Help for Sniper’s Blue Acro

[puckstopshere]

This acro was one of the fluffiest I have when I got it and it was encrusting well for a couple months before the polys started closing up, and then a few days ago this underside damage appeared. I don’t have any sense of where it came from, but I first noticed it Wednesday night. I’m not sure if it’s getting worse since the white tissue seems to go in and out slightly through the day. The damage seems localized to this one arm, though the polyps are held in all over. Anything I can do?

Alk: 8.3
Nitrate: 5
Phos: .2
Calcium: 445
Mag: 1440
Salinity: 1.025

Thanks!

 

[Marine Betta]

This acro was one of the fluffiest I have when I got it and it was encrusting well for a couple months before the polys started closing up, and then a few days ago this underside damage appeared. I don’t have any sense of where it came from, but I first noticed it Wednesday night. I’m not sure if it’s getting worse since the white tissue seems to go in and out slightly through the day. The damage seems localized to this one arm, though the polyps are held in all over. Anything I can do?

Alk: 8.3
Nitrate: 5
Phos: .2
Calcium: 445
Mag: 1440
Salinity: 1.025

Thanks!

Have any of these parameters changed drastically recently? Those are mesenterial filaments which can be released by corals as a feeding or stress response. In this case, I would say it’s a stress response. Has there been a color change in the coral?

The only parameter that I would say is a red flag are your elevated phosphate level and low nitrate in relation. I target 5-15 ppm for my nitrates and 0.03-0.08 for my phosphates. With that being said, there are plenty of people who have very high levels of both and have great success. Did these values change recently, and are the other corals happy? I would try to lower phosphates and raise nitrates to see if that helps.

If you haven’t, I would order an ICP to see if there is an imbalance that can’t be detected otherwise. Get a total ICP test which will include testing your RO water. You should get results back in about a week.

Maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley will have other thoughts.

 

[billyocean]

Is there anything within a foot or so that could have stung it?

 

[puckstopshere]

This acro was one of the fluffiest I have when I got it and it was encrusting well for a couple months before the polys started closing up, and then a few days ago this underside damage appeared. I don’t have any sense of where it came from, but I first noticed it Wednesday night. I’m not sure if it’s getting worse since the white tissue seems to go in and out slightly through the day. The damage seems localized to this one arm, though the polyps are held in all over. Anything I can do?

Alk: 8.3
Nitrate: 5
Phos: .2
Calcium: 445
Mag: 1440
Salinity: 1.025

Thanks!

Have any of these parameters changed drastically recently? Those are mesenterial filaments which can be released by corals as a feeding or stress response. In this case, I would say it’s a stress response. Has there been a color change in the coral?

The only parameter that I would say is a red flag are your elevated phosphate level and low nitrate in relation. I target 5-15 ppm for my nitrates and 0.03-0.08 for my phosphates. With that being said, there are plenty of people who have very high levels of both and have great success. Did these values change recently, and are the other corals happy? I would try to lower phosphates and raise nitrates to see if that helps.

If you haven’t, I would order an ICP to see if there is an imbalance that can’t be detected otherwise. Get a total ICP test which will include testing your RO water. You should get results back in about a week.

Maybe @Randy Holmes-Farley will have other thoughts.

No wild moves of alk or nitrate but I’ve been working to lower phosphates. They climbed to ~.45 about a month ago and I’ve been doing water changes and using phosphat-e to pull them down. I know the target is <0.1 but it’s been sticky. Phosphates spiked when I started winning a GHA battle. Tank gets 5.8ml of AFR/day to hold Alk steady so I hope I’m in the ballpark on trace elements. But to your advice on ICP I just opened a kit and will out it in the mail tomorrow.

Thanks!

 

[puckstopshere]

Is there anything within a foot or so that could have stung it?

There’s nothing around that can reach it, and on top of that this coral is upstream of everything I have with tentacles.

I have hermits, one cleaner shrimp, one emerald crab, a bunch of trochus snails, and one clumsy turbo snail, but I’ve never seen any of them misbehave to this degree. Thanks!