I've got a 60g cube with a 30g sump. I've got a 250w halide. I just purchased my first piece of acro, blue. My question, do I need to add calcium to my water or do anything beyond?
Did you buy the coral that white? You need to move is down ASAP. You should always start SPS on the bottom of the tank and move them up over a period of time. For me, I do it over 3 weeks. With one SPS you probably wont need to add anything beyond water changes, but once you get more (trust me you will!), look into dosing Kalk in your ATO or two part via doser. bulk reef supply has great videos on dosing methods. Make sure your Alk, CA and pH are not only a the correct levels but also constant. Small fluctuations can quickly kill an SPS. Keep your Po4 at less than .03 and No3 at less than .05. Some people say that having a tiny tiny bit of each works best. Others who have ultra low nutrient systems does things like amino acids or other SPS "food"
Another bit of advice, do a lot of research on SPS pests/hitchhikers and how to get rid of them. Although I am very new myself, it seems like people spend soo much time learning how to best keep SPS as it relates to chemistry, they forget about other things that can kill coral, which in my opinion, is just as important.
Thanks so much for the nfo!! I've moved him to the tank bottom as suggested. That photo was taken the day I got him home. That was a week or so ago. The blue color seems to be slowly returning. Here's a picture I just took having moved him to the bottom.
Thanks! I'm a lot nervous since this is my first acro and it was a pricey little piece of coral. In the future I assume the advice is never take home a piece of white acro?
Not necessarily, nor should you not pick up a piece of acro because it's browned out. If the money is right those are sometimes the best value pickups. Many posts on people buying corals for cheap to "recover" them and having the piece turn out amazing.
Yeah it was looking like a goner from day one. Was my first acro and in hindsight I shoulda never accepted it. Lesson learned the hard way.... the only way I seem to learn. What a drag.
It looks like it is recovering well. The next step would be to move it in to more light and more water flow will be just as impartant. It will need more water flow than that torch coral it is next to.
Get it growing and encrusting on the base/plug first. Worry about the color last.
Now that I know how to buy acro, thanks to this site, I picked up this piece at the new LFS.... here tis lookin' ever so pretty under my new Maxspects...
No kidding!! That first piece was sold to me as blue acro... never saw the blue I was promised and don't believe it was my fault... at least I couldn't find any parameters that would lend themselves to such a rapid demise. This new piece though is beautiful now. If I lose it then ill have some serious detective work to do on my setup.