Acro flesh Receding Overnight

[Wandering Albatross]

Good morning all,

My first acro had been stable, though not colored up to my liking, for over a month. Yesterday evening, after lights out I noticed flesh peeling off, starting from the bottom. It has advanced overnight to most of the frag. No slime or anything, just peeling.
I tested my cal and mag yesterday and they were 330 and 1290 respectively, Alk was 8.9. Dosed a little so I could start bringing the first 2 up slowly. Also noticed that my heater set to 77 ran at 76ish, so cranked it up another degree trying to get it at an even 77. It's hovering at 76.5 now, but its been warm here and during the peak of yesterday, it rose to 80 for an hour or so. I tried turning up the lights several days prior to this, thinking it might just need more light, as it looked a little browned out at the time. What's left looks pale reddish pink under lights, brown out of tank. I've changed flow around a bit trying to hit a couple dead spots without blowing sand everywhere. LPS are all fine, clam is growing, a couple other SPS are ok, but are newer additions, and I expect them to color up with time. All fish are fine, but been fighting at least one algae, looks more like 2. I was under the impression that high nutrients could fuel algae blooms like this, but is it possible the corals are starving, or is high nutrients causing problems? I feed 3x a day, and at least one of those comes with coral food and amino acids.

Thoughts?

 

[Wandering Albatross]

Last night and this morning….

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Its called rtn or stn - rapid tissue necrosis or slow tissue necrosis. Happening overnight would be rtn. No one really knows what causes it, but its thought it might be a change in parameters or some other kind of imbalance. The best remedy, when you see this starting, is to frag off the healthy part of the coral. Sometimes the healthy part will grow fine, sometimes not, but if you do nothing the coral always die's IME.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

Its called rtn or stn - rapid tissue necrosis or slow tissue necrosis. Happening overnight would be rtn. No one really knows what causes it, but its thought it might be a change in parameters or some other kind of imbalance. The best remedy, when you see this starting, is to frag off the healthy part of the coral. Sometimes the healthy part will grow fine, sometimes not, but if you do nothing the coral always die's IME.

So frag what little is left and hope? What's left is so small, I'm not sure it'll frag without crumbling if I don't keep a little white on the end. I'll give it a go, but I'm thinking this one is done . There's another acro near it that doesn't seem affected, at least not now. I was hoping for a way to fix whatever is wrong, to prevent this from happening again.

 

[Dburr1014]

Good morning all,

My first acro had been stable, though not colored up to my liking, for over a month. Yesterday evening, after lights out I noticed flesh peeling off, starting from the bottom. It has advanced overnight to most of the frag. No slime or anything, just peeling.
I tested my cal and mag yesterday and they were 330 and 1290 respectively, Alk was 8.9. Dosed a little so I could start bringing the first 2 up slowly. Also noticed that my heater set to 77 ran at 76ish, so cranked it up another degree trying to get it at an even 77. It's hovering at 76.5 now, but its been warm here and during the peak of yesterday, it rose to 80 for an hour or so. I tried turning up the lights several days prior to this, thinking it might just need more light, as it looked a little browned out at the time. What's left looks pale reddish pink under lights, brown out of tank. I've changed flow around a bit trying to hit a couple dead spots without blowing sand everywhere. LPS are all fine, clam is growing, a couple other SPS are ok, but are newer additions, and I expect them to color up with time. All fish are fine, but been fighting at least one algae, looks more like 2. I was under the impression that high nutrients could fuel algae blooms like this, but is it possible the corals are starving, or is high nutrients causing problems? I feed 3x a day, and at least one of those comes with coral food and amino acids.

Thoughts?

Sounds like you changed a lot of stuff.

So frag what little is left and hope? What's left is so small, I'm not sure it'll frag without crumbling if I don't keep a little white on the end. I'll give it a go, but I'm thinking this one is done . There's another acro near it that doesn't seem affected, at least not now. I was hoping for a way to fix whatever is wrong, to prevent this from happening again.

When fragging, only keep healthy tissue. That means zero white on the frag.
I was in the middle of responding, I'll post another.

 

[Dburr1014]

Good morning all,

My first acro had been stable, though not colored up to my liking, for over a month. Yesterday evening, after lights out I noticed flesh peeling off, starting from the bottom. It has advanced overnight to most of the frag. No slime or anything, just peeling.
I tested my cal and mag yesterday and they were 330 and 1290 respectively, Alk was 8.9. Dosed a little so I could start bringing the first 2 up slowly. Also noticed that my heater set to 77 ran at 76ish, so cranked it up another degree trying to get it at an even 77. It's hovering at 76.5 now, but its been warm here and during the peak of yesterday, it rose to 80 for an hour or so. I tried turning up the lights several days prior to this, thinking it might just need more light, as it looked a little browned out at the time. What's left looks pale reddish pink under lights, brown out of tank. I've changed flow around a bit trying to hit a couple dead spots without blowing sand everywhere. LPS are all fine, clam is growing, a couple other SPS are ok, but are newer additions, and I expect them to color up with time. All fish are fine, but been fighting at least one algae, looks more like 2. I was under the impression that high nutrients could fuel algae blooms like this, but is it possible the corals are starving, or is high nutrients causing problems? I feed 3x a day, and at least one of those comes with coral food and amino acids.

Thoughts?

330 cal is low, shoot for 400+. 1290 mag isn't too bad. A bump would be good.
8.9 alk is okay, don't dose any to this.
Do you know your nutrients? Algae can grow anytime. Do you have a Pic of what your battling?
Do you know par?
Can you go in more detail of your lights/settings, flow, must have flow for sps.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

330 cal is low, shoot for 400+. 1290 mag isn't too bad. A bump would be good.
8.9 alk is okay, don't dose any to this.
Do you know your nutrients? Algae can grow anytime. Do you have a Pic of what your battling?
Do you know par?
Can you go in more detail of your lights/settings, flow, must have flow for sps.

2 Nicrew gen 2 200s, roughly 10 inches off the water. 5x2x2. Phosphate is one of the few tests I didn't have, but It's coming in a couple days to help me narrow this down. I don't have par readings, I did research on the lights themselves. Considering getting a par reader.

Recently got a maxspect wave maker dc 4000 to help with those deadspots, another is on the way, expected tomorrow. I also have 2 tunze and a little power head I use for light flow in my sump

The sand actually looks better than it has, I was thinking it was cyano. GHA in there too on the rocks. It’s clear where the tailspot had been working. I’m thinking there’s one other unidentified…

 

[RoanokeReef]

How old is this tank ?

 

[Dburr1014]

2 Nicrew gen 2 200s, roughly 10 inches off the water. 5x2x2. Phosphate is one of the few tests I didn't have, but It's coming in a couple days to help me narrow this down. I don't have par readings, I did research on the lights themselves. Considering getting a par reader.

Recently got a maxspect wave maker dc 4000 to help with those deadspots, another is on the way, expected tomorrow. I also have 2 tunze and a little power head I use for light flow in my sump

The sand actually looks better than it has, I was thinking it was cyano. GHA in there too on the rocks. It’s clear where the tailspot had been working. I’m thinking there’s one other unidentified…

I'm not really familiar with the nicrew lights but it sounds like you have enough power. I am concerned about coverage. As long as you're sps are under the light and lights are (guessing) 75ish %, should be okay?
Coverage is concerning, I say that because you have 3 "pucks" per light over a 5' tank.
In comparison, I have the same dimensions in my tank. 2 reefbreeders 24" each light 2 t5 48" and a strip light. I'm almost 500 watt but it's a complete blanket of light over the tank. I don't have compressed lighting. I call pucks compressed, bunch of lights in a small space.

The flow should be strong. Do you also have LPS? Is it moving around?

I must also say, you're rock look white. How old is the tank and are you growing coraline?

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I’m gonna assume with that amount of algae your nutrients have bottomed out. The tank seems pretty new so you’re going to be seeing a few uglies while things balance out. I’d suggest waiting to try your hand at acros until you get the algae’s under control. It’s hard for me to tell for sure but I think I see diatoms as well as green hair algae. Turbo snails are great and could clear up the gha in 2-3 weeks.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

I'm not really familiar with the nicrew lights but it sounds like you have enough power. I am concerned about coverage. As long as you're sps are under the light and lights are (guessing) 75ish %, should be okay?
Coverage is concerning, I say that because you have 3 "pucks" per light over a 5' tank.
In comparison, I have the same dimensions in my tank. 2 reefbreeders 24" each light 2 t5 48" and a strip light. I'm almost 500 watt but it's a complete blanket of light over the tank. I don't have compressed lighting. I call pucks compressed, bunch of lights in a small space.

The flow should be strong. Do you also have LPS? Is it moving around?

I must also say, you're rock look white. How old is the tank and are you growing coraline?

It looks almost annoyingly bright to me. Lights are at 100% blue and violet, 50% white, 25% red and green. Each light is rated to cover a 36x36 area if that helps. Acro was slightly off center. LPS all move, look fluffy. The white areas of rock are where my blenny picks relentlessly, I'd rather more of it looks like that until coralline takes off, might have starting specs of coralline. Tank is a couple months old.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

I’m gonna assume with that amount of algae your nutrients have bottomed out. The tank seems pretty new so you’re going to be seeing a few uglies while things balance out. I’d suggest waiting to try your hand at acros until you get the algae’s under control. It’s hard for me to tell for sure but I think I see diatoms as well as green hair algae. Turbo snails are great and could clear up the gha in 2-3 weeks.

Here I thought they were too high and causing the algae. So how can I help the nutrients rise? Feed more? My fish would be all over that

 

[Dburr1014]

2 months. Yes, you might be struggling if this will be your first go with sps. It can be done.
Just that new tank, new person, tank is going through stages and it will effect sensitive coral.

Feed more to raise nutrients. Fish waste, ammonium, feed coral. Fish poop, feed bacteria, then bacteria feed coral.

 

[Wandering Albatross]

2 months. Yes, you might be struggling if this will be your first go with sps. It can be done.
Just that new tank, new person, tank is going through stages and it will effect sensitive coral.

Feed more to raise nutrients. Fish waste, ammonium, feed coral. Fish poop, feed bacteria, then bacteria feed coral.

Will killing the skimmer for a while help too? Maybe cut the time on the fuge light?

 

[Dburr1014]

Will killing the skimmer for a while help too? Maybe cut the time on the fuge light?

Yes, but the skimmer helps with pH so just taking the cup off would be better.