"Deep sea" Acro tips

[Jizu Puentes]

Recently ive had an imbalance with having a high alkalinity level with a low nutrient level and it caused my sps to lose color. I have raised my bioload and started coral feeding to raise my nutrient levels and all of my sps but one have colored up and are showing great PE. The one coral that seems to be doing worse is a smooth skin acro. I have removed it from its position midheight in the tank and put it lower and in a spot with higher flow. Can any of you guys with smooth skin, "deep sea" acros offer some advice?

After purchasing

About a month later

Now

 

[markalot]

My smooth skin likes a lot of flow and a lot of light. It's also capable of changing color fairly fast and surviving all kinds of conditions that killed other acros. I keep KH around 6.7 and will occasionally dose a little nitrate if it falls near undetectable levels.

This one is kept at 300 PAR under a T5 LED hybrid light. it started out looking similar to yours. Have you measured PAR? What kind of lighting do you have? Have you made sure KH and PO4 are fairly steady?

 

[Jizu Puentes]

My smooth skin likes a lot of flow and a lot of light. It's also capable of changing color fairly fast and surviving all kinds of conditions that killed other acros. I keep KH around 6.7 and will occasionally dose a little nitrate if it falls near undetectable levels.

This one is kept at 300 PAR under a T5 LED hybrid light. it started out looking similar to yours. Have you measured PAR? What kind of lighting do you have? Have you made sure KH and PO4 are fairly steady?

I havent measured PAR but it sat at about 26" from my quad 80w ATI Sunpower fixture and a XHO blue reefbrite. KH stays pretty steady by me dosing kalk and im not sure about P04. I usually just feed less if I see algae developing.

 

[markalot]

Nice lights, and I use Kalk as well.

I wonder if it's getting enough light? I have a 4 bulb 80 watt plus LED over a 72x18x27" tank. Before that I had a 6 bulb unit that gave me just about the right amount of PAR all over the tank.

What about flow? I use 2 MP40's and 2 Tunze 6095's for a total flow of 15,000 gph (when the pumps are clean anyway). My acros do like a LOT of flow as long as they aren't too close to a pump.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

Nice lights, and I use Kalk as well.

I wonder if it's getting enough light? I have a 4 bulb 80 watt plus LED over a 72x18x27" tank. Before that I had a 6 bulb unit that gave me just about the right amount of PAR all over the tank.

What about flow? I use 2 MP40's and 2 Tunze 6095's for a total flow of 15,000 gph (when the pumps are clean anyway). My acros do like a LOT of flow as long as they aren't too close to a pump.

I can try moving it to a new spot thats higher. The circle on the right is where it was so maybe I can put it in the circle on the left.

For flow I have a WP40 on else mode and a Hydor 850 on opposite sides near the top plus 3 nozzles from my return pump.

 

[markalot]

I think you need more flow, but tough to get a mixed reef right.

Both spots you show get a lot of light, that's the brightest spot in the tank, right in the middle. Mine sits about where the yellow tang is in the picture, and at about that height. With only 4 bulbs the middle might be the right light, but flow will be the weakest. Acros really do need flow to stay healthy. Maybe place a pump closer to the center to increase flow there?

Lots of nice colors on the LPS in there, good job!

 

[Jizu Puentes]

I think you need more flow, but tough to get a mixed reef right.

Both spots you show get a lot of light, that's the brightest spot in the tank, right in the middle. Mine sits about where the yellow tang is in the picture, and at about that height. With only 4 bulbs the middle might be the right light, but flow will be the weakest. Acros really do need flow to stay healthy. Maybe place a pump closer to the center to increase flow there?

Lots of nice colors on the LPS in there, good job!

Ill give the bew spot a try and see if I can play around with the flow. You are right about getting the flow correct in a mixed reef. My return nozzles are directed right onto my sps grouping and the powerhead pulses break up the constant flow just enough while still being enough to let the flow get to the lower areas.

Thanks for the color compliment! Everything is just now starting to show nicely.[/QUOTE]