My Green Slimer went from this...... To this..... PICS--Acro Help Please

[JDK]

UPDATE:

New progression photos for the week. Going to wait until next week to take a picture of the Blue Mille because I just posted a new pic of it a few days ago. Next week both corals will be listed in the post. Can anyone tell a difference? Still not sure when I should start to raise the light levels. Should I look for some solid improvement before turning back up?

Lights are down to less than half of what they were in the initial photos so that may play a part in appearance. However ratios of blue to white are the same so coloration should not be affected in the photos.

GREEN SLIMER

When first put into tank Feb 25th

3-4 months later

6-25-2012

Little over a week after adding 5 fish, increasing feedings and lowering lights by 50%
Have been feeding mysis/ther-a pellets twice a day. Aminos and ReefRoids once a week (will probably cut back on this in the near future).
Did a waterchange after the Interceptor treatment but will stop WCs from now on until Nitrates rise.

7-2-12

Staying the course. Contiue to feed fish twice a day. ReefRoids every few days. Lights are lowered. Aquavitro fuel once a week. One thing I have noticed is that my ALK is up a little. It usually holds at 8.6-8.8 Dkh. Last night it tested at 9.3 Dkh. I attribute this to the lowering of the light. Growth may have slowed on some corals due to less light and ALK consumption has dropped? Is this the right idea here?

 

[WesF]

How would I go about re-calibrating? I use a cheap coralife digital temperature probe when I do a water change to match the temperatures from new water to the tank. The coralife thermometer always is .2 degrees either above or below the RKL temperature probe. Is this sufficient to gauge whether the probe is still accurate?

The reefkeeper manual tells you how to calibrate the sensor. But you will need a second sensor to compare. The fact that your 2 sensors are close probably means both are pretty accurate. I imagine a thermometer made for human use would give a pretty accurate reading as well.

I have the luxury of using NIST traceable instruments from work to calibrate.

 

[-Logzor]

How would I go about re-calibrating? I use a cheap coralife digital temperature probe when I do a water change to match the temperatures from new water to the tank. The coralife thermometer always is .2 degrees either above or below the RKL temperature probe. Is this sufficient to gauge whether the probe is still accurate?

If two different probes are measuring the same thing then it's probably accurate, but they could potentially both be equally inaccurate. Pickup a decent calibrated thermometer ($20 on Amazon) and use that to calibrate. the ReefKeeper will have an option to change the temperature your probe is reading, essentially calibrating it.

 

[3Twinklets]

I really cannot see a difference. If anything, they look a little lighter. Your coraline looks better though. The polyps are not extended. I feed mine when the lights ramp down in the evening. (I leave the super blues on 7 at night) I can watch them extend more to feed. Maybe it will just take longer? I have an acro that arrived with almost no color and the tips are starting to turn purple. That has taken about 2 weeks.

 

[JDK]

I really cannot see a difference. If anything, they look a little lighter. Your coraline looks better though. The polyps are not extended. I feed mine when the lights ramp down in the evening. (I leave the super blues on 7 at night) I can watch them extend more to feed. Maybe it will just take longer? I have an acro that arrived with almost no color and the tips are starting to turn purple. That has taken about 2 weeks.

Yeah I agree not looking better and if anything looks lighter. This is only about 2 1/2 weeks in though. Not sure if I should keep the lights down or now that there are more available nutrients start raising them back up again.?

 

[3Twinklets]

If it were me, I would start raising them up slowly.

 

[JDK]

Raised the light up to 5 inches above water level. Levels are now at 30/35/40 which is up from 30/30/30 the past cpl weeks. Continue to feed twice a day. Have not done a waterchange in 2 weeks. Algae on the back wall is disappearing naturally with some help from the snails. Zoas seem to have picked up some growth. Gonna hold these light levels til next weeks pictures and then go from there. Will probably only be raising the blues from here on out as the white XM-Ls are sooo strong. Starting to see some more browning on some corals which is a good sign. Means the zoox are growing are eating. Hopefully this will continue and I can start raising the light intensity.

 

[Jessesoto33]

Dose some iron and see that coral as green as it can be

Not to much though!

 

[Pkunk35]

Raised the light up to 5 inches above water level. Levels are now at 30/35/40 which is up from 30/30/30 the past cpl weeks. Continue to feed twice a day. Have not done a waterchange in 2 weeks. Algae on the back wall is disappearing naturally with some help from the snails. Zoas seem to have picked up some growth. Gonna hold these light levels til next weeks pictures and then go from there. Will probably only be raising the blues from here on out as the white XM-Ls are sooo strong. Starting to see some more browning on some corals which is a good sign. Means the zoox are growing are eating. Hopefully this will continue and I can start raising the light intensity.

Awesome. I've been reading along and wanted to say I thought you did a really great job of thinking your specific problem out and picking out some really good advice.

Really hope those acros start coloring up and showing some PE...personally think its really hard to get SPS back to a healthy condition once they are on a decline so I'm watching this thread very closely.

Thanks again for sharing!

 

[uriah]

You have to be carefull with dosing two part, looks like it could be alkalinity burn.

 

[JDK]

You have to be carefull with dosing two part, looks like it could be alkalinity burn.

Two part is controlled through an automated dosing pump. Alk and Cal are dosed every other hour all day long.

 

[JDK]

Update

Blue Mille is looking the worst it ever has. It was always a vibrant blue and it is browing out. This was to be expected from the nutrient increase and reduction in lights but today it looks bad. I think it is losing flesh in a couple spots. Does anyone think fragging it would save it?

Really dissapointed cause this was a Royal Neptune Mille from reefpets which is the most amazing blue mille I have ever seen. Looks like too little too late......

 

[fishes2889]

Whats your phosphate level at?

 

[FaviaFreak]

it shouldn't be losing flesh, you sure there are no aefw in your system?

 

[Pkunk35]

Whats your phosphate level at?

This was a question i was curious about as well. Don't SPS need phosphate to survive?

Here's a quick article i found: New study documents increased growth of staghorn Acropora in higher phosphate levels

Maybe stop running GFO for couple days to see if any changes? Might be good to slow feeding down too since sounds like you've been feeding plenty lately.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

I have brought SPS back from certain death dosing iron, it cant harm anything, the amount you dosed using the aqua vitro is very minute. Algae, corals all thrive on iron and if you don't have any it will cause problems. You will see results imediatley, 2 days and I garantee a change.

 

[tangs are awsome]

I think you are not on the right path at all. I have found that when my corals have started to go maybe a power head or a water perameter has changed. I would do a big water change. After a good 50 percent change try adding more flow to your aquarium. I find sps need more flow. If your lights are to strong for one piece why move the light from the coral? Wouldn't it be easier to monitor one piece of coral instead of possibly of throwing off your whole tank's balance. Again stop the over feeding you only need to feed corals once a week. Maybe change it up to phytoplankton one day and zooplankton the third day. To much food for a small system can lead to a big problem. I would try to leave every thing alone for a month instead of a weekly change basis. Just do one good water change and then %10 EVERY WEEK.

 

[tangs are awsome]

Additional things to try if you want to do it weekly is move the piece of coral once a month and see if this helps. But do not do it more than three times if you can't get it to do what you want bring it to a coral store and see if they have better luck. I would double check the phosphate levels. Something is off in your echo system and it might not be the lights if every other piece of coral is fine why bother... Mother nature is perfict and we are far from it. Natural sea water is by far the best way to go for reef tanks. I would invest in better testing kits and slow down on the food if the polyps are staying closed its not from a lack of food I promise. I hope this information helps some good luck. Look forward to next weeks pics

 

[JDK]

Whats your phosphate level at?

.07

 

[JDK]

it shouldn't be losing flesh, you sure there are no aefw in your system?

I have looked for the classic bite marks and dont seen anything but I am not sure. Have used magnifying glass tried blasting the coral with a pipette to see if anything comes off but nothing.