What's wrong with my acropora

Samwow

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I've has this Acro for a few months now and it's been thriving, almost tripled in size. But the last month it started to grow some hair algae on the inside of the branches and looks like it's losing flesh but not on the tips. All the other corals seem fine. Please help! This is my first acro
Temp 81-83
Salinity 1.25
Kh 120
Ph7.5
Calcium 350
Phosphate. 25 ppm
Nitrate 5ppm

20200710_161102.jpg 20200710_161047.jpg
 

CrunchyBananas

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Looks like you got yourself a bird's nest, seriatopora, not an acropora.
That said, they do tend to be hardier than acropora.
Looking at your parameters, your alkalinity, calcium, and pH are pretty low, with your temperature and phosphates being high.
You can maintain SPS with those numbers but, they'd all have to remain stable, and I can imagine they may jump around with water changes.

The coral might be shocked moving from a tank with more standard reef parameters to your tank with different parameters.

Also, things such as light and flow are quite important. For example, I've found bird's nest can be quite averese to too strong of flow, contrary to normal acropora demands.
 

Epic Aquaculture

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As CrunchyBananas said it's not an Acropora but appears to be a Seriatopora . That PO4 is very high, I would get that lowered over the course of a few weeks and raise your CA above 400. I would also get you ALK up to at least 140 PPM.
 
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Crashnt24

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There are issues with your parameters.

Ph is low, phosphates are high, calcium is low. Temps are also higher than I prefer, but there are successful reefs running temps in that range.
Try raising your ph through natural means, fresh air, reverse light cycle if you have a sump, ect.

Run some GFO or similar products to slowly lower your phosphates.

Your alk is slightly low, try getting it to 125ppm or 7dkh as the minimum baseline.

What salt mix are you using?
 
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Samwow

Samwow

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Thanks for the replies! I'm running instant Ocean for salt. I'm using the api test kit for phosphates and the color is between0 and. 25 so I just stated the higher end in case. I'm running under a combo t5 and leds. The weird thing was it was doing great in the beginning and seems like now meh. Tank parameters run the same the only difference I could think is now its summer and the water Temps are up 2 degrees. Will coral adapt to this constant higher temp of about 82? My anenmoe is thriving and I usually base my tank on if it's not happy so this confuses me
 

Graffiti Spot

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Your temp is fine. And I would bet the ph isn’t that low but would probably double check with a reliable test. I would change from api to salifert. I don’t see much wrong with your numbers but I can’t barely see what’s going on with the coral in the pic. I can’t even tell for sure if it’s a birdsnest.
 

CrunchyBananas

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Thanks for the replies! I'm running instant Ocean for salt. I'm using the api test kit for phosphates and the color is between0 and. 25 so I just stated the higher end in case. I'm running under a combo t5 and leds. The weird thing was it was doing great in the beginning and seems like now meh. Tank parameters run the same the only difference I could think is now its summer and the water Temps are up 2 degrees. Will coral adapt to this constant higher temp of about 82? My anenmoe is thriving and I usually base my tank on if it's not happy so this confuses me

I would definitely look into salifert, a temp of 82 definitely can stress corals to STN, a small fan pointed at the tanks surface will do wonders. How often and what percent water changes are you doing?
 

Graffiti Spot

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A steady temp at 82 is fine. A friend of mine had acros in a tank that was hot to the touch. If I had to guess it was probably 90 during the day. The acros didn’t rtn or stn. They just had wierd color.

Op make sure the wierd hair algae is not dinos.
 

CrunchyBananas

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A steady temp at 82 is fine. A friend of mine had acros in a tank that was hot to the touch. If I had to guess it was probably 90 during the day. The acros didn’t rtn or stn. They just had wierd color.

Op make sure the wierd hair algae is not dinos.

Cool, I find that hard to believe, but that would be an outlier and irresponsible to totally exclude as a cause. I've seen high temps take out plenty of corals and it could definitely stress one to STN. Along with temp, there are other stressing parameters that you see no problem with, as well as being unable to identify the clearly pictured coral. Everyone can have an opinion and has their own experiences, but it's always important to vet and triple check any advice given on forums.
 

Graffiti Spot

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I said I don’t see MUCH wrong with the numbers. I didn’t say I see no problems. I use a phone to read this forum so some of the pictures posted are just blurry, but it reads like I just don’t know how to identify a birdsnest. Also corals don’t really react badly or have issues when moved to a tank with different parameters. There should be no need to acclimate corals for anything but temp because they can handle going to new tanks that have different numbers. Also birdsnest do great in heavy flow, low flow tends to cause them to branch long and grow in wierd directions.
First you said steady 82 degrees is fine and then your last post says 82 degrees can cause stn? I have not seen the temp of water changes cause issues with corals, parameters yes, but a relatively close temp not so much.
I am not worried about parameters because the op said a wierd algae is on the coral which makes me think dinos came up and they will first cause issues in birdsnest which is a very fragile coral in a few ways.
But since I can’t see the picture well I will let you guys help the op.
 

CrunchyBananas

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I said I don’t see MUCH wrong with the numbers. I didn’t say I see no problems. I use a phone to read this forum so some of the pictures posted are just blurry, but it reads like I just don’t know how to identify a birdsnest. Also corals don’t really react badly or have issues when moved to a tank with different parameters. There should be no need to acclimate corals for anything but temp because they can handle going to new tanks that have different numbers. Also birdsnest do great in heavy flow, low flow tends to cause them to branch long and grow in wierd directions.
First you said steady 82 degrees is fine and then your last post says 82 degrees can cause stn? I have not seen the temp of water changes cause issues with corals, parameters yes, but a relatively close temp not so much.
I am not worried about parameters because the op said a wierd algae is on the coral which makes me think dinos came up and they will first cause issues in birdsnest which is a very fragile coral in a few ways.
But since I can’t see the picture well I will let you guys help the op.

you are correct in my first post that I wrongly looped temperature in with other parameters, I was unclear by putting that in there. it seems we have different experiences and should just agree to disagree at this point. Ime the high phosphates and high temperature could do this to the coral as well as fuel the algae bloom. My advice is 15-20% weekly water changes to keep everything in line, good luck with your coral.
 
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