I started my acro collection one a year ago, 40-50 different pieces all grown from 1" frags to 2-3" mini-colonies. All was going great, absolutely no noticeable issues and happy with growth until 1.5 months ago. My acros would never preduce mucus before (or very rarely), but now many started producing mucus strings EVERY TIME after feeding my fish (I feed 1 tea spoon flakes and 2 cubes frozen mysis/brine, each morning and evening). I also noticed 3-4 colonies getting some tissue loss on the tips that eventually got covered with algae. Particularly my desalwii was the first and the worst to react. Other acros, like acropora striata lost their beautiful blue tips and are now beige (PE still fine). Some acropora Florida were fluo green and now their skin is black (polyps still green but less PE). My impression is that, except for the millis, most acros have stopped growth and have color loss.
System Is a Waterbox 7725, effective 760 liter, covered by 3 Philips Coral Care gen2 lights. Top gets 300-350 PAR, bottom 200 PAR.
My alkalinity is relatively stable around 7.8 to 8.4 dkh, and mornings are 0.3 dkh higher than in the evening. pH reaches 8.4 during the day and is 8.1 in the morning. PO4 can swing around from 0.03 to 0.11 ppm over 2 weeks, but is mostly around 0.07. NO3 has been increasing from 5 to 12 ppm over 1-2 months. Ca2+ was stable but has been creeping up from 420 to 470 over the last 1-2 months. Magnesium was stable but has been declining from 1350 to 1280 over the last 1-2 months. So, some changes... Not sure whether these matter. Last ICP, two months ago showed nothing out of range except for the usual iodide and strontium drop that I typically top-up to get back in normal ranges.
I have 14 fish, among which 6 tangs and a fox face, and 3 wrasses including a large Kuiters wrasse. I'd guess they produce a lot of fertiliser.
The only dosing I do is kalkwasser at night (2.8L) and carbocalcium (72ml spread over a day), adding in total 1.2 dkh worth of alk/day. Export is a skimmer, roller fleece and a small bag (0.5 L) carbon. I don't do water changes. But I do have a relatively deep 12 cm sand bed that I never touch. To prevent PO4 falling to zero, I sometimes dose it.
Because NO3 was creeping up, I started dosing vinegar 1 month ago (only got to 5 ml /day) but stopped it after two weeks because of the sliming (sliming and negative changes started before vinegar dosing). I stopped vinegar too early to see effects on NO3 and PO4.
Sorry for the long monologue, I know, should start a build thread.
Is there anything suspicious from what I write that could underlie the negative changes?
Calling up on the acro experts to tap into their experience @jda @bige @SawCJack00 @therman @The Camaro Show @FarmerTy @C. Eymann
System Is a Waterbox 7725, effective 760 liter, covered by 3 Philips Coral Care gen2 lights. Top gets 300-350 PAR, bottom 200 PAR.
My alkalinity is relatively stable around 7.8 to 8.4 dkh, and mornings are 0.3 dkh higher than in the evening. pH reaches 8.4 during the day and is 8.1 in the morning. PO4 can swing around from 0.03 to 0.11 ppm over 2 weeks, but is mostly around 0.07. NO3 has been increasing from 5 to 12 ppm over 1-2 months. Ca2+ was stable but has been creeping up from 420 to 470 over the last 1-2 months. Magnesium was stable but has been declining from 1350 to 1280 over the last 1-2 months. So, some changes... Not sure whether these matter. Last ICP, two months ago showed nothing out of range except for the usual iodide and strontium drop that I typically top-up to get back in normal ranges.
I have 14 fish, among which 6 tangs and a fox face, and 3 wrasses including a large Kuiters wrasse. I'd guess they produce a lot of fertiliser.
The only dosing I do is kalkwasser at night (2.8L) and carbocalcium (72ml spread over a day), adding in total 1.2 dkh worth of alk/day. Export is a skimmer, roller fleece and a small bag (0.5 L) carbon. I don't do water changes. But I do have a relatively deep 12 cm sand bed that I never touch. To prevent PO4 falling to zero, I sometimes dose it.
Because NO3 was creeping up, I started dosing vinegar 1 month ago (only got to 5 ml /day) but stopped it after two weeks because of the sliming (sliming and negative changes started before vinegar dosing). I stopped vinegar too early to see effects on NO3 and PO4.
Sorry for the long monologue, I know, should start a build thread.
Is there anything suspicious from what I write that could underlie the negative changes?
Calling up on the acro experts to tap into their experience @jda @bige @SawCJack00 @therman @The Camaro Show @FarmerTy @C. Eymann
