Polyp Bailout - Acans and Hammer

jordan9095 · Mar 11, 2020

Recently started noticing some polyp bailout. Started with a polyp on one of my acans. A few weeks later, a hammer starts to get loose and eventually bails out altogether. Few weeks later, another small acan polyp comes loose on a different acan. Another few weeks have passed and just noticed another one about to go on a different acan colony (see pic).

Besides the polyp bailout, my acans are puffy and healthy as well as other corals/fish except for any SPS. Having trouble keeping even the easiest SPS alive.

Salinity- 35 PPT
pH- 7.7-8.2
Alk- 9.9
Cal- 425
Mg- 1400
Nitrate & Phosphate are not tested regularly but no problems with nuisance algae or too low nutrients.

pH reads on my apex that it is 7.2-7.7 but this changed after calibrating and I can't get it back to normal after multiple recalibrations with different solutions and a new probe. My other handheld pH meter says it is in the right range. I actually bought a PAR meter after losing all my SPS and having trouble keeping new alive. The acans are in about 120 PAR.

Any ideas on how I can stop this before it spreads to all my acans?

Thanks

Copingwithpods · Mar 11, 2020

Sps problem might be a low nutrient problem that could be affecting your lps I suggest testing both so we have a complete picture

S.K. · Mar 11, 2020

agree with checking nutrient level. seems like they are starving

kapnkush608 · Mar 11, 2020

When was the last time you calibrated you salinity tester/refractometer

jordan9095 · Mar 11, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
Sps problem might be a low nutrient problem that could be affecting your lps I suggest testing both so we have a complete picture

S.K. said:
agree with checking nutrient level. seems like they are starving

Thanks for your input. I will have to get some nitrate and phosphate test kits. Might get the phosphate hanna checker. I'll update the thread after getting those test results.

I do have algae growing in the display and on the glass. I feed pellets twice a day on an autofeeder. To supplement, I feed twice a week with reef roids, benereef, and mysis shrimp as well. I just fed the tank and the one acan polpy that is about to detach is eating. The nutrient levels do drop if I stop the supplementary feeding. It is a 25g tank.

kapnkush608 said:
When was the last time you calibrated you salinity tester/refractometer

I calibrated it about 4-5 months ago. Just double checked today and appears to be off a bit. Strangely enough I can't turn the calibration knob any lower to get it calibrated. I'm going to buy a digital one that does TDS and temp.
So 35 PPT solution is reading at 38 PPT. Which means my 35 PPT reading for my tank is actually 38 PPT. Working on fixing this now. Do you think that could be the culprit?

jordan9095 · Mar 11, 2020

jordan9095 said:
I calibrated it about 4-5 months ago. Just double checked today and appears to be off a bit. Strangely enough I can't turn the calibration knob any lower to get it calibrated. I'm going to buy a digital one that does TDS and temp.
So 35 PPT solution is reading at 38 PPT. Which means my 35 PPT reading for my tank is actually 38 32 PPT. Working on fixing this now. Do you think that could be the culprit?

jordan9095 · Mar 29, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
Sps problem might be a low nutrient problem that could be affecting your lps I suggest testing both so we have a complete picture

S.K. said:
agree with checking nutrient level. seems like they are starving

was able to get phosphate/nitrate kits and tested all parameters today

Alk- 10.1
CA - 425
Mg - 1420
Nitrate - 20
Phosphate - 1.0
Salinity - 35 PPT
Temp - 77
pH - 8.0

I lost a few other polyps on the acans since the last post. Seems to be slowing down a bit but I'm not sure. The flesh in between the mouths of the affected acans have died and now is just skeleton. That seems to be the problem. The death slowly spreads until the polyp bails out altogether. Low flow helps keep them attached for a bit longer.

It also happened on my space invader and large piece of that detached but the rest is hanging on.

I'm kinda surprised at the outcome of the nitrate and phosphate results. I ordered some other test kits so I can compare.

Copingwithpods · Mar 29, 2020

I see let's break that down and only take parameters into account.

ALK at 10.1 although "high" isn't an issue if it's been stable at 10,if it's bouncing up and down from 10 to 8 and back then there's an issue, stead at 10 no issue.

CAL is fine mag fine and nitrates are fine. Phosphates are high though how this is affecting the corals though is unknown to me. Hopefully someone more knowledgable about PO4 above 1.0 will chime in. #reefsquad

Has everything been stable at those readings or have you had some spikes lately?

Hemmdog · Mar 29, 2020

PO4 is very high. The maximum I would run is 0.1ppm, I usually am in the 0.02-0.05ppm range. Are you running a fuge or algae turf scrubber?

Copingwithpods · Mar 29, 2020

Hemmdog said:
PO4 is very high. The maximum I would run is 0.1ppm, I usually am in the 0.02-0.05ppm range. Are you running a fuge or algae turf scrubber?

Do you think PO4 levels above 1.0 would cause FPB?

Hemmdog · Mar 29, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
Do you think PO4 levels above 1.0 would cause FPB?

If it has been that way for an extended period of time yeah, maybe. I’ve only gotten that high of a reading once and I started chemipure elite that day. That was from over feeding reef roids. Bad idea.
You could also look into an ICP test to see if any trace elements are way off or heavy metal contamination.
I personally would just run some chemipure elite, it will reduce your phosphate and bind excess heavy metals if they do happen to be in the system. I don’t recommend running this product constantly, more of a fix when levels rise too much, I normally am just running only a bag of Rox carbon.

Hemmdog · Mar 29, 2020

Is your flow adequate you feel? Any shrimp or crabs in there? Trying to think outside the box.

jordan9095 · Mar 29, 2020

Copingwithpods said:
I see let's break that down and only take parameters into account.

ALK at 10.1 although "high" isn't an issue if it's been stable at 10,if it's bouncing up and down from 10 to 8 and back then there's an issue, stead at 10 no issue.

CAL is fine mag fine and nitrates are fine. Phosphates are high though how this is affecting the corals though is unknown to me. Hopefully someone more knowledgable about PO4 above 1.0 will chime in. #reefsquad

Has everything been stable at those readings or have you had some spikes lately?

Alk mostly stays around 9-10. It did dip down to around 8 in January since I was gone for three weeks. It is difficult to keep it stable when having die off since the uptake is going down

Hemmdog said:
PO4 is very high. The maximum I would run is 0.1ppm, I usually am in the 0.02-0.05ppm range. Are you running a fuge or algae turf scrubber?

It is a 25g AIO tank so I only run a skimmer and media. I had a fuge in one of the chambers but seems like it was too small of a space. I know the phosphate is high and out of recommended range so I’m going to try to lower that. I have phosphate rx and have used that in the past.

Hemmdog said:
If it has been that way for an extended period of time yeah, maybe. I’ve only gotten that high of a reading once and I started chemipure elite that day. That was from over feeding reef roids. Bad idea.
You could also look into an ICP test to see if any trace elements are way off or heavy metal contamination.
I personally would just run some chemipure elite, it will reduce your phosphate and bind excess heavy metals if they do happen to be in the system. I don’t recommend running this product constantly, more of a fix when levels rise too much, I normally am just running only a bag of Rox carbon.

I don’t regularly test phosphate but I will start now. I used to gauge by algae growth. I usually run chempure elite, chemipure blue, phosguard, and some pur-it. I recently took all the chemipure and phosguard out thinking my corals were starving for nutrients. Now just running pur-it. I actually have some extra chemipure blue, chemipure elite, and phosgaurd in my closet so maybe will toss one in.

Hemmdog said:
Is your flow adequate you feel? Any shrimp or crabs in there? Trying to think outside the box.

Yea there is a good amount of flow. It’s. a 25g IM lagoon with a 500gph return pump and MP10. No shrimps and just one Pom Pom crab who has been a resident for 10 months or so. Had peppermint shrimp in the past but it jumped out lol

jordan9095 · Mar 29, 2020

Here is a link to an older thread which describes the problem I had with my SPS dying and may add some color - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/m...hange-to-illumagic-blaze.674058/#post-6863358

Still can’t keep SPS but where some of the encrusted colonies died now have new growth on the edges.

Marc2952 · Apr 12, 2020

I would also suggest to check for copper levels in your tank, im currently going through the same where all my hammers and acans did a bailout and it was due to me having 0.10 copper reading on my hanna. Have any crabs or snails die?

jordan9095 · Apr 13, 2020

Marc2952 said:
I would also suggest to check for copper levels in your tank, im currently going through the same where all my hammers and acans did a bailout and it was due to me having 0.10 copper reading on my hanna. Have any crabs or snails die?

No snails or crabs have died. I am pretty much concluding that it was the high phosphate for an extended period of time that caused the problem. I have confirmed the results with a hanna checker. Explains why my SPS browned out too. I actually thought it was copper and tested that a few months ago and showed 0 ppm. I'm working on reducing phosphates.