Millepora flaking like dandruff?

[george9]

I purchased a small (likely fresh cut unfortunately) millepora frag about a month ago and have kept it on my frag rack to acclimate to my light spectrum for about 3 weeks. I don’t like to keep new acros on the rack for much longer because they can begin to pale as the maximum PAR i can reach on the rack is around 220.

A few days before I moved it I noticed its color fading a tiny bit and turning more green than orange, which nudged me into moving it into higher lights on the rockwork. Also prior to moving it I noticed it would have weird brownish flakes hanging off of it at times, I chalked this up to a mucus response to micro bubbles from my skimmer since it didn’t look like any kind of STN or RTN i’ve seen before. It’s not flaking off down to the bare skeleton.

Well since moving it to higher light (perhaps too high) the flaking continues and polyp extension is gone. It’s clearly not happy where it’s placed but I’m not sure if I should give it a little time in its new place or move it back to lower light. Not sure what triggered the flaking but I don’t think moving it to higher light has helped.

I am thinking this one may be a loss, but I am creating this thread to better understand what the heck is going on with the “dandruff” flaking? I haven’t been able to read about this at all, is it a form of STN? or RTN? Bleaching? The coral isn’t really lightening up or losing flesh down to the skeleton at all so I am puzzled, but it’s clearly not pleased with me.

Parameters have been solid:
Alk - 8.0-8.3
phos - .06-.09
Ca- 470
mg - 1410
no3-10

thanks!

 

[Reefahholic]

How old is the tank? Personally I’d raise the phosphate a little higher if the tank is younger.

 

[george9]

How old is the tank? Personally I’d raise the phosphate a little higher if the tank is younger.

It’s been set up about two years, and have plenty of other acro colonies doing very well. I do have po4 issues in this tank since I used dry rock to start, and have run into issues where it seemingly bottoms overnight and causes QUICK rtn in acros. This has happened just once and I’ve vowed to not let it happen again lol. I test po4 DAILY and I’ve learned to just dose a splash when I think about each day to keep it elevated. Higher po4 is way better than 0.0-.03 ppm in this tank IME.

In regards to this acro, It really hasn’t changed much since the post, but still no polyp extension. No bleaching, and still has some color. I actually moved it back onto my rack in lower light just today and am going to see if it can bounce back. I believe it was too fresh of a cut to ship. I haven’t had issues moving acros that have begun to puddle nicely.