nursing an acro back from the dead??

[brandon p]

Hey all. I'm new to this site but have read through a lot of the posts over time and have found that there's usually no shortage of knowledgeable help.
Here's my situation- I bought some medium sized acro frags before my tank and I were truly ready. They were ok at the store. I had them absolutely stunning about a month after getting them home but then.... Now, my softies are reallyfine, my bird's nest is doing well but the acros have basically been skinned. Few noticeable polyps, stony looking color & texture but they are growing. They are very noticeably growing and showing telltale signs that they may be thinking about healing. IF this is possible I know it'd be like waiting on your big toenail to grow out enough to not see any injury done to it a while back.
The basics- 29 gal tank with 30lb sand & LR (each), a 500 gal over/under filter (i'm mostly using it almost in place of a refugium), a koralia 425 wavemaker, skimmer, and for lighting I've got a double-bulb t5 with 10k daylight and 24w actinic.
I have adequate nutrients, 0 phosphate, ph is a steady 8.3, sg is 1.025, Ca, Mg, Kh are all as high as you'd want (I test with red sea).
I dose the tank nightly with Mg, Ca, strontium, and iodine. Every five weeks I add a jar of pods. I also hatch brine shrimp then add those to the tank (heavy filtration and heavy bioload). I feed individual corals nightly with live phyto and zoops (with only the powerhead running). I leave the equipment turned off for about an hour while I do the feeding and dosing.
I've got a three-month old mandarin (that I've had for 2 1/2 months) that is the healthiest, happiest fish that ever lived. I've got a few of the usual suspects... Xenas, mushrooms, a hand leather, a couple super-small birdsnest frags all doing very well. They aren't just doing well, though... one of my mushrooms actually had a baby! It's the exact same shape & color but it's about the size of one of its mama's singular bumps.
I list all that info just to give you an idea of the environment and water quality. This has been the scenario for quite some time. The tank is 1 1/2 years old. In that time I've had to literally rebuild the tank because of a major leak, there was a 2 day power outage, etc. and this brings us to now...
If an acro was once healthy and beautiful can it be that way again? If it looks like stony skeleton with no skin or if it's been discolored with algae (but is still growing) can it return to it's better appearance? I'm really sorry this is so long. I'd appreciate anything anyone has to offer, thanks!

 

[Gareth elliott]

Acropora can grow back to the past glory. if and how long will depend on the species and how damage we are talking.
Stability and time are how.

 

[Variant]

I agree with @Gareth elliott

To add onto this, I would say an acro can bounce back if the reasons for it's demise were completely remedied. "Time will tell" only applies here if the cause of the issue was eliminated to begin with. Then, based on how damaged it was will become a factor to it's bounce back.

For example, I got an acro that was a great piece that got shipped in cold weather. The water in the package was ice cold, acro was very pale with zero polyp extension. After a week of stable and appropriate temperature, the acro bounced back. But this was probably because the acro only sustained colder temperatures for a handful of hours. If it were ice cold for 24 hours, I'd suspect zero chance of recovery.

 

[SeaDweller]

Two things to consider and they contradict each other: adequate nutrients but zero PO4. And Ca and alk as high as you want them to be. You shouldn’t have alk high with no nutrients in the water. What are you Ca, alk and mg levels any way? Some people don’t want their alk higher than 7.0. Some keep it 10.0+ but their tanks can handle high alk.

To your question, they can def bounce back but I don’t think the environment you’re providing is going to help if you have super high alk and the likes, dosing elements (maybe without checking?) and not providing nutrients.

 

[Aquanautical]

Is the koralia a nano?

 

[brandon p]

Acropora can grow back to the past glory. if and how long will depend on the species and how damage we are talking.
Stability and time are how.

Thank you very much! This acro… when I look at pictures of it then compared to now... it's a sad thing. Brown/tan in the store then a couple months later it was pearlescent, purple ends, day-glo tips.
Thanks for the response. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find an answer to that question!

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Pics, we want pics.