I'm struggling with acros!

[DeSoDo]

All corals in my tank are looking great! Blasto have new heads, mushroom split from 1 to 3, new heads popping out on my hammers and Duncans. 3/6 acro and 1 anacropora are bleaching! I know my water parameters aren't exactly what is required, but because my other corals are growing, I try to keep them at those numbers.
465Ca
1260Mag
8.9Alk
1.026SG

 

[BryanM]

Mag is a touch on the low side, no mention of nitrates and phosphates. What about light and flow?

 

[Justfebreezeit]

How long did it take for this to happen?

 

[DeSoDo]

Mag is a touch on the low side, no mention of nitrates and phosphates. What about light and flow?

Gotta check phosphates, waiting on new kit. Went to test it yesterday with other parameters and found out all of my test strips were wet. Nitrate .5. I'm guessing they're in what's considered high flow, they're at the top of the tank on frag racks because google said high light and high flow (WaveMaker is on opposite side of tank). I'm running blues and purple at 100% 8hrs a day, and whites at 15% 8 hours a day. 1hr ramp up and 1hr ramp down.

 

[Pistondog]

Sps grow better with high flow. What i give them would be bad for lps, torches, gonis.

 

[DeSoDo]

Mag is a touch on the low side, no mention of nitrates and phosphates. What about light and flow?

Found my backup aquacheck 1 min kit. Reads higher than 0, but less than 200.

 

[bubbgee]

Gotta check phosphates, waiting on new kit. Went to test it yesterday with other parameters and found out all of my test strips were wet. Nitrate .5. I'm guessing they're in what's considered high flow, they're at the top of the tank on frag racks because google said high light and high flow (WaveMaker is on opposite side of tank). I'm running blues and purple at 100% 8hrs a day, and whites at 15% 8 hours a day. 1hr ramp up and 1hr ramp down.

Doesn't sound like enough flow. How long is the tank from the wavemaker and how far are the sps frags from the powerhead? I have five wavemakers aside from two return heads to accomplish flow and I still think I need two more after seeing this video.

 

[DeSoDo]

How long did it take for this to happen?

The anacropora seems like it happened overnight. There's been a hermit crab that's constantly on it, seems like it ate it. The green acro on the right has been the only one that's seeming to thrive, i see it feeding all the time and had great color. The rainbow and the others aren't, the ones that aren't, maybe 2-3 weeks.

 

[DeSoDo]

Doesn't sound like enough flow. How long is the tank from the wavemaker and how far are the sps frags from the powerhead? I have five wavemakers aside from two return heads to accomplish flow and I still think I need two more after seeing this video.

Tank is 65g, 3ft long. I have a few extra wavemakers, don't know where to place them without sacrificing all of my LPS.

 

[JonoH]

How mature is the tank also?

 

[DeSoDo]

How mature is the tank also?

6 months now

 

[exnisstech]

Found my backup aquacheck 1 min kit. Reads higher than 0, but less than 200.

I'm sorry but I found that funny, that's a pretty broad range. You may want to invest in some test kits.
Keeping a mixed reed can be very challenging IME especially mixing acros with LPS because the requirements are very different. Its not impossible but is not easy. I tried early on and failed so I ended up setting up a tank for acros.

PS. My tank really struggled for the first year or so with quite a few losses. Be prepared for those if you want to keep acros. Nothing like going to bed at night and waking up to a dead coral all nice and bone white. Its often a single pieces while everything else is fine with no reason why that one died. Not trying to discourage you just speaking from my experiences. I've only kept acros for two years but from the reading I've done my experiences are not unique.

 

[JonoH]

6 months now

My opinion

Not mature enough for acro's.

Took my tank at least 12 before they didnt struggle.
Once your back wall and pumps are getting covered in coraline then your on the money!

 

[DeSoDo]

I'm sorry but I found that funny, that's a pretty broad range. You may want to invest in some test kits.
Keeping a mixed reed can be very challenging IME especially mixing acros with LPS because the requirements are very different. Its not impossible but is not easy. I tried early on and failed so I ended up setting up a tank for acros.

PS. My tank really struggled for the first year or so with quite a few losses. Be prepared for those if you want to keep acros. Nothing like going to bed at night and waking up to a dead coral all nice and bone white. Its often a single pieces while everything else is fine with no reason why that one died. Not trying to discourage you just speaking from my experiences. I've only kept acros for two years but from the reading I've done my experiences are not unique.

I never tried acros. 2/6 I got as freebies from ordering euphyllia.

 

[DeSoDo]

My opinion

Not mature enough for acro's.

Took my tank at least 12 before they didnt struggle.
Once your back wall and pumps are getting covered in coraline then your on the money!

Yeah, I'll wait on anymore them. I didn't spend a lot on them 2/6 were free, the others I won in auctions for less than $10.

 

[RockBox13]

What kind of light do you have? The tank seems a little dark for Acros to me. Light could just be turned down though.

 

[backbayreef]

People kept saying “tank maturity”, “one-year” mark, and the presence of coralline algae will support SPS. Assuming the “big threes” and N&P are stable, what can reefers test for to support SPS?

 

[RockBox13]

People kept saying “tank maturity”, “one-year” mark, and the presence of coralline algae will support SPS. Assuming the “big threes” and N&P are stable, what can reefers test for to support SPS?

Light (PAR) and Flow as well.

 

[backbayreef]

Light (PAR) and Flow as well.

Fine - I can get 300+ PAR and enough random, indirect flow to make corals dizzy. How do I know SPS will thrive?

 

[exnisstech]

Yeah, I'll wait on anymore them. I didn't spend a lot on them 2/6 were free, the others I won in auctions for less than $10.

That's the best way to get started on acro , cheap and hopefully hardly as testers.
Acro love light and flow. My tank is 36x22x22" running two photon 32s and two MP40s. My pieces at the top are getting 400-500+ par
Recent

A few months in

PS. I dose AFR in this tank and keep alk mid 8 dkH. N and P run very low at times showing zero. I was dosing N and P but have recently started dosing ammonium.