything stable even if it’s off by a little I am trying to adjust super slow but I don’t know what I’m doing wrong with this. I was just starting to feel good about everything and starting to fell like I was getting the hang of all this

I’m not saying you are doing anything wrong bro! Just saying acans are touchier than people let on.
I work at a LFS and they purposefully swing their tanks alkalinity (while keeping everything for the most part the same) just so if there is an issue the corals can handle it.
The tanks are set up on an RO ATO and it brings the salinity down a ton. We check parameters every day but end up correcting salinity 1-3 times a week.
As long as you check salinity every few days and get consistent water changes things should stay just about perfect. Just remember slow changes help keep corals looking happy however fast changes can help coral survive accidents.