Loosing all my acros

[djandy]

Hey everyone, hoping to get some experienced eyes on this because I’m stuck and losing all my acros.

My tank has been running 8 months. For the last 2 months I’ve been battling LCA dinos and have them about under control. All my LPS and other corals are doing fine…hammers, torches, zoas, favias, and gonis. My acro frags were doing good for about a month, then over the last month they’re rapidly declining. Just trying to stop the losses before everything is gone.

210 gallon display (82x26x25).
6 MP 40’s
Dosing Kalk and All For Reef (18ml between 9-12pm)
57w Aqua Ultraviolet
Clearwater Algae Scrubber
Deltec Skimmer
Reefmat 1200
Polyp Lab Genesis Bricks
Live rock in sump from previous setup

Lighting: 4 × Radion XR30 G6 Blues w/ diffusers

• Peak intensity: 48%
• Blue channels: 100%
• Red: 2%
• Cool white: 10%
• Warm white: 10%

Photoperiod: 8am – 8pm

• Ramp up: 8 - 11
• Peak: 11 - 5:30
• Ramp down: 5:30 - 8

Parameters

• Alk: 8.65
• Calcium: 411
• Magnesium: 1405
• Nitrate: 5.1
• Phosphate .03

 

[BryanM]

It may just be the dinos. I've read conflicting into about if that version is toxic or not.

 

[Reefering1]

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Just kalk + AFR? Acros are extremely trace hungry and you might be starving them there. I always suggest an ICP-MS to get a baseline which will also tell you if there are any pollutants like Neodymium present.

 

[Reginald Reefer III]

Also - share white light pics. Blue light pics won't provide much info.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Acros are also very sensitive to flow - too much and too steady, no bueno, too little, also not good. I sometimes move mine around to see if a different spot works better. Your parameters look good.

 

[Reefering1]

Your parameters look good.

Assuming there is sufficient food/ nutrients flowing through that tank every day...

 

[djandy]

Thank you. They get 2 1/2 frozen cubes and a chunk of mysis in the morning and again in the evening. Also a sheet of nori everyday. I add phyto feast live just about everyday and rotate beta brine, oyster feast, roe, and roti feast too. I was using reef energy ab+ before the dinos. I have 2 mp 40’s towards the front glass just above half tank running 28% reef crest anti-sync. 2 just above that in the middle running 35% and the other 2 a little higher hitting right in front of the overflow running 55%. Those are anti-sync too.

Hope these are better…

 

[hatfielj]

Have you examined them up close for pests? White bugs and red bugs can be very hard to see. If no pests, could be a bacterial issue.

 

[Tahoe61]

Have you examined them up close for pests? White bugs and red bugs can be very hard to see. If no pests, could be a bacterial issue.

^. Macro images, cropped.

 

[djandy]

I did find a couple flatworms, 3 or 4 I think it was when they started taking a turn. I took them all out and dipped them. The flatworms came off 2 of them, nothing off the others. I’ve been checking them often and haven’t seen anything since, but just with a flashlight at night or magnifying glass during the day. I’ve been afraid to take them out again, I lost a few frags the day after the dip. They completely bleached.

 

[hatfielj]

I did find a couple flatworms, 3 or 4 I think it was when they started taking a turn. I took them all out and dipped them. The flatworms came off 2 of them, nothing off the others. I’ve been checking them often and haven’t seen anything since, but just with a flashlight at night or magnifying glass during the day. I’ve been afraid to take them out again, I lost a few frags the day after the dip. They completely bleached.

To successfully treat for flatworms and eliminate them from your system, you need to take every single piece out of the tank and dip them weekly for 3 - 4 weeks minimum. They lay eggs readily and the dips only remove the adults. The eggs will hatch and you'll have more flatworms in no time if you don't dip repeatedly. If any of the acros have encrusted onto your rock work, you have to either dip that entire rock too or remove the encrusting tissue from the rock.

 

[386reeftrader]

Looks like FW damage. You can baste the corals in the tank and see if FW come off. If they do then you've go to decide if whats left is worth the hassle of trying to treat or just chuck them and don't add any acros for a few months.

If no FW show up then you might want to check your source water and also make sure there's no instability with nutrients as both can cause acros to decline in this way