Adding Acros To Tank....Best to Add Multiple Pieces at once?

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

Hey guys, so I've been trying to add acros to my 10 gallon nano for several months now but they never end up doing well. When I've added them in the past I always added one piece as a trial (I've done this a few times) but am starting to wonder if adding multiple inexpensive starter pieces at once might give me a better shot at success because when I see people add acros to nanos they tend to add a few to several frags at once. The tank is well over a year old and was started with all live ocean rock. I keep my parameters in SPS range and I've had success with easier SPS practically since starting the tank. Thoughts?

LiLinka · May 28, 2023

We would need more info to properly help you. What lighting are you running? What are your parameters? What acros have you tried in the past? What flow are you dealing with? Did past acros bleach out right away or take a couple of week? All these will help me and other community members to properly help you.

radfly · May 28, 2023

Adding more will not be better. Your dead corals are telling you that you are not achieving proper stability for SPS.

Waters · May 28, 2023

Adding multiple vs adding one at a time isn't going to benefit you and improve your chance of them surviving. I personally, if I was having issues, would add one at a time before spending money on a bunch until I knew that they would survive. The majority of them have very similiar care.....if one frag is dying there is a good chance more will follow.

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

LiLinka said:
We would need more info to properly help you. What lighting are you running? What are your parameters? What acros have you tried in the past? What flow are you dealing with? Did past acros bleach out right away or take a couple of week? All these will help me and other community members to properly help you.

I have a Noopsyche K7 V3 light running below it's 140 Watt Maximum intensity (that would be far too strong). I've always placed them in areas of strong flow. The first acro I didn't do any light acclimation, the second I can't recall if i did or not right now, and the Strawberry Shortcake I did do light acclimation.

. Alk- 8 po4- .03-0.5 calcium- 400 Mag-1250 nitrate-3
I have an IceCap ATO to keep salinity stable.

They STN'ed over the course of a few weeks. I've only tried a few, spaced out between a few weeks or months. The acros I've tried didn't have identified trade names over here with the exception of a strawberry shortcake. (All 3 I've tried were relatively small frags.)

The reason I was wondering if adding a few small starter frags at once might help is due to one member (I think @Timfish ) mentioning that the microbiome of these corals is very important and when there is more than one present, it's more likely that the microbiome will persist.

I do think it's important to note that the first couple may have either been maricultured or wild collected. The Strawberry Shortcake may or may not have been aquacultured, maricultured, or wild collected. However, it was well encrusted over the base when I bought it leading me to believe that it had been in captivity for a while.

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

radfly said:
Adding more will not be better. Your dead corals are telling you that you are not achieving proper stability for SPS.

I don't think it's a stability issue in all honesty. Tank is pretty stable and mature...I just added more infor regarding my parameters and equipment. I'm aware there are a number of factors that can cause death (especially STN over the course of weeks) and am just trying to pin down what the issue may be.

tbrown · May 28, 2023

I run my K7 V3s 100% blues, 10% white, and 30% red and green. My Acros sit about 6" below the surface.

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

tbrown3589 said:
I run my K7 V3s 100% blues, 10% white, and 30% red and green. My Acros sit about 6" below the surface.

Ok, I've never had my blues set all the way to 100% because others I messaged before trying the acros have advised me that it would be too strong. Maybe I should turn them up though.

tbrown · May 28, 2023

livinlifeinBKK said:
Ok, I've never had my blues set all the way to 100% because others I messaged before trying the acros have advised me that it would be too strong. Maybe I should turn them up though.

Depends on your tank. I've got a 125 gallon tank with 2 140s, a 90, and a 75. I'm running about 300 par at the surface and 50 par at the sand bed.

Lavey29 · May 28, 2023

How old is the tank? Do you have a good amount of coraline growth?

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

tbrown3589 said:
Depends on your tank. I've got a 125 gallon tank with 2 140s, a 90, and a 75. I'm running about 300 par at the surface and 50 par at the sand bed.

Yeah, mine is only a 10 gallon nano! Haha

tbrown · May 28, 2023

livinlifeinBKK said:
Yeah, mine is only a 10 gallon nano! Haha

Probably not then!

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

Lavey29 said:
How old is the tank? Do you have a good amount of coraline growth?

Yes, I've got coralline and the tank is close to 2 years old now. Other SPS which are in the tank and have grown great are Digis, an orange branching Psammacora, and I had a Cyphastrea for a while in there that was doing well but something happened to it after about several months and I'm not sure exactly what. It had great PE and was growing well before that. The others However, continued to grow and are healthy with great PE currently. The clam I've kept for 2 years in that tank also seems happy and has grown.

livinlifeinBKK · May 28, 2023

@Lavey29 the reason for not adding more SPS is because I'd really like to keep acros in there but I'm not too keen on watching them (or any other corals) fade away so before adding many other SPS I'd like to try to pinpoint the problem.

anthonymckay · May 29, 2023

When you say it's "stable" how do you define that? What's your alkalinity dosing strategy? How often are you testing pH & Alk? Depending on how you approach dosing alkalinity, I think a lot of people would be surprised just how much Alk can swing in a 24hr cycle. It could just be that what you consider "stable" isn't really all that stable in the context of keeping SPS. Being that it's a 10gal nano makes that even more difficult.

livinlifeinBKK · May 29, 2023

anthonymckay said:
When you say it's "stable" how do you define that? What's your alkalinity dosing strategy? How often are you testing pH & Alk? Depending on how you approach dosing alkalinity, I think a lot of people would be surprised just how much Alk can swing in a 24hr cycle. It could just be that what you consider "stable" isn't really all that stable in the context of keeping SPS. Being that it's a 10gal nano makes that even more difficult.

I don't need to dose yet since it's not packed full of corals at this point...just doing 1-2 water changes a week has been keeping it from dropping by more than .3dKH...I don't generally measure pH. From what I've seen in other posts, a lot of people tend not to.

Lavey29 · May 29, 2023

Well your numbers are not bad. Weekly water changes on a nano maintains stability as evidenced by your statement that coraline is well present. Some simple acros are growing for you which leads me to think maybe it's lighting for the harder frags that failed. Have you par checked the tank?

livinlifeinBKK · May 29, 2023

Lavey29 said:
Well your numbers are not bad. Weekly water changes on a nano maintains stability as evidenced by your statement that coraline is well present. Some simple acros are growing for you which leads me to think maybe it's lighting for the harder frags that failed. Have you par checked the tank?

I haven't checked par but that's something I'd really be interested in knowing as well and have been trying to find a par meter for a while now... without buying one they're just pretty hard to track down here. If it is in fact lighting related, if I'm not able to find a par meter without buying one (we both know they're certainly expensive) what course of action would you take? I'd imagine that the fact a lot of the pieces sold here are maricultured/wild collected makes it a little extra difficult from what others say and the pieces that are well i crusted over the base which i prefer since it shows they've been growing in captivity are usually a good bit more expensive.