Acro Help!

[Mckreef]

Ok Acropora lovers I need some help.

Tank is 5 years old nice and mature mixed reef - Monti, torch, hammer, zoas, trumpet, pipe organ, and some acros. Parameters below have been super consistent. I have acros that I do keep successfully and have had for years from a small frag (see pic).

Where I need advice. I tried Acros in the past and had a similar experience but this time I waited a year with stable parameters and a successful acro colony before I decided to add more. I bought some acros and some other coral from the recent Cherry Coral event. I got 3 acros a couple monti and a hammer. I got the box in the house right away (it’s cold here) and coral looked great right out of box. I drip acclimated for an hour then dipped each coral with Coral Rx then a dip in tank water then in the tank on a low frag rack. Less than 8 hours later one coral completely bleached and lost all tissue with another right behind it. I am certain the third will meet the same fate.

What am I doing wrong here? Are these that sensitive?

Current Parameters and super consistent around this range
Temp - 76
Salinity - 34
Ph - 8.0
Alk - 9.0
Ca - 420
Mg - 1400
No3 - 0.0
Po4 - .02

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

First thing I'm seeing is your NO3 and PO4 are insanely low. They are starving. NO3 should be ~10 and PO4 should be .05-.15. I keep my acros at ~15ish NO3 and .2 PO4 without any issue and they are growing like crazy.

edit - forgot the 0 in front of the low end of the PO4

 

[Mckreef]

First thing I'm seeing is your NO3 and PO4 are insanely low. They are starving. NO3 should be ~10 and PO4 should be .5-.15. I keep my acros at ~15ish NO3 and .2 PO4 without any issue and they are growing like crazy.

Really?! Ok! I always heard you have to have super low NO3 and PO4 for Acros. I guess I can stop skimming or feed more. I only have 4 fish. It’s a 45G

 

[Lavey29]

I don't dip acros at all before placing in the tank. They are already stressed from changing environments and the pest dip enhances that. WWC says never dip new acros they ship out to a customer.

 

[Mckreef]

I don't dip acros at all before placing in the tank. They are already stressed from changing environments and the pest dip enhances that. WWC says never dip new acros they ship out to a customer.

Ah ok thank you! TBH I have never seen a pest from Cherry Corals I should have skipped it. I bet that really hurt my chances they went south so fast.

 

[joseph.timbs]

I don’t dip acros because I only buy from trusted long time vendors like cherry but my biggest concern is ur nitrates, with a low bioload of 4 fish feeding more and skimming less is kind of unpredictable. I suggest using Neonitro (and use in a similar situation with my tank), get nitrates to 5-10 and figure out your feeding regiment for consistency. Test often..

Since our tanks are similar, for ONLY a reference (every tank is different) in my 40g I have a damsel, pajama cardinal, 2 firefish and mandarin. I’m a believer in heavy in, heavy out. I run skimmer 24/7 mostly for ph and watched nitrates closely for a while. I feed flakes early and half cube frozen at night. I feed corals 6 ml’s of a mix, mostly Red Sea ab+ with phyto and a bit of reef roids nightly. I also use microbacter 7 and refugium, so I depend on neonitro a lot for nitrates. I dose around 20 ml’s twice a week (still don’t trust myself I test often atleast twice a week). I also have 55+ corals and they can make a difference, keep that in mind. Some corals can be great indicators for nutrients. I personally rely a lot on water changes for balance with parameters and trace elements so I always try to account for the nitrates taken from used water. That’s all I got for ya, keep testing and good luck.

 

[Mckreef]

Getting seriously frustrated. Got my nitrates to 1.8 (I know I have more to go increase) and all other parameters are still stable and very close to my original post a week and a half ago except for Nitrate. 3rd Acro now losing skin and turning white. I don’t get it. I can’t believe they are starving that fast and I do have other healthy coral in the tank including Acros. About to give up on those.

Temp 75.6
Salinity 35
Ph 8.1
Alk 9.5
Ca 430
Mg 1450
Po4 .02
No3 1.8

 

[joseph.timbs]

Could be the individual acros par or flow where they’re located, more likely to be flow than par, temp is low imo but if other corals seem fine then probably not it.. also pest are possible, white bugs can stress some acros more than others and without Perfect conditions be more susceptible to bacterial infections
I just reread ur Op and it going bad so fast it could’ve also been dip as you mentioned. Could be false readings and other corals adapted to the conditions and you could’ve been a bit too late providing nitrates.. could be a combination of things slightly off that your previous corals have gotten used to over time like I mentioned earlier, idk.. good luck tho

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Get a ICP-MS test done. Might be something like rust or something else in the water that's causing the problem.

 

[Mckreef]

Get a ICP-MS test done. Might be something like rust or something else in the water that's causing the problem.

Great idea. I think that is my next step. I did notice my skimmer magnet is rubbing black stuff all over my hands. Perhaps that is leaching into the water.

 

[joseph.timbs]

I think that would be system wide and not just new pieces but maybe

 

[joseph.timbs]

I started taking my magnet scraper out between uses and other magnets out about a year ago, a lot of magnet horror stories on here

 

[Faurek]

Because you have high alk with low nutrients, they don't like that.
Let the alk fall to 7-8, while feeding more and try again. Maybe it's a good excuse for more fish, fish waste is food for corals.