How to Stop an Acropora base Spread

[Lavey29]

SPS?

No favia and torches and even a hammer zapped one too

 

[exnisstech]

Snip - Aren't they getting fried by acro light par?

These rics are under 475 par very top and 375 at the lowest so yes they can handle the par. They did a pretty impressive job surviving bubble tip attacks as well. The bubble tips finally gave up trying for that realestate and wandered off to the the left. I have one that morphed and looks like a bounce mushroom when it's fully inflated (minus color). I don't know if the nem stings caused it to deform or not.

 

[Dburr1014]

Smaller rock, kill the rest.
A small Round Rock it will grow on and encrust but won't encrust in shadows. It will stop or be forced to plate out which are easy to frag.

 

[Lavey29]

These rics are under 475 par very top and 375 at the lowest so yes they can handle the par. They did a pretty impressive job surviving bubble tip attacks as well. The bubble tips finally gave up trying for that realestate and wandered off to the the left. I have one that morphed and looks like a bounce mushroom when it's fully inflated (minus color). I don't know if the nem stings caused it to deform or not.

Cool mine are in 200 par. They are some of my favorite rock filler corals

 

[H@rry]

Seems like a pleasant problem to deal with.

 

[Waters]

I fought it for months and then just gave up and let the acros battle it out. Shockingly, after the initial minor battles, the surrounding acros would almost come to an agreement and both just stop growing next to each other. Has happened with 5-6 acros in my tank.

 

[rastaangel]

I have the same issue with quite a few SPS types. What I have found works the best without risking have a ph swing from Kalk paste or other reaction from peroxide is I use a steel brush I use for gun cleaning and scrub the edges back. The freshly grown edge doesn’t take much to brush back, usually once a month I brush them back 1/4-1/2” and do a large water change

 

[ScottB]

I do an ICP test every 3-4 months to make sure everything is where it should be. The one thing I dose other than the big three is iodine. With a lot of acro, they seem to use it faster than water changes replace it. I use IO Reef Crystals and do 1.5% WC daily. Alk, Ca and Mag and iodine gets dosed daily. I also use KZ 1234 weekly.

tank parameters:

Temp 79-80, Salt 35.0, PH 8.15-8.35, Alk 8.15, Ca 440, Mag 1480, NO3 14.0, PO4 0.12. Iodine 65-85 ug/l.

How do you test for Iodine? And what do you dose for Iodine? My ICPs show a constant deficit.

 

[AKL1950]

@ScottB For dosing, I use Seachum Reef Iodide. For testing I use the process from the link below. You need a Hanna Nitrite checker and Some Red Sea iodine reagents. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy and I’ve gotten very confident that it works well.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/using-hanna-checker-hi-707-to-test-for-iodine.669022/

 

[paintman]

I just watched a youtube video where a guy was having trouble with his macros encrusting over the rocks. He said he used 2 part frag putty to stop the growth. Apparently he just smeared the putty over the top of spots he didn't want to grow anymore.

 

[AKL1950]

I just watched a youtube video where a guy was having trouble with his macros encrusting over the rocks. He said he used 2 part frag putty to stop the growth. Apparently he just smeared the putty over the top of spots he didn't want to grow anymore.

Yes, I’ve thought about that, but it would be a temporary fix. The Acro base would just grow over it and keep going. I’m going to try a vertical wall with epoxy and tile about 1 1/2” high to see if I can force it vertical. If it tries to crest the wall and keep plating, I can scrape it off easier so it doesn’t get outside it’s current area.