Trouble with JF Homewrecker

[Biddence]

I bought a jf home wrecker about 3 months ago and I cant seem to get any growth or coloration out of it I have had my tank running for about a year. It's a 37 gallon all in one 36" wide and 18" deep. I have 2 AI prime HD about 6" off the surface of the water running AB + , it was 8"but I recently talked to my LFS and moved the placement of the acro directly under the light on top of my rock work. I have other acros with awesome colors and litte to pretty good growth. I am here because it's the acro I want to have success with the most and I am getting nothing out of it, no pe with plenty of flow. Here are some of my parameters as of today.
SG = 1.025
DKH = 8.6
Nitrate = 2ppm
PH = 8.2
Cal = 410
Mag= 1470

 

[Scotty Buttons]

What are your phosphates at?

 

[Biddence]

What are your phosphates at?

.05

 

[dantimdad]

That's strange there is no polyp extension at all. It almost looks like it's dead.

Mine isn't under any more light than yours and is 6" under water and the lights (kessils) are 12" from the water and has great extension.

#reefsquad any ideas?

 

[Flippers4pups]

If I'm not mistaken, Jason uses T5's over his grow out tanks.

Most likely your HW is going through light spectrum acclimation. It is common that frags kept under different lights than what they were kept under, a shift in color can be expected.

Knowing your Par levels is important. Most acros can do very well in 200-300 Par. Since your frag looks washed out, I'd keep it in the 200-300 par range.

Potassium, iodine could be low. Don't add these without testing for them.

What salt mix do you use? Dosing anything?

 

[Biddence]

I use red sea foundation and trace colors and add it to my tank based on calcium usage, I don't have any way to measure par but according to brs videos on ai primes I'm not sure if I am getting enough

 

[Biddence]

I use red sea foundation and trace colors and add it to my tank based on calcium usage, I don't have any way to measure par but according to brs videos on ai primes I'm not sure if I am getting enough

Using fritz reef pro mix salt

 

[Biddence]

That's strange there is no polyp extension at all. It almost looks like it's dead.

Mine isn't under any more light than yours and is 6" under water and the lights (kessils) are 12" from the water and has great extension.

#reefsquad any ideas?

I just used a little reef roids to target feed and got a slime reaction so I'm sure it's not dead, lust looks like it lol

 

[hatfielj]

Yeah, usually that's a very "hairy" coral. At least for me it's always been that way, along with any other Acropora Tenuis.
What is your flow like in that tank? I only see one small pump. These are corals that like a lot of flow. Are there any fish nipping at your corals? You say your other corals are doing fine, but do your other acros have any polyp extension?

 

[Biddence]

Yeah, usually that's a very "hairy" coral. At least for me it's always been that way, along with any other Acropora Tenuis.
What is your flow like in that tank? I only see one small pump. These are corals that like a lot of flow. Are there any fish nipping at your corals? You say your other corals are doing fine, but do your other acros have any polyp extension?

I have 2 eflux 1050 Gph wave pumps running at 100% in surge mode with a innovative marine Return pump running pretty high. I have good polyp extension on just about everything else except my Oregon tort, but my color on that is awesome. I do have a coral beauty, It is a model citizen so far.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Some acros, at least in my experience, take a great deal of time to acclimate.

My Cali tort took almost a year to regain it's blue color after I first introduce it to my system.

Pale colors are a concern.

Generally, pale indicates lack of nutrients. Bleaching indicates too much light.

 

[hatfielj]

Okay, well I would say at this point the best thing you can do is keep things steady and wait it out

 

[Biddence]

Some acros, at least in my experience, take a great deal of time to acclimate.

My Cali tort took almost a year to regain it's blue color after I first introduce it to my system.

Pale colors are a concern.

Generally, pale indicates lack of nutrients. Bleaching indicates too much light.

I was carbon dosing with nopox until about 2 months ago and I tested nitrate was 0, so I stopped doing that and it wasn't until a few weeks ago i had nitrates over .5 ppm, in slowly working my way to about 3-4 ppm it looks like really pale colors not bleaching, I actually fried one of my sps frags when I moved my lights closer to the surface, my LFS seemed to think it's due to a lack of light

 

[dantimdad]

My HW acclimated in one day.

I think you may be right about lack of nutrients. I feed my fish pretty heavily and feed snow once a week as well.

 

[HotRocks]

I use red sea foundation and trace colors and add it to my tank based on calcium usage, I don't have any way to measure par but according to brs videos on ai primes I'm not sure if I am getting enough

I have a par meter and I could not get north of 180 par with primes. I had it 8" from water and frag rack at 6" deep. 160-180 was it.

 

[dantimdad]

I have a par meter and I could not get north of 180 par with primes. I had it 8" from water and frag rack at 6" deep. 160-180 was it.

Whoops! I stand corrected. I have way more PAR than that at my HW. Thanks for the input @HotRocks !

 

[HotRocks]

Whoops! I stand corrected. I have way more PAR than that at my HW. Thanks for the input @HotRocks !

No problem. Mine is sitting in the 400 range under T5/hydra 26 hybrid. Moving to my new tank soon under T5/radions.

It could be a lack of nutrients + lighting. I am new to the whole SPS game I was just including what I new about the primes

 

[Biddence]

So it seems most likely lighting to be the issue

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

So it seems most likely lighting to be the issue

Do you know what par it’s at? I doubt 2 primes can deliver enough par to keep tenuis alive longer than a month. I have 2-52 HD’s 16” over my 50 gallon cube at 108 watts each delivering 450-600 par to my HW’s.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Do you use gfo? How do you keep your po4 at 0.05?