Acropora

[gcam93]

I have had my 55 Gallon reef aquarium (with dual 10 gal tanks underneath for refugiam and sump) for just over a year. I marked the occasion by purchasing a Yellow Staghorn Acropora piece that was beautiful.

I have Coralife Aqualight Compact Fluorescent Strip Lights with 260 Watts of light (1/2 Actinct). I have a Turboflotor skimmer. I use salaford all-in one (through a driper) and reef snow to feed twice a week.

The Coral is not doing well. IT lost color from the bottom up turned whit in the bottom 2/3 and not a greenish in the bottom half. The top 1/3 is a brownish yellow. Only the top 1/3 glows under Actinct only light.

I originally had it half way down, then saw it loosing color and moved it up. I have it placed at the very top of some live Rock, only about 3 inches from the top of the water. I clean my top glass every 2 days.

I lost the Yellow color. Any way for that to come back?
Is it still alive if it turns white or the slightly green color?

Thanks.

 

[plumber_bob]

You clean the top glass every 2 days? does this mean you have glass lids over your salt water tank? If so, I would take them off. Not saying that this is going to fix your acropora problem, but you might have problems in he long run with heat issues and not enough water evaporation.

 

[DonW]

I dont know alot about CF, but it does not sound like enough light especially if its being filter by glass.
My first question would be. What are your water parameters? Are there any other SPS corals in the tank? If so how are they doing?

Don

 

[reedman]

You might want to think about fragging the living tissue to stop any possible infection from spreading. Also, is there anything (or was there anything) near it that might have been stinging it (Aiptasia, mojano, etc.)? What light spectrum are the lights (6500, 10K, 20K)? How old are the lights? How much algae growth do you get in the tank (indication of nutrient saturation). What fish do you have? Are any of them nipping at the coral? Are there any red bugs on the coral? What is the tank temperature and how much does it vary throughout a day? PH level? Flow?

As you can see there are a lot of things that could be detrimental to the corals health.

Give us some water parameters and some tank info and I'm sure we can provide some help.

 

[gcam93]

Thanks - Acropora

The coral is currently up high away from any other corals. No red bugs.
Fish: Black Sailfin Blennie, Maroon Clown, Royal Gramma, Freidmani's Psued, Laboute's Wrasse, Yellow Watchman Gobie.

I have two Pieces of Montipora that are doing well, no recession.

Salinity - 1.0245
PH - 8.2
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - <10
Alkalinity - 4.5
Iodine - 6 (Shrimp molt regularly)
Phosphates - close to if not exactly 0

I need to leave the glass on because of the Wrasse. It leaped once.

Other Coral's Mushrooms, Xania, Starburst, Gorgonia (purple), Yellow colony polyps, Button Polyps (Green).

No red Algae, slight green algae on glass to be cleaned every week.

Nice Corraline algae growing throughout.

I dipped in Iodine (Coral Dip) before introducing.

Discolor occured about 1 week after introduction.

 

[gcam93]

ACropora

I just bought lights before purchasing the piece. I have 2xs 65 Wattt 10K and 2xs 65 watt Actinic.

I have two blowers and the return flow from Sump. Water movement would be considered moderate.

I specifically have the piece near one blower.

 

[mattj206]

I Bet Your Lighting Is The Problem

Montipora can take anything(they won't be bright under low light)

Acropora need tons of light to thrive *****

Many of mine would not color up or would fade 8'' under a 175 halide.

When I went to 2 250's and 120 wts of actinic my 75 gallon kicked A$$%#$@ Yea'

 

[NaH2O]

Greg - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!

Just wondering how things were going, and also can you post your tank temperature?

 

[gcam93]

Thanks, I am finding that there are some bubbles on the acropora, leading me to belive I am getting some ala. I blew it off with water. There is a slight greenish tinge coming back, but not sure what the status is.

My temp is around 83-85.

 

[NaH2O]

Do you normally keep your temperature in this range?

 

[Ritsuko Nashida]

With no pic this one is a tough one.

Temp seems a little high. A temp like that may not be the problem but its starting to push the limits though.

I am not a big fan of PC's, but if thats what your using and your happy with it its okay, but I would add some more. More specifically I would add halides and change all of the PC's to Actinic blue lights. As said earlier...Acro's need a lot of light intensity to really thrive. I would get rid of the glass too. Have you tried using egg crate (the stuff used in flourecent office light fixtures) for a lid to keep "jumpers" in the tank where they belong? This makes an excellent tank cover but still allows for air exchange and it does a lot better job of letting the light in. Glass will have to be cleaned daily to keep the inevitable salt moiusture build up from "shading" the light.

If its RTN that is the problem...I would frag the unaffected portion and try to salvage it. Even this is no guarentee but its the path of least resistance. There is a couple of treatments for this but the antibiotic is hard to get a hold of without a prescription from a Vet.

Dont know what else to tell you at this point. But none the less good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

 

[gcam93]

I don't try to keep the temp this high, it is a result of the Atlanta temps during the summer.

My brother who lives down the street is getting some Metal Hallides. I will give it to him to see if it will do any better in his tank.

Thanks, and I will keep you posted.

 

[reggie060]

you guys

are you guys in the ARC?
Reggie

 

[The R/C Man]

gcam93,

I would say lighting also. I started my tank with the compacts and they just don`t cut it especially for SPS corals. Even my xenia where not doing that great until I added MH. Now they are weeds in my tank. If you do decide to add the MH be sure to acclimate the tank. Only run them for a couple hours a day for a few days and gradually increase the duration. Let us know how it goes.

 

[The R/C Man]

I forgot.... The temp seems high. I try to maintain 79-81. At 83 the xenia start to look funny. From what everyone has told me at 85 degrees you can start to loose corals. I keep a frozen bottle of water in the freezer in case I need to drop it in the sump......... I just bought a window AC ($160) for me and the tank. Now we are both cool.

 

[gcam93]

Reggie060 - Not sure what you mean by ARC.

The R/C man: If you don't mind, what is the name and brand of your cooler? I think I may need that.

 

[Curtswearing]

Greg,

The ARC is the Atlanta Reefing Club.

He's not running a chiller....he bought a window air conditioning unit. He is also keeping frozen material in his freezer to cool his water. I've done this before too. I've have partially filled up a heavy duty freezer bag with water and dropped the bag into into the tank. I left mine in the bag because I was using tap water. I suppose you could fill the bag with RO/DI water and actually drop a huge ice cube into the sump.

I suspect tank temperature is more of the issue than the lighting. Acro's have a heat stress enzyme that causes them to bleach once the temp gets to a certain level. The egg crate over the top is definately something to consider. It helps greatly with tank temperature, dissolved Oxygen, pH levels, etc.

You can also run fans over your refugium and sump. This will increase your evaporation rate but will help cool your tank.