acro bleaching

[MFear]

Hi everyone...I've been reefing for 6 years or so and am going to give Acros a try...I do have a Digitata and a huge Monti plating cap in my display tank and those have been thriving for years, however I've never had much luck with Acropora. At the same time after a battle with ich and the fallow period and the sloooowwww QT process of restocking my tank, I simply will not put any new frags in the display until they've gone through a 45day QT period in a frag tank at 80 degrees. So that leads me to my advice seeking...I recently bought 4 Acro frags from Unique Corals. After acclimation, within one night (no lights even), one frag was completely bone white by morning. I chalked that up to shipping stress. However after the weekend, another frag turned bone white and it now looks like my stylo frag is starting to turn white...So clearly my setup is insufficient but a little guidance into what may be the culprit would be much appreciated...

Equipment
My tank is an Innovative Marine Fusion 20 Peninsula, so I'm running a ghost skimmer that seems to be running quite wet. An ATO then a sponge filter and a bag of carbon in the rear chamber...plenty go bio balls throughout the display side of the aquarium that have been seasoned in my main display for a couple of months.

PAR
I know my lighting is lacking, I've asked for a Prime 16 Reef for xmas so we'll see...right now though these frags are sitting under 100 PAR from a Current USA light. I don't know if under lighting would cause this problem or not?

Flow
Currently just using a Sicce Syncra .5 which is rate as 185 GPH, there are only 15 gallons of water in my IM Fusion 20 Peninsula so I am getting 12x turnover...I don't know if thats too low for these frags or if thats causing the bleaching?

Temp
80 degrees, after reading some of the guidance from humble fish, at 80 degrees the frags (along with the inverts in this session) should be cleared to go into the display as the increased temperature speeds the life cycle from 76 to 45 days for the major players like brook, ich velvet etc.

Nitrates
These are unexpectedly high at 67 according to the hannah checker...i dunno if its snail die off or coral die off or what, but all thats in this tank are hermit crabs, a few snails, and a emerald crab. i feed one sheet of nori every couple of days and also once a week I put a 1 inch piece of raw shrimp in there for the crabs to eat. The tank is cycled 'cause I set it up with media from my display, but otherwise has been running for two weeks. I do dose Reef Energy A+B from Red Sea every day...which is about 1.5ml of each/day.

Phosphate
looks to be about .25

Alk
6.9 dKH...im guessing this is prob a culprit? what should i shoot for?
CA
350
MG
1140

I do 30% water change each week with Tropic Marin Pro Reef

My guess is that ALK, CA and MG are off, I just didn't think that would lead to bleaching...Any help would be much appreciated

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Your NO3 and PO4 are too high and your lights are insufficient. I expect the combo of these factors along with shipping stress is causing your problems.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

phosphate should be anywhere around or below .1 As you see on your API test, it goes from 0 to 2.5, in other words, its useless. Sorry, but I dont know why they even bother selling that kit. Your tank looks clean, no algae, really doubt its 2.5.

Otherwise, I'm like you, I can keep montis and digis and setosa, but cant keep acros. Following along, hopefully some peeps will give some good tips.

 

[jcdeng]

There can be many many factors, but if coral dies that fast (RTN), its mostly due to shock, your tank parameters has a drastic difference to the tank the coral is accustomed to. Higher nutrients usually just browns out the color, high light will bleach them, and maybe the coral is use to cooler waters both in Unique's tanks and during shipping.

Next time you can first check the parameters of the water the coral is shipped with and compare them to yours.

And yes your Alk is a bit lower compare to what most people keep theirs at, I think most keep them close to 8, or maybe even above

 

[TheBiochemist]

I would also add that the flow is most likely insufficient for acros. In my tank, the peak turnover is somewhere around 75-85x total volume and my acros love it (random and indirect flow). However, I agree that in this case, very high nutrients seem to be a culprit.
In addition, doing weekly 30% WC might have a significant impact on your ALK/Ca/Mg causing unwanted spikes, which acro definitely dont like.

 

[Gtinnel]

Your nitrates and phosphates are too high, your alk/cal/mag are too low. On top of that your lights are not strong enough and your flow is low as well.

Also, the corals aren't bleaching that is necrosis where the flesh is literally falling off of the skeleton.

 

[Duffer]

what all the above stated...

if you are going to be serious with SPS, i highly suggest you invest in better tests kits, lights and flow, or this going to keep happening to you sorry to say

 

[LuizW13]

I want to present another avenue for discussion here. You know how people will say "your tank is not mature enough for sps". I don't think I've seen someone mention that about a coral qt tank.

In addition to the numbers you posted, how do we know that the qt environment itself isn't playing a role in what you're seeing?

I think a qt should probably lean more towards a separate, mini display tank, and not towards a clean, sterile environment.

I don't know the details about your qt, how long it's been set up, etc; but just mentioning this as food for thought. ;Sorry

 

[ScottB]

Most corals can do OK without fish, but IME, not acropora. Still they wouldn't die overnight because of this. They just gradually starve from lack of available ammonia from the fish.

Something more shocking has happened.
Were the bags cold? Did you temp acclimate?
Did you dip? If yes, please describe that.

I couldn't find Unique's water parameters on their site, but it is safe to say they are nothing like what you listed. Likely more like "consensus" SPS numbers

Alk 8ish
Ca 450
NO3 5-10
PO4 .05-.1

Could be the nitrates. I would be knocking those down before adding the next tranche.

Lastly, just because a tank is cycled, does not mean it is hospitable for acropora. Is that rock live or dead?

 

[jda]

High 6s on carbonate is fine... I keep mine there. 425 on calcium for me, or similar, but 350 would be instant death. 67 nitrate will allow some acropora to live, but not all - definate stressor when moved overnight. That dead skeleton looks like some sort of an Aussie Enchinta? If so, then this is a more sensitive coral, IME.

I would not do anything with phosphate until, if ever, you get a reliable tool like a Hannah Ultra Low - just not worth it with anything else since they are so unreliable.

 

[BASEDVXO]

all you parameters are out of wack for SPS bro , get a better light with more par and phosphate looks like it at 0 so you might need more bio , how many fish do you have it might be to clean , water flow is also important

 

[sculpin01]

100 PAR will cause corals to brown, not die. Also, yours aren't bleached, they've sloughed their tissue. I suspect your water is the culprit. I would consider sending a sample for ICP testing, then drain the tank and replace with fresh mixed saltwater. Check for anything that could be leaching into the water (flexible tubing is known to leach Tin, for instance). Add a couple of fish (6-lines are perfect for quarantine systems). Put a bulletproof frag in there (Montipora are what I use) and see if it survives. If it lives for more than a month and shows growth, you're probably good to add more.

BTW, I don't think a coral quarantine tank is necessary for frags from reputable coral farmers. Just dip and plunk them in your tank. If you go maricultured or buy colonies however, a quarantine system is a reasonable idea.