What would cause this

Perry

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Could be a gorilla crab that hitched hiked its way in. Could be urchin, sometimes they are clearing coraline, and decide to consume coral too. Could be emeralds, they can go for sps polyps, in cases where other food source is lacking. Could be a different pest, like RB's or AEFW. If struggle is only with acros, not BN, monti, or other sps, then look to AEFW. Could be flow, but I doubt it, most pumps have wide flow patterns, and in the wild, they are bashed with flow :)
Finally, it could be a biological thing, and I have first hand experience with it, took me a year before any sps would live.
 
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ryshark

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Ok. How much food do you feed per day?
Ok. How much food do you feed per day?

I feed 10-drops per day of Reef Nutrition ROE, a pinch of mixed seaweed, it is essentially nori/seaweed pre-shredded into flake sizes total of about 1/2 teaspoon per day. If I don't feed the seaweed then I'll typically throw in a pinch of pellets instead.
On my auto feeder it spins 1x per day and the opening is probably only 1/8" for the pellets to fall out, the feeder has a combination of:

Spectrum TheraA
Spectrum AlgaeMax
PE Mysis pellets
TDO mini pellets

If I pull the GFO offline, I will pull the autofeeder off and manually add Mysis Feast or Actic Pods or something like that to avoid frozen cubes and any defrosting/rinsing.
 
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ryshark

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Could be a gorilla crab that hitched hiked its way in. Could be urchin, sometimes they are clearing coraline, and decide to consume coral too. Could be emeralds, they can go for sps polyps, in cases where other food source is lacking. Could be a different pest, like RB's or AEFW. If struggle is only with acros, not BN, monti, or other sps, then look to AEFW. Could be flow, but I doubt it, most pumps have wide flow patterns, and in the wild, they are bashed with flow :)
Finally, it could be a biological thing, and I have first hand experience with it, took me a year before any sps would live.
I haven't seen any gorilla crabs at all and its been over a year. I do hear clicks, but I think it is just a small Pistol shrimp because I have never seen it either. Could definitely be Emeralds, I have a bunch because I think they may help from vermetids from getting out of control. I highly doubt it is RB or AEFW, I have seen no real evidence of that. I only buy acros and all high end acros, which is stupid on my part at this point. I just remember years ago having a bunch of colonies of no namers that I grew from small frags, that I didn't want anymore, so figured I'd just start buying what I like from the beginning with this tank. I haven't even tried any birdsnest or montis in this tank. I do have one indo gold torch, which is fine, but they are hardier than acros. I suppose it could be biological, I'm only a little over the 1-year mark. In order to increase bio-diveristy so far I have added to 120 gallon tank:

50lbs KP aquatics rock
2x orders IPSF mud, sand, plankton, pods, other cleanup crew
Oceans Direct Live Sand
Aragalive Live Sand
Dr. Tims One and Only 1-bottle
Brodibio BioDigest and Bioptum several vials of each, is what I had on hand from years ago but they don't expire.
Dr. Tims EcoBalance 1-bottle
I think I also did some MicroBacter7 in the beginning.
 

Perry

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Ok,
In my humble opinion, you are probably close to bio balanced. I personally would continue course, turkey baste acros around base, once per week. This really helps. As long as main staple minerals are in check, no major salinity swings or temp shift, perhaps go as basic as you can, and not worry over nutrients. Kind of let things run :)
 
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ryshark

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Ok,
In my humble opinion, you are probably close to bio balanced. I personally would continue course, turkey baste acros around base, once per week. This really helps. As long as main staple minerals are in check, no major salinity swings or temp shift, perhaps go as basic as you can, and not worry over nutrients. Kind of let things run :)
Speaking of temp shift, I did cause a small spike in temp using water change water that was too warm on 10-18, but for the tank volume it was only a .4 degree spike, however, it was a quick jump up. Maybe this ticked them off. When I did it, I told myself I wouldn't let that happen again, but didn't think much of it again after that.
I'll start basting like you mention, that is something I used to do with my old tank, but haven't done it much in this one.
Salinity is solid with my Tunze AWC, and I've been testing Alk daily, solid 8.2 there.
 
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ryshark

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Here is ICP results from 9-25. Tin is high, but I think that is common with this test. Next time, I will try Triton or ATI and see how they compare. Also, it shows Iodine as low, but I do every 2-weeks a 15%-20% water change using ESV Seawater system.

ICP Test Result September 2020.jpeg
 

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Is the bottom or top of the acros dying? and can you tell if it is bleaching or tissue loss?
 

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Here is ICP results from 9-25. Tin is high, but I think that is common with this test. Next time, I will try Triton or ATI and see how they compare. Also, it shows Iodine as low, but I do every 2-weeks a 15%-20% water change using ESV Seawater system.

ICP Test Result September 2020.jpeg


Okay, let's not over think this. If you have to swipe your glass daily or every other day, you are likely good on PO4, which is essential. Chasing numbers is good for some, but reading glasses and magnifying glasses work too, lol. Reef on, get stable on the obvious, which you are doing, and enjoy your tank :)
 
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ryshark

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Is the bottom or top of the acros dying? and can you tell if it is bleaching or tissue loss?
I only have 2-acros right now. as you can see in the pictures on page 1, its not really tissue loss or bleaching yet, just loss of PE but only on the front side of the acro. The other frag, not pictured, I can't tell if it is tissue loss or bleaching (probably some type of TN), but its also only on the entire front side, the back side of the acro looks fine.
 
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ryshark

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Okay, let's not over think this. If you have to swipe your glass daily or every other day, you are likely good on PO4, which is essential. Chasing numbers is good for some, but reading glasses and magnifying glasses work too, lol. Reef on, get stable on the obvious, which you are doing, and enjoy your tank :)
PO4 is .08 to .11, which is a haze on the glass every 2-3 days.
 

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I only have 2-acros right now. as you can see in the pictures on page 1, its not really tissue loss or bleaching yet, just loss of PE but only on the front side of the acro. The other frag, not pictured, I can't tell if it is tissue loss or bleaching (probably some type of TN), but its also only on the entire front side, the back side of the acro looks fine.

Something that hides, in the angle or the lless lit side, might be feeding on your sps. A thought to consider? If on back side, and might miss? Again, observation :)
 
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ryshark

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Something that hides, in the angle or the lless lit side, might be feeding on your sps. A thought to consider? If on back side, and might miss? Again, observation :)
I'm going to buy a red flashlight now, something I've been meaning to do anyway. If it is something, its something big, like some type of crab. There isn't really a less lit side, of these small frags.
 

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those seem like good numbers, but heck, I gave up on numbers. If I have to swipe glass daily, then PO4 is maybe a bit high, but present. Nothing to swipe is danger mode. Again, let the system run and observe.
 

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those seem like good numbers, but heck, I gave up on numbers. If I have to swipe glass daily, then PO4 is maybe a bit high, but present. Nothing to swipe is danger mode. Again, let the system run and observe.
I'm glad you mentioned swipping the glass. My PO4 got up to .16, I used LC to bring it down some. I got it to . 03, I also noticed my glass cleaning wasn't needed as often, but also noticed the nice green algea was now a shade of brown on the glass. I use Hanna for my testing. I took over a week to drop it. What does the brown color tell you? Everything in the tank is fine. 200 gallon with "real" live ocean rock NO3, 12-16. 2 year old setup.
 

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I'm glad you mentioned swipping the glass. My PO4 got up to .16, I used LC to bring it down some. I got it to . 03, I also noticed my glass cleaning wasn't needed as often, but also noticed the nice green algea was now a shade of brown on the glass. I use Hanna for my testing. I took over a week to drop it. What does the brown color tell you? Everything in the tank is fine. 200 gallon with "real" live ocean rock NO3, 12-16. 2 year old setup.


Oh dang, just a hunch. I talked about this moons ago, and how to find the sps sweet spot. We more or less used reducing methods, based on glass algae presence. So, for my system, every day, I was nutrient rich, every other day, that was my sweet spot. So every day, I would use gfo, then adjust. More or less, po4 monitoring was for the elite, lol
 

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Oh dang, just a hunch. I talked about this moons ago, and how to find the sps sweet spot. We more or less used reducing methods, based on glass algae presence. So, for my system, every day, I was nutrient rich, every other day, that was my sweet spot. So every day, I would use gfo, then adjust. More or less, po4 monitoring was for the elite, lol


When trying to run nutrient poor, regardless, I swiped daily, and to this day, try as well. There is all sorts of goodies that feed corals after a good swipe, lol ;)
 
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ryshark

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@ryshark could you post a recent FTS?
It’s not often I see my tank in direct sunlight, but today I did. Although I thought all my rocks were purplish, I can see in real sunlight that my coralline only grows in the shaded areas and on the sides of rocks, I have hardly any coralline on the tops of rocks. I need to look into others with 8-bulb T5 ATI fixture plus ReefBrite and see if this is typical.
 

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Causes:
Insufficient or too bright of light
Alk spike or high a low
Salinity high
Inadequate water flow

assure there are no bugs or flatworms at the base. I have a pair of reading glasses just for this purpose as it magnifies the coral for inspection
 
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ryshark

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Causes:
Insufficient or too bright of light
Alk spike or high a low
Salinity high
Inadequate water flow

assure there are no bugs or flatworms at the base. I have a pair of reading glasses just for this purpose as it magnifies the coral for inspection
I’m thinking too bright of light, which may also explain the coralline not growing on the tops of rocks. I wish I could raise my fixture but I’m limited
 

vetteguy53081

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I’m thinking too bright of light, which may also explain the coralline not growing on the tops of rocks. I wish I could raise my fixture but I’m limited
Are you able to lower intensity ?
If not, a piece of bubble wrap may help
 
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