Acro trouble

[Herefishyfishy]

Lighting is very rarely a primary cause of STN, but can be the final straw. Typically there are many things that can make corals recede. As each one is removed, the tank's health improves and it begins to stabilize again. I find stray voltage overused as an excuse and alk under-considered yet IMHO the most important measurement for Acros condition. Since you are changing water, adding carbon, fixing alk: what remains is better lighting and 7 hours is a very short cycle. In the wild, the reefs get extremely brighter light and for MUCH longer duration. Our corals are not wild and have different needs, but... 7 hours is pretty short :>)

 

[NWDiver]

That makes sense Mike. I have heard the argument that we dump noon brightness into our tank all day long and thus a shorter schedule is not a bad thing. Either way I expect an extra hour will be fine, and it was the first change I made

The frustrating part is that I have not been tinkering with this system other than maintenance for quite a while.
I want an exact answer dammit!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Noon brightness? Whomever says that has not seen how bright the sun is inh the tropics. Even here with dark cloudy days, if you take a 400w halide outside in full sun, you will wonder if the bulb is lit or out. Good ol Sol puts out a lot more light than our little bulbs whcih unlike the sun, can be looked at without blindness resulting. Try adding some amino acid suppliments, can't hurt...

 

[trido]

The fact that you have a hydnopora receding like the acros would make me immediately rule out AEFW's. IME the symptoms you describe are the result of fluctuating alk. Do you manually dose or have reactors? Have you found yourself having to bump things back up during your WC's or weekly, due to out of tune reactors or more coral growth than you used to have?
Just a thought.

 

[mcoomer]

Thanks for the input Mike. I have not used Lugols, but I will run to the LFS and hopefully aquire some tonight. How weak a solution? I assume that I can apply it "in tank"?
I have moved to a more agressive water change schedule, planning 20 gallons per week. I should have done this before, but with the low fish load and 200 total gallons everything was doing well... until it wasn't

I don't have an exact measurement to give you. I'd simply put 5-10 drops in a cup of water and brush that onto the affected areas. You're going to need to pull the coral out to paint it though. It doesn't have to stay out. Just brush the solution on and put it back in the tank. Also, I know that doing large water changes can be a pain in the neck but I'd probably do more than 20 a week for now if I were you.

Mike

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Keep in mind with iodine, the treatment is often more destructive than any condition, especially if no parasites have been first confirmed.

 

[NWDiver]

Huh, my last post didn't er, post.
@Duane I am using dosing pumps to control Alk and Ca. I use Bulk reef supply. My alk was running about 7 testing with Hach. I slowly bumped it to 10 where it has been stable for about two months. My salt (Salinity) ends up a little low at 7.5 after mixing for two days. I usually bump the mix up before I add it to the system.
The only water oddity that I am seeing is that my pH is a little above the norm. It currently maxes at 8.35 and min is 8.25.
The hydno was in a lower flow part of the tank and could possibly be a different issue. I moved it forward and it seems to have stabilized.
Thanks to both Mikes
Agree with you on the short term water changes and have mixed water to do just that. I should have made that clear. I also intend to do weekly smaller changes in lieu of larger every three weeks like I had been doing. When in doubt, change the water!
The recession seems to have stopped for now. I will leave them in the frag tank and see how they recover. If it starts again, I will try the iodine.
It is really great to have you all helping! It has gone so well (easy) for me over the past year and a half that it really surprised me to be having this trouble now
Acros and lps have grown very well in my system since I started, zoas not very fast but they grow. I have had many friends put trouble coral in my system to let them recover.
I just can't see what the heck has changed.

 

[freetareef]

how deep is your frag tank? if they are getting better in there it seems the only diff would be the lighting and flow....do you have a par meter? sorry to hear about your trouble.

 

[zoaman]

I heard if you are able to cut off the infected area of the acro that you'll have a better chance of recovery

 

[turaki tim]

Hi Tod, have you checked your K+ levels recently?

I had similar issuers your and all came in order when I addressed 3 issues:
1. Decreased temperature from 26 to 24.5c over 2 weeks. A lot of recent research shows that the immune system of sps is more active at combatting vibrio, the bacteria that causes most of the TN issues;
2. establishing my salinity at precisely 1.025;
3. Checking K+ and adding K+ daily. My current K+ is at 440, about 10% above NSW and corals look very happy and with real pop in their colours...

Are you keeping a red Monti or a pink stylo or poci?

 

[justforfun]

it has been a ongoing battle that we have not found a cause...he is still losing sps slowly....

 

[treehugger]

What did you use to dip your corals? My suggestion would be to dip in a revive dip 3 cap fulls per gallon and soak for 8 minutes and shake them well before removing (you can use up to 4 capfuls per gallon but 3 kills AEFW) I would also inspect the corals when you pull them out of the tank. The eggs are usually at the base of the corals or where the coral branches. When the eggs hatch the flesh around them usually blows off. What type of GFO are you using and how often are you changing it?