Acro STN/RTN

[HTXReefer]

I have a planet 180 that has been running for about 16-18 months now and I have around 30 acro frags that have been in the system from 1 month to 4 months now. I recently went on a business trip for 10 days and when I got back I notice 5 of them are bleaching from the middle of the frag. The tank was started with a mixture of dry rock and kp aquatics live rock. I dose Red Sea calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, and nopox via a Red Sea doser and manually dose AB+ every other day. I was unable to dose the ab+ while I was gone. My parameters are below. Any ideas on why this is happening? I had a slight drop in alkalinity and calcium while i was gone but I attribute it to a coralline explosion over the past 2 weeks. All coral are in 300ish to 450 par with fresh T5 bulbs. Light cycle is actinic bars 12 hours 4 T5 bulbs 11hours and all 8 T5s and actinic led for 10-1/2 hours.

Temp 78.6 +- .5 deg f
salinity (Hannah) 1.026
Dkh (Hannah) 7.8
Calcium (Hannah) 481
Magnesium (Red Sea) 1240
Phosphate (Hannah) .03
Nitrate (Red Sea) 2-3ppm

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Pics would be helpful

IMO sps frags do much better with Po4 closer to 0.10-0.12. So does Red Sea according to the side label of your nopox bottle. I hate nopox and sps fwiw

Did the sps frags look great before you left? Did your fish get fed while you were gone?

 

[HTXReefer]

Pics would be helpful

IMO sps frags do much better with Po4 closer to 0.10-0.12. So does Red Sea according to the side label of your nopox bottle. I hate nopox and sps fwiw

Did the sps frags look great before you left? Did your fish get fed while you were gone?

I thought about cutting off the nopox. Not dosing much so it may not make much of a difference in Po4 or Nitrate.

the frags already on the rocks we’re looking good with good polyp extension and growth before I left. Same goes for those on my Frag rack. All coral was showing good coloring but seem a bit muted now. I broke my phone camera but have a new one just not setup yet. I’ll try to take some pics tomorrow

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

The worst thing i ever did was try to lower the phosphate of my sps tank.

 

[GSnake]

no nopox or biopellets for acros. extra bacteria in the water is not good for acro coral holiobiont. most my problems reduced drastically after removing pellets. ill look for a great post about this, as well there are studies showing extra bacteria / bacteria food in water is not good for acro too

 

[TMB]

no nopox or biopellets for acros. extra bacteria in the water is not good for acro coral holiobiont. most my problems reduced drastically after removing pellets. ill look for a great post about this, as well there are studies showing extra bacteria / bacteria food in water is not good for acro too

Does that mean that Zeovit, or any other bacteria based system is bad for acros too?

 

[GSnake]

im still looking for that post on coral holobiont -

Does that mean that Zeovit, or any other bacteria based system is bad for acros too?

after briefly looking through their guide -zeofood "improves polyp extension of soft corals significantly." makes no mention of it being beneficial to acros. i felt the same way when i used other bacteria products as well (npx biopellets). if you have an acro dominated tank i would personally steer away from manipulating bacteria density in the water.

 

[bitwise]

In my experience, my SPS will recede from the tips if I don’t do water changes (with at least some frequency - even 10% a week or 20% every two weeks). It must have to do with trace elements and everything im *not* dosing. Have you been keeping up with water changes?

 

[HTXReefer]

I do 2 gallons/day automatically

 

[bitwise]

Is it a 200+ gallon system? I don’t know what planet 180 is. If so, 2 gallons a day is on the low side. I have a 120 gal system and I’m changing about 4 gallons a day. I only have 3 tiny frags right now because I’m waiting for the tank to mature. Mine still withered away due to lack of water changes but they’re bouncing back.
It’s amazing.

Also, I agree with the above poster and I’d trying raising nitrate and phosphate to about double what you have them at.

Lastly, your photoperiod is pretty long for when you are going with for 100% lighting. I usually do 8 or 9 hours a day. That may take some pressure off the corals