SPS acros dying from tips.

mermaid_life · Mar 13, 2021

I am definitely NOT a SPS expert. I experienced basically everything you talked about in this thread. The whole nine yards...... including bacteria, dinos, chasing high/low nutrients, etc. What finally gave me some sanity was when I started dosing phyto. I did it because I got a clam. Side effect was that the sps starting looking healthier. I stopped phyto for a bit and SPS conditions got unstable again. When I restarted phyto, they once again stabilized. Can't explain any of it. Just sharing my experience.

Also I stopped feeding reef roids, etc. I felt that this contributed to the nutrient instability. Still feed aminos.

tundraguy1106 · Mar 13, 2021

lynncgo said:
I am definitely NOT a SPS expert. I experienced basically everything you talked about in this thread. The whole nine yards...... including bacteria, dinos, chasing high/low nutrients, etc. What finally gave me some sanity was when I started dosing phyto. I did it because I got a clam. Side effect was that the sps starting looking healthier. I stopped phyto for a bit and SPS conditions got unstable again. When I restarted phyto, they once again stabilized. Can't explain any of it. Just sharing my experience.

Appreciate your input. All experiences help me to try and figure this out. I do dose live phyto usually 3 times a week. I dose it with amino acids and sometimes reef roids to feed the tank.

tundraguy1106 · Mar 17, 2021

So I’ve been doing some more research and few people mentioned bugs/ pods on acros at night? I have a ton of amphipods that do crawl all over my tank at night and yes on the acros (the dead tissue). Are amphipods bad? I added them a while back being I thought they were good for the tank ecosystem???

Bronx19 · Mar 17, 2021

My advice, take it or leave it.

Way too many variables going on here. Head down to the beach and collect enough water to change 80%. Run nothing but Alk/Cal doser and a 2lb bag of carbon. Don't filter, don't add chemicals, let it sit. If things are still looking dodgy, do another big water change.

ScottB · Mar 18, 2021

tundraguy1106 said:
So I’ve been doing some more research and few people mentioned bugs/ pods on acros at night? I have a ton of amphipods that do crawl all over my tank at night and yes on the acros (the dead tissue). Are amphipods bad? I added them a while back being I thought they were good for the tank ecosystem???

There are some specific parasitic pods for acros (tegastes acroporanus). They are different from vendor supplied pods. Some are called "white bugs, others are red bugs. They certainly prey on acropora.

They are VERY small but run around on live flesh at night. There are a few macros videos around here. I think @jessezm shot one and got a microscope shot of one as well IIRC.

I am not saying it is your issue, but dosing Interceptor will stop them if it is your problem. You will lose some/a lot of pods and any shrimp or crabs you don't remove. I just completed my third round. The stuff is otherwise safe.

tundraguy1106 · Mar 18, 2021

ScottB said:
There are some specific parasitic pods for acros (tegastes acroporanus). They are different from vendor supplied pods. Some are called "white bugs, others are red bugs. They certainly prey on acropora.

They are VERY small but run around on live flesh at night. There are a few macros videos around here. I think @jessezm shot one and got a microscope shot of one as well IIRC.

I am not saying it is your issue, but dosing Interceptor will stop them if it is your problem. You will lose some/a lot of pods and any shrimp or crabs you don't remove. I just completed my third round. The stuff is otherwise safe.

Yeah I checked last night. Just normal amphipods picking at the dead acro tissue. I gotta just chalk it up and remove them. Keep my parameters stable at this point and hope for the best. At least I know my LPS do well.

qhduong · Apr 1, 2021

tundraguy1106 said:
Yeah I checked last night. Just normal amphipods picking at the dead acro tissue. I gotta just chalk it up and remove them. Keep my parameters stable at this point and hope for the best. At least I know my LPS do well.

Are things getting better for you?

tundraguy1106 · Apr 1, 2021

I’ve dosed phosphates up to .12. This is on my checker which I believe might be off a bit since .08 on my checker ended up being .01 on my ATI test. Things seems stable. Things that were dying have slowed but some acros are too far gone.

qhduong said:
Are things getting better for you?

dwest · Apr 1, 2021

I don’t want to be a pest, but post #28 can help you.

tundraguy1106 · Apr 1, 2021

dwest said:
I don’t want to be a pest, but post #28 can help you.

Dino’s are under control. Just replying on the acro situation. Two separate issues caused by the same thing (low phosphate). Raising phosphates and dosing silicates helped with the Dinos. I’m slowly extending my light period as well. Nothing new is dying and some of the acros that recently started showing signs of death have slowed.

tundraguy1106 · Apr 8, 2021

***update*** SPS are starting to color back up. The ones that just started showing signs of algae on tips are starting to turn around. I raised my phosphate up to .15, nitrates are at 10 and ALK is at 7.5-7.8. I’ve also been slowly extending my light period. Currently up to 6.5 hours of peak lighting. Some of the SPS were too far gone to be salvaged. However 2 of my monti’s that I thought were dead have spots of color on them!

ScottB · Apr 9, 2021

tundraguy1106 said:
I’ve dosed phosphates up to .12. This is on my checker which I believe might be off a bit since .08 on my checker ended up being .01 on my ATI test. Things seems stable. Things that were dying have slowed but some acros are too far gone.

Trust your Hanna, not any of the ICP results for phosphate/phosphorus. They will all come back far lower. During transit it attaches to the tube wall and gets processed by bacteria. There are several threads around here on this phenomenon. This is one I started and it has links to others.

Measuring PO4: Hanna ULR versus Triton ICP

Wasn't sure where this post should go, but I will start here. Just curious if anyone else is seeing a consistent discrepancy between their Hanna values and those from ICP for PO4. I use the Hanna for phosphorus and convert that value. According to Hanna, my PO4 stays around .13 +-. Each time I...

www.reef2reef.com

tundraguy1106 · Apr 9, 2021

ScottB said:
Trust your Hanna, not any of the ICP results for phosphate/phosphorus. They will all come back far lower. During transit it attaches to the tube wall and gets processed by bacteria. There are several threads around here on this phenomenon. This is one I started and it has links to others.

Measuring PO4: Hanna ULR versus Triton ICP

Wasn't sure where this post should go, but I will start here. Just curious if anyone else is seeing a consistent discrepancy between their Hanna values and those from ICP for PO4. I use the Hanna for phosphorus and convert that value. According to Hanna, my PO4 stays around .13 +-. Each time I...

www.reef2reef.com

Maybe higher phosphates (.12-.15 just works. The old theory about .02-.05 might not be the answer or my Hanna is off, which is still what I’m leaning towards. I did have a dino bloom which is a result of zero phosphates.