acro blowing out

[Gordon Cashmore]

posting a semi good pic. The last week my Acro seems to be blowing itself out of its coral
Parms
Ph8
Calcium 280. A little low. Just dowse this morning
Alk 8.2
Mag 1400
Nitrates 0 I and dosing with stump remover to try to increase
Phos .05
Ammonia .2

I moved it about 2 weeks ago to the other side of the tank. Maybe a little more flow on this side and definitely more light. Prob 300 par
It was doing great but now just blowing out. Any ideas would be appreciated. All the empty spots seem to be opposite the lights shining on it

 

[Hemmdog]

Not sure what blowing out means in reguards to coral. But 280 calcium is very very low. So that’s a huge red flag for me. Everything in your tank gets messed up if your macro element numbers drop, things precipitate, corals die, you got to keep on top of cal, alk, and mag. They need to not change hardly at all for sps to be healthy. Get it back to 410 right away.

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

The actual coral itself is detaching from the skeleton. I would guess it's equivalent to bleachning that is going on in the oceans today. Acro has the little polyps that come out and go back in. They detach themselves from the skeleton when bleaching occurs. It seems this same thing is happening to my acro. The lights are good and the water seems good minus the Calcium. I have added a few more corals so maybe they are absorbing more calcium whereas in the past I never had this problem. I will have to watch that parameter more closely going forward.

 

[tdileo]

I’m going to guess tissue necrosis on this. It could be bleaching, but it’s really hard to tell from the picture. If the coral is actually dying in spots and there’s no flesh left (bone white, doesn’t slime up when touched), it is dead, at least in that spot.

 

[ReeferNtraining]

Dude, 280 calcium is FAR beyond “a little low”. And you’re adding new acro’s?? *facepalm*

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

It was not the slow when I added it in about a month ago I’ve been checking calcium once a month it just hasn’t ever been a problem when I do water changes every week or two weeks

 

[Aaron-A2]

So there's a lot to unpack here.

1. Calcium is low. Low enough to cause RTN/STN? Possibly?
2. Detectable ammonia. That concerns me a lot.
3. Nitrates 0. Can you tell us your tanks age/size/stocking (fish and coral).

 

[Hemmdog]

The actual coral itself is detaching from the skeleton. I would guess it's equivalent to bleachning that is going on in the oceans today. Acro has the little polyps that come out and go back in. They detach themselves from the skeleton when bleaching occurs. It seems this same thing is happening to my acro. The lights are good and the water seems good minus the Calcium. I have added a few more corals so maybe they are absorbing more calcium whereas in the past I never had this problem. I will have to watch that parameter more closely going forward.

I see. How fast did the acros deteriorate? Was it in less than 24hours? If so that’s rtn or rapid tissue necrosis, it’s usually from a parameter being off or a bacterial infection under the acros “skin”. The ammonia is concerning as well as the calcium. Most sps tanks dose liquid calcium into the sump sometimes up to 48 times a day. My tank is lightly stocked and my tank consumes 10ppm of calcium a day, so I dose 16ml of calcium a day that to keep on top of it. If your water change sets your calcium at 420ish like most salts, you will be low on calcium in no time without dosing. Some large systems consume 80ppm a day, if they did a water change and then nothing for 2 days their tank would/could crash from macro elements being low. This is why a lot of big systems incoorporate calcium reactors.

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

So there's a lot to unpack here.

1. Calcium is low. Low enough to cause RTN/STN? Possibly?
2. Detectable ammonia. That concerns me a lot.
3. Nitrates 0. Can you tell us your tanks age/size/stocking (fish and coral).

thanks for the reply.
What is RTN/STN
My tank is 90 gal. 2 clowns, 2 mini blenny, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 tank, 3 chromis, 1 more blenny, 1 diamond goby.
Coral - anthia, 1 acro, 1 hammer, gsp, an encrusting coral, Duncan, and some others, I'll show pics.

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

I see. How fast did the acros deteriorate? Was it in less than 24hours? If so that’s rtn or rapid tissue necrosis, it’s usually from a parameter being off or a bacterial infection under the acros “skin”. The ammonia is concerning as well as the calcium. Most sps tanks dose liquid calcium into the sump sometimes up to 48 times a day. My tank is lightly stocked and my tank consumes 10ppm of calcium a day, so I dose 16ml of calcium a day that to keep on top of it. If your water change sets your calcium at 420ish like most salts, you will be low on calcium in no time without dosing. Some large systems consume 80ppm a day, if they did a water change and then nothing for 2 days their tank would/could crash from macro elements being low. This is why a lot of big systems incoorporate calcium reactors.

It deteriorated in about 72 hours as I can tell....I'll water change to get the ammonia out. I've never had issue with ammonia until recently.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Can you get a better picture of your rocks?

So based on those pictures, it looks like you have algae all over your rocks. With your stocking and minimal coral, your 0 nitrates is probably a false reading and all of your nitrates are being absorbed by the algae. That said, your SPS will be effected by the present nitrates regardless.

I usually only see people dosing nitrates (stump remover, any kn03, etc) in much larger systems, systems with TONS of coral, or systems with no fish. In your case, you have plenty of fish, your system isn't huge, and you don't have a large number of coral. I want to see pictures of your rock first to identify the algae, but I have a feeling dosing stump remover is not a good route at this time.

 

[Leadfooted]

Yikes! Increase CA but not too fast. May be other causes but 280 reading, that'll kill em for sure. Maybe you're not too late though

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

yesterday I just dosed what the bottle said to do for a 100 gallon tank. All at once. I'll see what happens over the next couple of days.

 

[Leadfooted]

For what it's worth it means you were doing it right and the corals were growing, therefore depleted the nutrients and CA. As your corals grow they'll take in more and more CA so get a good test kit and double check with LFS from time to time. 380 is the lowest you should allow, my corals thrive at higher levels around 460 and growth slows if I'm high in the 500's. Find a dosing regimen, make it routine and be consistent.

Also noting I see a lot of purple coralline algae, that's a big consumer for CA. Nice rock colors though!