my first acro

[drewstaxplaya]

i dont dose, i get my levels from frequent water changes. 22 days ago my nitrate was between 2-5, and po4 was .03. ill get my water tested tomorrow again. so i got my first acro exactly 3 weeks ago. it was 15$ as a "tester", and am wondering if he looks healthy to you guys. thanks for the help. just hoping to venture more into the acro game with higher end pieces if he is doing well. have him in medium flow (~350 gph) about 12" under a blackbox led at about 60% blue, 30% white and 15% green/uv/red.

also how do i frag acros?

this is my little guy

 

[drewstaxplaya]

also, alk sits around 6 lately. i know thats a bit low, but im trying to raise it slightly. ill see what it is at tomorrow

 

[SashimiTurtle]

What is your Calcium and magnesium? Alk is LOW at 6. I would work on SLOWLY bringing it up to about 8. Which salt mix are you using. Have you considered at least using Kalk in your ATO to keep water parameters up between water changes.

 

[drewstaxplaya]

410 and 1230. i just buy premade sw at my lfs. i dont have an ato. i just use about two cups of ro topped off a day to keep the water level at the same spot. its a 29 bio so its pretty easy to keep level.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I know all about not having an ato on a nano tank. I also know all about not having a dosing pump or a way to replace calcium and alk between water changes. Acros are tough to keep, they require very stable parameters. Even a little bit of fluctuation from not having an ato can cause losses. Check out my build thread in my signature, it took me almost 3 months to figure out that I needed an ato and dosing pump to keep my water stable enough to make my corals happy. I could probably have done it with kalk in my ato, but I wanted to go ahead and get the doser.

I would seriously look at getting an ATO and using kalk to maintain level parameters. You'll need to use 2 part to get your numbers up to normal, then use kalk to maintain. NEVER use kalk to raise your big three. Also don't raise Alk more than 1 dkh in 24 hours. Numbers that have shown to be ideal for me are 450 Ca, 8.5 Alk and 1320 Mg. Your tank may be different.

Please don't take me as being harsh, I'm just trying to share some of my experiences with my tank.

 

[Donovan Joannes]

It looks healthy to me. Color seems to hold nicely which is a good sign. I am not seeing much PE, but that shouldn't be a big concern. Are you seeing any growth at the base?

About your fragging question, basically you just cut off any healthy branches and glue it onto a frag plug. Get a proper tool so that you won't end up with too many frags accidentally.

 

[drewstaxplaya]

robin i dont see anything thats harsh or offensive lol u are good. i suppose i could get an ato and doser, couldnt hurt right? rather be safer than sorry, especially if i want to venture into higher end acros. 8.5, 450 and 1320... will those be good for zoas as well?

i brought my water in to be tested today, theyre going to text me the results id assume later or tomorrow, which ill post.

donovan thanks for the responce. sorry to sound ignorant, but what is PE? i think i see small ammounts of growth from the bottom, but i also have an untrained eye. what proper tool should i buy?

 

[Donovan Joannes]

PE means polyp extension. When SPS is happy, you see their "hair" waving at you. More hair means they are happier. No hair means they are having a bad day.

 

[drewstaxplaya]

hmm i havnt seen that yet... could the acro be too close to zoas/palys? or should i jus work on raising the alk and other levels and get an ato along with a doser?

 

[drewstaxplaya]

can grab this for 40$. what do u think?

 

[Salty1962]

It does look happy in the pic but with your Alk that low it won't stay that way long. Slowly bring it up to at least 7ppm. Good Luck, SPS are addicting;Happy

 

[drewstaxplaya]

trust me i know, i got 7 more yesterday haha. thats why i want to get my levels up to a good level. do u think that doser would work well?

 

[HB AL]

In a tank that size I would just dose everything manually unless you go out of town a lot for extended period of times. Myself I'm at a crossroads I've been manually dosing everything since day 1, but with the amounts I'm needing to add cuz of all the growing corals I'm starting to lean towards getting a doser for at least alk, cal, and mag.