How should I proceed?

fachatga · May 31, 2021

I posted about this Acro before asking if it would get its color back. Good news is that it’s now showing great purples and vibrant greens. Some of the tissue is growing back. But some areas seem to be covered with more and more darker green algae. So there are good and bad things happening. Should I cut the top off since the bulk of the nasty spots are at the bottom? The good area seems to look better with tome. The bottom seems to get worse and it’s not showing any inclination to regrow back down there. Maybe a fresh start for the healthy area is best? Or maybe it just needs more time? Maybe it will still be faster to just cut off the top and let that grow? Or maybe doing nothing it will still eventually be inundated with algae and the tissue will recede again? I’ve got lots of things going on in my head. Not sure how I’ll proceed. I’m happy to take any comments on what you would do please. First pic is a month ago when it finally started to see a little color. Second is today. Different lighting but I think you can still see what’s going on.

PeterC99 · May 31, 2021

If your SPS coral is coming back - Do Not touch it! Will only stress it out more.

Congrats on getting it to come back - very difficult to achieve!

fachatga · May 31, 2021

Thanks. I knew so little about coral when I got this. It was brown out of the box and I was just confused. So I put the plug in the sand and left it there for months. Water quality was awful and fluctuating a lot. Eventually got my tank on track and learned a lot. Plenty of it from here. It got so bad seemed like all polyps were gone. Now it developed little white dots all over they even stick out a little sometimes. They’re coming back. You may be right. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Chances are I’ll kill it for good if I try to mess with it.

PeterC99 · May 31, 2021

When things really stabilize - think about moving the SPS up for more light, we help to bring out the best colors.

fachatga · May 31, 2021

Lol. That’s the other thing. I moved it up which is why it got some color. It’s around 230 par right now. I want to get it over to an area in the 330-350 range. The last few weeks I’ve been adjusting my lighting and moving things around. I’ve got my Acro area set up so my tank can be a good mixed reef with good lighting for what I’ve got.

vetteguy53081 · May 31, 2021

Continue to provide that lighting which creates zooxanthellae for its growth and color. Moderate water flow and keep numbers as stable as you can with chasing any value.

fachatga · May 31, 2021

Thank you. We might be our worst enemies in this hobby. I was able to save this Acro and all I wanted to do was mess with what was working. Thought I got smart or something since I’ve figured out how to have some success in this forsaken hobby. It seems to be happy so I’ll let it be. Glad I have a support community here to stop me from doing dumb things.