Help with acropora

[Nathaniellund17]

I have had my 250 gallon tank up for 3+ years and have never been able to have much success with acropora.

This latest frag I got from my lfs is my latest endeavor. I originally had it under my xr30’s with 300+ par. It started to bleach (from what I could tell) and I moved it to a section that is just over 200 par. It hasn’t colored or had much polyp extension after a month. Knowing that they need higher par, I decided to move it back to the higher par section. I’d welcome thoughts.

Details on tank - all parameters are stable.
Salinity- 1.026
Alk - 8.5
Calcium - 440
Phosphate - .05 to .08
Nitrate - 7 to 10

Flow is good with 4 mp40s and a Red Sea gyre.

Not sure what else I should be doing.

 

[164644]

Hello!
It would be helpful if you could send a picture of the full tank.
And, if possible, set your Radions to more yellow color so we can see better the picture (too blue)
You can build a scene in Mobius where the lights stays with 5.000 kelvins (much easier then for pictures)
Cheers!

 

[Nathaniellund17]

Hello!
It would be helpful if you could send a picture of the full tank.
And, if possible, set your Radions to more yellow color so we can see better the picture (too blue)
You can build a scene in Mobius where the lights stays with 5.000 kelvins (much easier then for pictures)
Cheers!

Thanks for taking a look. Yeah, took the picture at night. That’s the best time I can see the polyps. Here’s some pictures of the tank and the exact frag from the day.

 

[164644]

Hello,
As you can imagine, not easy to give advice from faraway.

To be sure:
- I see lots of coralline algae in the back, right? If so, that’s a good thing…
- In the left high rock, seems that you have something hairy growing next to the frags. Green hair algae? If so, did you put any chemicals recently?
- What is the intensity of your Radions?

Lastly, if everything is doing fine… and your coral really bleached… it can take many months before it comes back to normality.

Still, you mentioned that, in general, you are not having much success with acros… is this valid for all sps?

Cheers!

 

[Solo McReefer]

Your tank looks infested with Aptasia

 

[Waters]

Doesn't look dead but it is definitely bleached. What PAR did the frag come from? Hitting it with 300+ PAR from LEDs on a small frag in a new tank is a lot. I would move it back down to the bottom until it colors back up. All of your numbers look fine so it isn't due to the water chemistry.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

It looks like your reef should be ready and set for acropora success. I struggled to succeed with Acropora early on although I was having good growth with all other SPS types (Seriatopora, stylophora, and pocillapora) and almost gave up on them. Then magically acropora started thriving. I have no explanation except that some necessary biological/ecological factors finally developed. It’s a common theme in a lot of SPS reefs.

So, if the water quality is truly good (no recent potential toxic additives, metal contamination, medications, etc.) I’d say keep trying! Try hardy Acropora like A. yongeii or A. carduus start them at lower par then every few days move them to higher par if they seem to be doing OK. I had early on in my reef tried the same type of frag up to 3 times before I finally got it to thrive (usually a well known ORA frag I got on sale: cheap and hardy). Now I can plop a fancy Battlecoral frag with immediate success! From past experience I knew my tank’s lighting, current, and parameters could support acropora. So I had the patience to keep trying despite early defeats.

 

[Nathaniellund17]

Really appreciate all the comments.

Hello,
As you can imagine, not easy to give advice from faraway.

To be sure:
- I see lots of coralline algae in the back, right? If so, that’s a good thing…
- In the left high rock, seems that you have something hairy growing next to the frags. Green hair algae? If so, did you put any chemicals recently?
- What is the intensity of your Radions?

Lastly, if everything is doing fine… and your coral really bleached… it can take many months before it comes back to normality.

Still, you mentioned that, in general, you are not having much success with acros… is this valid for all sps?

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply. No hair algae. Another poster said it looks like an aiptasia infestation, and it is. I have some nudibrancs that have been working on it the past few months, and they do seem to be clearing out the tank, so I’ll continue to be patient and let them do their thing.

I’ve had success with digital monitors, a bonsai, and a stylophora.

I’ve got my radions set to about 70% to get to the 300+ par. There’s definitely parts of the tank with less par, and thinking I should move it back to lower par. How do you know when an acro is ready for higher par?

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Another poster said it looks like an aiptasia infestation, and it is. I have some nudibrancs that have been working on it the past few months, and they do seem to be clearing out the tank, so I’ll continue to be patient and let them do their thing.

I had an Aiptasia infestation as well. But it wasn’t an issue in terms of coral growth. I finally added Berghias earlier this year more for aesthetic reasons and they’re pretty much gone.

How do you know when an acro is ready for higher par?

Good question! Usually when I add an Acropora frag there is polyp extension (usually seen at night) even in low light. So after 2-3 days if the tissue looks healthy and there’s still polyp extension I’ll move it to higher par. If it does OK at the higher level for 2-3 days then I put it at the goal PAR. There’s no accepted timing. It’s a lot of feel and close observation. It helps to know the lighting parameters that the frag comes from. For example Battlecorals has their frags at very high PAR. So I put those frags into high PAR pretty quickly.

 

[Nathaniellund17]

Your tank looks infested with Aptasia

Yes, it is infested. I have some nudibrancs that have been clearing it out the past few months, and looking like they are making progress - so I'll let them continue to do their thing.

 

[VDC]

Yes, it is infested. I have some nudibrancs that have been clearing it out the past few months, and looking like they are making progress - so I'll let them continue to do their thing.

peppermint shrimp.

good flow?

 

[Nathaniellund17]

It looks like your reef should be ready and set for acropora success. I struggled to succeed with Acropora early on although I was having good growth with all other SPS types (Seriatopora, stylophora, and pocillapora) and almost gave up on them. Then magically acropora started thriving. I have no explanation except that some necessary biological/ecological factors finally developed. It’s a common theme in a lot of SPS reefs.

So, if the water quality is truly good (no recent potential toxic additives, metal contamination, medications, etc.) I’d say keep trying! Try hardy Acropora like A. yongeii or A. carduus start them at lower par then every few days move them to higher par if they seem to be doing OK. I had early on in my reef tried the same type of frag up to 3 times before I finally got it to thrive (usually a well known ORA frag I got on sale: cheap and hardy). Now I can plop a fancy Battlecoral frag with immediate success! From past experience I knew my tank’s lighting, current, and parameters could support acropora. So I had the patience to keep trying despite early defeats.

Thanks for the reply and words of motivation. Yeah, I've been working on this for 3+ years with success with other SPS - but not acropora, so it's definitely a frustrating process. I have no plans of quitting yet, and am sure once it clicks will be rewarding.

 

[Nathaniellund17]

I had an Aiptasia infestation as well. But it wasn’t an issue in terms of coral growth. I finally added Berghias earlier this year more for aesthetic reasons and they’re pretty much gone.

Good question! Usually when I add an Acropora frag there is polyp extension (usually seen at night) even in low light. So after 2-3 days if the tissue looks healthy and there’s still polyp extension I’ll move it to higher par. If it does OK at the higher level for 2-3 days then I put it at the goal PAR. There’s no accepted timing. It’s a lot of feel and close observation. It helps to know the lighting parameters that the frag comes from. For example Battlecorals has their frags at very high PAR. So I put those frags into high PAR pretty quickly.

It came from an established tank, so I'd imagine decent lighting - though I don't know the exact par level. The polyps are still pretty scarce... I decided to put it back in lower lighting for some more time to get healthy.

 

[Nathaniellund17]

peppermint shrimp.

good flow?

I think I'll let the berghias continue to do their thing. I've had peppermint shrimp in the past, and they were always hit or miss - and they never got it completely clean. With the berghias, they only eat aiptasia, and from the sections they've cleared, it looks great.

For flow I have 4 MP40s (2 on each end - 5 ft length for the tank) and a red sea gyre up top to make sure the surface water is getting agitated for gas exchange. I think the flow is pretty good.

 

[164644]

Really appreciate all the comments.

Thanks for the reply. No hair algae. Another poster said it looks like an aiptasia infestation, and it is. I have some nudibrancs that have been working on it the past few months, and they do seem to be clearing out the tank, so I’ll continue to be patient and let them do their thing.

I’ve had success with digital monitors, a bonsai, and a stylophora.

I’ve got my radions set to about 70% to get to the 300+ par. There’s definitely parts of the tank with less par, and thinking I should move it back to lower par. How do you know when an acro is ready for higher par?

Dam… that’s a lot of aiptasia, but indeed, nudes will take of it! Just give them time…
As mentioned, this shouldn’t be the reason for the problem.

If you have other corals in the same level as was this frag initially… maybe it is not par problem.

By the way, I see your pumps rather low in the tank (not a problem). Yet, do you have a good surface agitation? Or any pump higher?

Lastly, how do you maintain alk? Calcium reactor, 3 parts…?

We will get there!!! :)

 

[Nathaniellund17]

Dam… that’s a lot of aiptasia, but indeed, nudes will take of it! Just give them time…
As mentioned, this shouldn’t be the reason for the problem.

If you have other corals in the same level as was this frag initially… maybe it is not par problem.

By the way, I see your pumps rather low in the tank (not a problem). Yet, do you have a good surface agitation? Or any pump higher?

Lastly, how do you maintain alk? Calcium reactor, 3 parts…?

We will get there!!! :)

Yes, it's a lot of aiptasia... but it's actually looking better from where it was.:)

I do have other coral at the same level in different locations (so the par is different) - but very similar.

As to pumps, I have 4 MP40s - 2 on each side. I also have a gyre on top to perform the surface agitation (see attached picture).

To maintain alk - I have been using BRS soda ash and calcium chloride. However, over the past two weeks I switched to using tropic marin All for Reef. My thought here was that maybe it is the trace elements that I'm missing and this will keep those elements more constant - rather than replenishing with water changes.

I'm also attaching some pics of other corals that seem to be doing just fine - some higher and lower than what this frag is sitting.

 

[164644]

Hello! Thanks for the quick reply.
Based on your feedback, I don’t see anything very unusual up to now (except the invasion of aiptasia :) )

General comments:
- Maybe it is just this frag… maybe too small… sometimes things go wrong.
Try later another frag… such as a “Green slimer” (normally cheap and easy). They are a good benchmark for acros.

- Random thought: maybe it could be something linked to the significant amount of aiptasia. Wait for the population to reduce further…

- I use All For Reef as well. Although, it is unlikely to be trace elements… it should work really fine in your tank.

Assuming that there is no error in the testing… just keep up with basic maintenance (water changes), monitoring alk and controlling these aiptasias….you will get there.

I’ll try to think of something else…
Cheers!

 

[Krux]

You may want to do an ICP test. You mentioned switching to AFR for trace elements, it may be good to get a snapshot and see what your levels are actually at.

The rest of the tank looks lively though, nice work.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Yes, it is infested. I have some nudibrancs that have been clearing it out the past few months, and looking like they are making progress - so I'll let them continue to do their thing.

Your OP was a question about how you can't keep acros

Aptasia are anemones and will sting and kill acros(if they are not thriving)

That's the reason for the very obvious observation

Get rid of the Aptasia if you want acros to thrive in that tank, is my suggestion

 

[Nathaniellund17]

You may want to do an ICP test. You mentioned switching to AFR for trace elements, it may be good to get a snapshot and see what your levels are actually at.

The rest of the tank looks lively though, nice work.

Thanks for the reply. Agree with the ICP test. I actually had 2 more ICP tests that I had purchased from ICP Analysis. When I went to complete the test, I found out that ICP Analysis had shut down - which is a bummer. Do you have recommendations for any other ICP tests?