Does this look like RTN/STN at the base

[Mm3]

I’m new to Acros. Have lots of LPS colonies Tank is 15 months old. Does this look like RTN/STN? Colony is maricultured from Indonesia and has been in the tank for about 5 days. I honestly can’t remember if it was always like this.
Parameters are pretty stable, I test every few days. Barely any algae, some minor cyano. Tank is a Red Sea reefer 250

Alk 8.6 DKH
Calcium:450ppm
Mag:1380ppm
Salinity 34.5ppt
Nitrate: 0.3ppm
Phosphate: 0.15ppm
PH: 8.3

I dose All for reef and Kalk at night. I use rhowaphos. Nitrates are low although I heavily feed( likely due to the use of all for reef, which is essentially carbon dosing).

 

[Mm3]

I heard that covering the spots with putty helps. Let me know your thoughts.

By the way, I dipped and inspected the coral prior to adding it. I did not remove the base.

 

[Dburr1014]

I’m new to Acros. Have lots of LPS colonies Tank is 15 months old. Does this look like RTN/STN? Colony is maricultured from Indonesia and has been in the tank for about 5 days. I honestly can’t remember if it was always like this.
Parameters are pretty stable, I test every few days. Barely any algae, some minor cyano. Tank is a Red Sea reefer 250

Alk 8.6 DKH
Calcium:450ppm
Mag:1380ppm
Salinity 34.5ppt
Nitrate: 0.3ppm
Phosphate: 0.15ppm
PH: 8.3

I dose All for reef and Kalk at night. I use rhowaphos. Nitrates are low although I heavily feed( likely due to the use of all for reef, which is essentially carbon dosing).

Sorry nobody's gotten to this post since Tuesday.
I have never dealt with maricultured pieces but I've always heard that they are tough to grow out.

When things start at the base I find that they're hard to stop. My go-to is always clip a couple of small pieces and remount them just in case.
How's your flow in the tank? I find that SPS can take any amount of flow you can give him as long as it's not Direct.

 

[CHSUB]

Almost 20 years ago I imported manicultured corals from Bali and sold to many in and around Miami, so I have a lot of experience with them. You must remove the bases and dip for pests otherwise it is likely doomed. Even if everything is perfect, they are very delicate and best case is 50/50 of keeping them alive. Nutrients must be very low, flow vigorous, light strong and direct feeding is required unless you have lots of fish. GL and my advice is don’t buy them again.

 

[mcarroll]

Nitrate: 0.3ppm
Phosphate: 0.15ppm

Feeding corals in aquariums is tough to do without spoiling the ecosystem since uptake is usually very low.

So help them out by making sure flow is STRONG and do something to improve nitrate levels if possible....maybe even consider switching to BioCalcium (or similar) instead of AFR for the time being?

But if you're doing anything "extra" for filtration, I would stop for now – carbon dosing, extra bio-media, water changes, etc.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

Mariculture Acro’s just aren’t suitable for putting straight in a tank like that, especially not when you’re new to Acro’s. It’s a sure fire way to introduce white bugs or AEFW…
The only way I would do it now is by cutting them straight off the plugs, then cutting the colonies into a few bits and mounting separately. These would all need to go into a quarantine system for a month running Milbemycin. Only then would I consider introducing them to my reef.
I get it that the Mari colonies look an attractive way to fill a tank quickly but they really are a bit of a nightmare imho, even if you do get lucky with pests, I find only about 20% will survive, and even then will be weak and stunted and take a while to start growing.
FWIW I only buy premium frags from a known clean supplier who guarantees their corals to be pest free. Once you factor in the hassle and losses from Mari they’re no cheaper, and a healthy frag that’s acclimated to aquarium life will take off and grow, so in 18 months you’ll end up with both being the same size anyway…