What's going on with this acro?

[Acroporaaddict]

This guy was vivid green 2 weeks ago. Color started fading on the side where the light reflects off the glass. Sitting at 280 par
1.026
8.0 - 8.2
7.6 dkh
NO3 10
Rest of parameters are in icp results

Any ideas what's going on?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What’s your po4? Are you using gfo or carbon dosing?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

And are you using tropic Marin pro salt?

 

[Jekyl]

Lighting too intense?

 

[Acroporaaddict]

Po4 is .12ppm yes TM Pro Reef. Added GFO to drop PO4. Have brought it down from .16ppm over the last week

 

[joseserrano]

It looks like its about to rtn

 

[mstockmaster]

If you can get this one to recover then you're some sort of wizard. Sometimes acros just die. Your parameters don't seem to be at fault, but have they varied wildly in the past few weeks, that we don't know. Do you have any pests bothering them? Sometimes it's just something that happens, bacterial infection, tank too young, there are so many things other than measureable water parameters that it's impossible to say the cause.

Also it could've been on its way out before you even put it in your tank. Shipping, handling, dipping, and acclimation can be very stressful.

 

[BestMomEver]

Did you recently move it? How long have you had it?

 

[Livinlocal]

And are you using tropic Marin pro salt?

I’m just curious, but what’s wrong with tropic marin pro?

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

I have had frags come in looking rough like this after shipping. Reduce the lighting over it and it may come back.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Po4 is .12ppm yes TM Pro Reef. Added GFO to drop PO4. Have brought it down from .16ppm over the last week

I always had this when using gfo and/or carbon dosing. Haven’t had it since I swore those off. 0.16 po4 isn’t going to kill acros. I too use Tm pro and had arsenic in my coralvue icp test. I sent off an r/o sample and a new sample with tm pro. The r/o came back clean and the fresh tm pro sample came back with arsenic. I’ve contacted tm about it and they’re doing an independent test. All my acros are doing great, so I don’t think the arsenic is causing your issues. I think it’s the gfo.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I’m just curious, but what’s wrong with tropic marin pro?

See above

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Did this start after you used the gfo?

 

[Acroporaaddict]

Did this start after you used the gfo?

Now that I think about it, I'm gonna say yes. Started losing color once gfo reactor was turned on. I'll take it offline and see if anything changes. Would there be any benefit to moving the frag to lower par to help with recovery or should I just leave it where it is?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Now that I think about it, I'm gonna say yes. Started losing color once gfo reactor was turned on. I'll take it offline and see if anything changes. Would there be any benefit to moving the frag to lower par to help with recovery or should I just leave it where it is?

Well there you go.
Moving it wouldn’t hurt. I wouldn’t put it in super low par. Remeber the majority of the of their energy comes from photosynthesis so they still need good quality light.

Man there are so many threads in this form, and I used to be one of them, “ Why are my acros dying? My parameters are perfect. Po4 is 0.03 or 0.08” etc. The majority of them are using gfo and or carbon dosing chasing “ideal” numbers. I don’t think frags and small acros do well when artificially driving down nutrients. The only filtration I have any more besides live rock is a diy chaeto reactor, and my nutrients are super low now because the acros are filtering the nutrients. I don’t even use my skimmer anymore

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Well there you go.
Moving it wouldn’t hurt. I wouldn’t put it in super low par. Remeber the majority of the of their energy comes from photosynthesis so they still need good quality light.

Man there are so many threads in this form, and I used to be one of them, “ Why are my acros dying? My parameters are perfect. Po4 is 0.03 or 0.08” etc. The majority of them are using gfo and or carbon dosing chasing “ideal” numbers. I don’t think frags and small acros do well when artificially driving down nutrients. The only filtration I have any more besides live rock is a diy chaeto reactor, and my nutrients are super low now because the acros are filtering the nutrients. I don’t even use my skimmer anymore

Actually 280 par isn’t that high. Moving it might stress it past the point of no return. I would just get rid of the gfo and maybe turn your skimmer off for a couple days.

 

[JDtimk]

I also think that it's not just the level of Po4 when you pre and post GFO use test it, but the rapid dips and rises that occur when GFO strips Po4 out of the water until the GFO is exhausted and then it stops removing it. So the level of the Po4 in the water column available to the coral can swing up and down more than the two point in time measures you might get from day to day.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I also think that it's not just the level of Po4 when you pre and post GFO use test it, but the rapid dips and rises that occur when GFO strips Po4 out of the water until the GFO is exhausted and then it stops removing it. So the level of the Po4 in the water column available to the coral can swing up and down more than the two point in time measures you might get from day to day.

Maybe. All I know is i had “ideal” nutrient parameters and dead or dying acros with gfo and carbon dosing, and there wasn’t much, of any fluctuations. So I stopped all number chasing besides the big 3 and my acros started looking better in a week or so and then started surviving. Then they started thriving. I will no longer worry about testing nutrients unless the corals look stressed.

 

[JDtimk]

Maybe. All I know is i had “ideal” nutrient parameters and dead or dying acros with gfo and carbon dosing, and there wasn’t much, of any fluctuations. So I stopped all number chasing besides the big 3 and my acros started looking better in a week or so and then started surviving. Then they started thriving. I will no longer worry about testing nutrients unless the corals look stressed.

We are in agreement about using GAC and GFO as well as nutrient management in general .

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

We are in agreement about using GAC and GFO as well as nutrient management in general .

I agree we agree