Acropora Tissue Recession... need experts here plz.

[ZaneTer]

two gyre 250's, 1 tunze stream 3 and a lone Coral Box Nano... Some areas have high flow and other have fairly low.

My apologies for missing that. The only thing that stands out to me is that your nitrate is what I would consider too low @ 0.02ppm. I generally keep mine at 2ppm so roughly 100x higher than yours. I notice you have some valida in there but it’s looking rather pale.

I’m sorry that you are having these troubles. From what I can see in your tank. Some corals are doing great. Some are receding from base and some look a little pale for my liking.

Might you be open to dosing some KNO3?

 

[Syntax1235]

My apologies for missing that. The only thing that stands out to me is that your nitrate is what I would consider too low @ 0.02ppm. I generally keep mine at 2ppm so roughly 100x higher than yours. I notice you have some valida in there but it’s looking rather pale.

I’m sorry that you are having these troubles. From what I can see in your tank. Some corals are doing great. Some are receding from base and some look a little pale for my liking.

Might you be open to dosing some KNO3?

I have a very hard time keeping Nitrates at a measurable level via Salifert. I have a basketball sized ball of chaeto and a couple liters of Seachem Matrix in a Phosban 560. Maybe I should take the Phosban offline? I installed the extra media before a couple months before upgrading from the 125 to the 180 to help with the transfer and avoiding a cycle... maybe it's time to take it offline? No, I am not opposed to dosing Potassium Nitrate.

 

[ZaneTer]

I had the same issue with chaeto. It stripped the water so hard of nutrients that my corals also started to decline but not quite the same way as yours. Ultimately I removed my chaeto and only use a skimmer now.

However I think your situation is a little different to mine. I had recession on my corals but never lines of death.

The chaeto is just going to tear through the nitrate when you first dose. If it’s a large ball then it can easily pull out 4ppm per day, in my own experience. Maybe just try reducing your lighting in the fuge to just a couple hours per day as opposed to dosing.

I think your phosphate level is great. Just bear in mind a lot of test kits have 0.02ppm margin of error.

I think overall your tank looks wonderful. Perhaps it’s just a little hungry?

 

[gtrider]

Seems like you can rule out perameters.
Looks like your phosphate and nitrates are on the low side.
Your two gyres have the capability to have enough flow but did you mention what they are programmed at?
All your lights are poetry new it seems? Under 6 mo you say?

 

[Syntax1235]

Maybe just try reducing your lighting in the fuge to just a couple hours per day as opposed to dosing.

I like that idea.

Your two gyres have the capability to have enough flow but did you mention what they are programmed at?
All your lights are poetry new it seems? Under 6 mo you say?

The gyres are controlled by ice cap controllers and programmed via Apex... they ramp up and down in the morning and night up to 100% opposite each other. Four hours in the afternoon they are in synch ramping up together from 20%-100% . My lights have been installed for a year this month, so bulbs may be losing spectrum and punch.... I run them 6.5 hours a day. I use the XHO's as dawn and dusk and have them on while the Halides are doing their thing. XHO's are top out at 85% for about 8 hours and ramp up and down for an additional 1.5 hour on either end of the cycle.

I had a nice conversation with hart24601 last night and got another opinion regarding flow as being a contributing factor. I've got the go ahead to get a gyre 280 - I'll put the gyre 280 on the left side of the tank and move the current gyre occupying that side to the right. I'll end up with a 280 on the left and 2 250's on the right along with the tunze stream... should fix the flow problem.

@hart24601 Is your number a reference to Jean Val Jean in Les Mis?

 

[hart24601]

You caught my reference!

That extra gyre is really going to help!

 

[aidz415]

Following as I see this in my tank...it has happened to my red dragon... I fragged it before it completely died...got about 10 large colonies that all survived...today the frag that I kept has taken off and is as huge as the colony before it died on me...

It recently happened to me again on a small colony that I have had for years...never really had good light so it grew very slow...I fragged a piece off before it died...frag is doing good...but has only been a week so need to wait it out and see if it survives...

This two incident are about 7 month apart...so not as frequent as yours...

I have another huge colony that is having the same issues that started the same time as the smaller colony....it seems to have slowed but I’m monitoring at the moment...

 

[Syntax1235]

I was cleaning out my frag rack of dying corals and noticed this! Are these what I think they are?

 

[Syntax1235]

I can't tell if the above pictures are eggs or actual some sort of animal. I don't have any bite marks on any of my corals so it doesn't really fit the typical profile of aefw.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Those are not aefw what what I see. Are they moving? If not it could be sand or something stuck there, its odd that there is two things that are two different colors next to each other and no marks on the coral. I have seen little slug like things that look similar on zoanthids. When its a line of coral death I normally don't think pest and think necrosis.
Also I would say your flow looks low looking at you stag horns are thin and wavy branched and the stylo and birds nest are growing at odd angles. With heavy random flow non of these corals will grow like this. I have definatly seen necrosis start at the bottom slowly when flow is low like that and once it starts it can get out of control if its not fixed. Taking out any rtn and framing the coral if possible is a good idea, leaving corals in the tank that have rtn can just cause it to spread. Sorry your having problems! I hope you get it figured out, I love all the stags in the tank! Personally I would get two pumps with a different flow pattern to place next to the gyre pumps and maybe try and get some more nutrients in there to see if it helps.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Those are not aefw what what I see. Are they moving? If not it could be sand or something stuck there, its odd that there is two things that are two different colors next to each other and no marks on the coral. I have seen little slug like things that look similar on zoanthids. When its a line of coral death I normally don't think pest and think necrosis.
Also I would say your flow looks low looking at you stag horns are thin and wavy branched and the stylo and birds nest are growing at odd angles. With heavy random flow non of these corals will grow like this. I have definatly seen necrosis start at the bottom slowly when flow is low like that and once it starts it can get out of control if its not fixed. Taking out any rtn and framing the coral if possible is a good idea, leaving corals in the tank that have rtn can just cause it to spread. Sorry your having problems! I hope you get it figured out, I love all the stags in the tank! Personally I would get two pumps with a different flow pattern to place next to the gyre pumps and maybe try and get some more nutrients in there to see if it helps.

 

[Syntax1235]

Those are not aefw what what I see. Are they moving? If not it could be sand or something stuck there, its odd that there is two things that are two different colors next to each other and no marks on the coral. I have seen little slug like things that look similar on zoanthids. When its a line of coral death I normally don't think pest and think necrosis.
Also I would say your flow looks low looking at you stag horns are thin and wavy branched and the stylo and birds nest are growing at odd angles. With heavy random flow non of these corals will grow like this. I have definatly seen necrosis start at the bottom slowly when flow is low like that and once it starts it can get out of control if its not fixed. Taking out any rtn and framing the coral if possible is a good idea, leaving corals in the tank that have rtn can just cause it to spread. Sorry your having problems! I hope you get it figured out, I love all the stags in the tank! Personally I would get two pumps with a different flow pattern to place next to the gyre pumps and maybe try and get some more nutrients in there to see if it helps.

Thank you for the thoughtful response! I didn’t notice them moving, I only observed them for a few minutes. I have a ridiculous amount of amphipods in the tank, could they be baby amphipods? I wonder if the opaque round things are recently hatched eggs?

My flow issues should be fixed. I moved the two 250’s to the same side of the tank and installed a 280 on the left side. The programs of all pumps are fairly random.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Not sure if it had been thought of, but yes flow is an issue. But I’m coming from a different point. I didn’t think I had enough flow and really increased it. Having said that make
Sure you don’t have acros in direct path of flow. That happened with mine and the flow will rip the flesh off. Some of mine started st the bottom, so I didn’t think it was a flow problem. Until I noticed my return pump were angled right at the base. From the back side. Once it starts it will spread, mine took forever to finally die as well. One thing that has helped when I fragged them before they died on me, is super glue right along the base of the rtn, into some of the good tissue. So far I have had good results and it has saved a few of mine from getting worse. I would also turn your lights down a tad.

Another thing I noticed and it happened to me as well is the cyano looks like you have traces of it. As it was stirred up, it would go through my system, (specially when I had to remove the socks to clean), but the return pumps would blow it onto some of the corals. I caught one before it was able to get to far. Now they didn’t rtn, but they started to keep the polyps in.

Hope it turns for the better:

 

[Syntax1235]

@Sarah24! Thank you for your comments. I do think flow is an issue. Thank you for the cautionary words regarding direct flow at the base. I’ve increased my flow exponentially and will have to keep my eye on the corals to see how they react.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Thank you for the thoughtful response! I didn’t notice them moving, I only observed them for a few minutes. I have a ridiculous amount of amphipods in the tank, could they be baby amphipods? I wonder if the opaque round things are recently hatched eggs?

My flow issues should be fixed. I moved the two 250’s to the same side of the tank and installed a 280 on the left side. The programs of all pumps are fairly random.

Good to hear you switch the two to one side, hopefully they make the current random enough for you. I would guess the white spots are maybe messi filaments and the others could be dead flesh maybe. I hope someone good at identifying small stuff like that pops in, its really stumping me right now. I wouldn't stress on it though, the fact that they are not on the corals healthy flesh is a good sign, whatever they are. Has the necrosis slowed down at all or is it still a big issue?

 

[markalot]

When my tank was hurting I had all kinds of bug show up on the stressed acros.

My suggestions are pretty simple. Keep KH near 7, and get rid of all PO4 removal, Phosphate rarely kills acros. The only way I got my tank back to good health was to stop most of the export except for the skimmer. For a while I dosed PhosphateRx for PO4 removal but I stopped testing PO4 and stopped dosing that. I have low Alk that bounces around a lot but never goes above 7. This seems to be a bit of a magic zone for acros as many of them (at least the ones I grow) seem oblivious to KH instability as long as it stays below 7. Not sure why, not even sure if that's true, but it works in my tank. Hopefully you can get this figured out!

 

[gdemos]

Consider RODI. How old is membrane ? ICP great and all but assume there was no such thing as that test. Do water changes produce any visible changes in corals, instantly upon change? 2 days? 2 weeks?

 

[Syntax1235]

Consider RODI. How old is membrane ? ICP great and all but assume there was no such thing as that test. Do water changes produce any visible changes in corals, instantly upon change? 2 days? 2 weeks?

Thanks for the ideas gdemos. I have two membranes, one is almost four years old and the other is about 2. I have a triple inline tds meter and both are still producing 0 tds before the DI resin. I'm in the north east so my water is very clean, about 25 tds out of the tap. I change carbon filters about every 9 months or so, just did it about two months ago. DI lasts for about two years as I only make topoff water and my water is clean going into that stage.

I don't do water changes often, maybe twice a year, I use ATI essentials.

 

[Syntax1235]

I posted the same pictures on the identification thread a few days ago. A couple of the seasoned vets think that I am dealing with aefw; however, I don't see any evidence of bite marks. Are they always present with aefw? I don't see the eggs either.

 

[Syntax1235]

@markalot Thanks for the advice. I keep my kh around 7.3-7.5. I don't use any nutrient export besides chaeto and run carbon once every few months.