Acan/Micromussa help please!

[Juff74]

Hey there, I'm doing some trouble shooting and wonder if you would mind helping me out, please? Everything in my tank is doing really well except for my Acans/Micromussa. Just so happens that they are my favorite! Some look decent but not puffy, others have died what I would call peeling, others are just staying tight to the skeleton not really opening. Trachyphyllia, Scolymia, Hammer, Frogspawn, GSP, Sympodium, Toad Stool Leather, Zoanthids, Alveopora, Birdsnest, War Coral, Favia, Rock Flower Anemone, Blastomussa, Chalice all happy and doing well

Alk 9.0, Cal 490, Mag 1390, Phosphate .046, Nitrate 2.5, Salinity 1.024, Temp 78.3. All seem to be stable as well.

Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro mixed with RO/DI water

PAR: Finally got a par meter, 75 at the bottom of the tank, 55ish on the outer edges,100 - 120 at the top. Tidal Gardens recommends 50 or less in their Acan/Micromussa video and. Seems like most of the videos I have watched say they do better in low light. Others have said they have good luck around 100 - 150 or more That’s a pretty big discrepancy. Should I increase or decrease?

Lighting/Spectrum: BRS recommended for Reef Breeders Photon V2 without the white

Green 3%, Red 3%, White 0 -3%, Royal Blue 35%, Cool Blue 35%, Violet 35% @ 18in above the tank.

Dosing: BRS two part. Alk 8ml in the morning and at night, Calcium 4ml at night, Mag 6ml at night. Phyto at night. All on a dosing pump.

Flow: Two power heads, one on each end of the tank, low to moderate.

Tank: 16 months old Innovative Marine 30L, bio blocks in the rear chamber, small Tidal HOB filter for a little extra mechanical filtration, Ghost protein skimmer, Chemi pure elite for chemical media

Are there any pest that are specific to Acans that could be the problem? I have looked with a magnifier and don’t see anything. I have not seen any fish messing with them either.

Should I try dipping them? If so what dip? I have Coral RX and Seachem Reef Dip and Brightwell Lugol's

I have watched videos and read forums to the point that I have information constipation, not to mention conflicting information. I just can't seem to figure it out. I'm really confused. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[fishguy242]

@mdb_talon ? thoughts?

 

[Lavey29]

I've had similar response with my acans while everything else is thriving. I sometimes wonder if microfauna is eating them since they are On the sand. Your nutrate slightly low but overall your numbers aren't bad. Maybe get an ICP test to check the full spectrum. I speculate that yours may be light related. Maybe try a few weeks with more par and see what happens or go less in the shade.

 

[HuduVudu]

Hey there, I'm doing some trouble shooting and wonder if you would mind helping me out, please? Everything in my tank is doing really well except for my Acans/Micromussa. Just so happens that they are my favorite! Some look decent but not puffy, others have died what I would call peeling, others are just staying tight to the skeleton not really opening. Trachyphyllia, Scolymia, Hammer, Frogspawn, GSP, Sympodium, Toad Stool Leather, Zoanthids, Alveopora, Birdsnest, War Coral, Favia, Rock Flower Anemone, Blastomussa, Chalice all happy and doing well

Alk 9.0, Cal 490, Mag 1390, Phosphate .046, Nitrate 2.5, Salinity 1.024, Temp 78.3. All seem to be stable as well.

Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro mixed with RO/DI water

PAR: Finally got a par meter, 75 at the bottom of the tank, 55ish on the outer edges,100 - 120 at the top. Tidal Gardens recommends 50 or less in their Acan/Micromussa video and. Seems like most of the videos I have watched say they do better in low light. Others have said they have good luck around 100 - 150 or more That’s a pretty big discrepancy. Should I increase or decrease?

Lighting/Spectrum: BRS recommended for Reef Breeders Photon V2 without the white

Green 3%, Red 3%, White 0 -3%, Royal Blue 35%, Cool Blue 35%, Violet 35% @ 18in above the tank.

Dosing: BRS two part. Alk 8ml in the morning and at night, Calcium 4ml at night, Mag 6ml at night. Phyto at night. All on a dosing pump.

Flow: Two power heads, one on each end of the tank, low to moderate.

Tank: 16 months old Innovative Marine 30L, bio blocks in the rear chamber, small Tidal HOB filter for a little extra mechanical filtration, Ghost protein skimmer, Chemi pure elite for chemical media

Are there any pest that are specific to Acans that could be the problem? I have looked with a magnifier and don’t see anything. I have not seen any fish messing with them either.

Should I try dipping them? If so what dip? I have Coral RX and Seachem Reef Dip and Brightwell Lugol's

I have watched videos and read forums to the point that I have information constipation, not to mention conflicting information. I just can't seem to figure it out. I'm really confused. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

You need to feed them directly, with some sort of meaty food. Mysis works. There are others. They don't get enough if you broadcast feed.

When you first get them they are usually pretty weak and you need to shoo off the bristle worms and amphipods etc... so that they can take in the food. In this state it can take an hour or so for them to get the food engested. As they strengthen up it will happen MUCH faster.

Feed shortly after the lights turn out.

 

[mdb_talon]

I am not sure that i have any real good suggestions but acans are definetely a favorite and i have a ridiculous amount of them so will share any thoughts i do have. Sorry for all the words lol i just love talking acans and have been fortunate to be pretty successful with them.

Lighting:. Personally i have had the most success using mostly blue in the 100 to 250(at peak) par range. On my acan tanks i do low levels of white around 2 hours a day. In my experience many do fine at lower than 100 par levels and depending on the acan may develop there best colors that way....but i also find that at those levels i was having slow growth and less success overall. I found that anything over 9 to 10 hours light my acans dont do well even if i decrease par and go longer period. I doubt light is your issue but again just sharing my experience.

Pests:. The only issues with acan pests i have had is with worms. Not even sure what they are called and only seen them on imports but they bore fairly large holes(pencil eraser diameter) in skeleton and while i never seen them directly eating acans(or really ever come out from inside the holes) the ones i get that have those worms are always in poor health until i eliminate the worms. Otherwise i have heard of some varieties of the large polyclad flatworms eating them bit never experienced it myself.

Food:. I feed extremely heavy and spot feed my acans at least once a week with lps pellets. I am not saying this is required, but in my experience it helps with growth a lot and if you have a very clean tank i would say give it a shot.

Flow:. Low to moderate flow should be good. Make sure waste is not settling in the polyps and adequate flow to remove it, but otherwise low flow should be fine.

Crabs:
I wont use crabs of any sort with my acans. For years i did, but then noticed that occassionally they get smart enough to rip open the mouths of the acans(usually late at night) and pull out the food. They never ate the acan or immediately killed it, but once i stopped having crabs in my acan tanks it solved a lot of issues.

Dips/baths:. Kanaplex would be my suggestion. See this thread if interested in why i say that, but it has been doing wonders for me when i have an acan that just seems sick/unhappy/receding. My use of it wont pass any stringent scientific testing methods lol but my results so far have convinced me it is very effective.

Anyone use Kanaplex for corals?

Curious if anyone else out there regularly uses Kanaplex for sick corals? The reason I ask is I have started using it regularly for corals that are "not doing well" and my results have been fantastic. I buy/sell/trade a lot of corals locally so am often buying lots of coral and inevitably...

www.reef2reef.com

One last thing i found is that acans are very sensitive to me at salinity above 1.027. When i have had refractometer calibration or ato issues and salinity increased my acans were always the first to let me know there was an issue.

 

[Juff74]

I've had similar response with my acans while everything else is thriving. I sometimes wonder if microfauna is eating them since they are On the sand. Your nutrate slightly low but overall your numbers aren't bad. Maybe get an ICP test to check the full spectrum. I speculate that yours may be light related. Maybe try a few weeks with more par and see what happens or go less in the shade.

I was actually thinking of doing an ICP test. Just didn't want to waste money if someone seasoned had a solution. I guess I'm not really a nubie but I feel like I still don't know squat...lol. I wonder if a frag rack could help until they are healthy.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I find they do much better with regular feeding. We feed our micro lord garden either daily or at the least every other day. They grow fast and show excellent color. One of our LFS who could keep everything but micro lords alive now has them thriving after we suggested they do the same when showing pics of our micro lords to their saltwater manager.

Other suggestion would be to check for predation. Micro Lords seem to be the first coral that gets eaten. Dwarf angels, some crabs, and peppermint shrimp will all eat micro lords.

 

[Lavey29]

I was actually thinking of doing an ICP test. Just didn't want to waste money if someone seasoned had a solution. I guess I'm not really a nubie but I feel like I still don't know squat...lol. I wonder if a frag rack could help until they are healthy.

Mine are holding their own but not thriving like the rest of the tank. I think the direct feeding suggestions from the other posts are good ideas. I mainly broadcast feed and phyto feed at night. I always try and equate things to the ocean and corals aren't direct fed there but maybe certain corals may benefit better from direct feeding just not sure 5 big shrimp and a snail army along with hungry wrasses will allow it.

 

[mdb_talon]

Mine are holding their own but not thriving like the rest of the tank. I think the direct feeding suggestions from the other posts are good ideas. I mainly broadcast feed and phyto feed at night. I always try and equate things to the ocean and corals aren't direct fed there but maybe certain corals may benefit better from direct feeding just not sure 5 big shrimp and a snail army along with hungry wrasses will allow it.

Ya the shrimp can be an issue like crabs of getting on the acan and trying to eat out of its mouth. Never seemed to rip them open like the crabs did bit did irritate them.

 

[Juff74]

You need to feed them directly, with some sort of meaty food. Mysis works. There are others. They don't get enough if you broadcast feed.

When you first get them they are usually pretty weak and you need to shoo off the bristle worms and amphipods etc... so that they can take in the food. In this state it can take an hour or so for them to get the food engested. As they strengthen up it will happen MUCH faster.

Feed shortly after the lights turn out.

I have fed mysis directly some, maybe not enough, but I have been feeding during the day with aminos, reef roids and lps pellets, again maybe not enough. I notice that they open up shortly after acclimation and seem to decline as the days go by after that. It makes since that they would be weak after shipping. I mean it when I say they are my favorite. Thank you SO much for taking the time to respond! I will try feeding at night instead.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Mine are holding their own but not thriving like the rest of the tank. I think the direct feeding suggestions from the other posts are good ideas. I mainly broadcast feed and phyto feed at night. I always try and equate things to the ocean and corals aren't direct fed there but maybe certain corals may benefit better from direct feeding just not sure 5 big shrimp and a snail army along with hungry wrasses will allow it.

I feed my wrasses (5 fairies, a radiant, and a timor) with frozen mysis soaked in selcon or vita-chem about 15 minutes before feeding the corals. Then I go back and spot-feed the same mysis to the micro lords, the sun coral, and occasionally the blastos and candy cane.

Feeding the tank very heavily 4-5x daily also helps cut out the fish picking at the corals. We also broadcast feed Brightwell coral amino, a blend of live phytoplankton, live rotifers, live baby brine shrimp, and reef roids at least 3x weekly, usually daily.

 

[Sean Clark]

I am curious how your blastos are doing. All of my acan issues I could correlate to blasto issues.

 

[Lavey29]

I feed my wrasses (5 fairies, a radiant, and a timor) with frozen mysis soaked in selcon or vita-chem about 15 minutes before feeding the corals. Then I go back and spot-feed the same mysis to the micro lords, the sun coral, and occasionally the blastos and candy cane.

Feeding the tank very heavily 4-5x daily also helps cut out the fish picking at the corals. We also broadcast feed Brightwell coral amino, a blend of live phytoplankton, live rotifers, live baby brine shrimp, and reef roids at least 3x weekly, usually daily.

My wife already thinks I spend to much time with the fish. If I did all that you daily she would move a bed in there and that would be my new living arrangement.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

My wife already thinks I spend to much time with the fish. If I did all that you daily she would move a bed in there and that would be my new living arrangement.

My wife is the one that does all the feedings 99% of the time. Currently I'm only home a few weeks of the year, since I'm in veterinary school in St Kitts. But she shows me the tank via webcam multiple times daily, and we talk reef stuff non-stop.

 

[Juff74]

I am curious how your blastos are doing. All of my acan issues I could correlate to blasto issues.

I would say my Blastos are thriving, went from two heads to like 15-20 in a year. Honestly not sure what the growth rate should be but they are very happy, color is vibrant.

 

[Sean Clark]

I would say my Blastos are thriving, went from two heads to like 15-20 in a year. Honestly not sure what the growth rate should be but they are very happy, color is vibrant.

Thank you.

 

[Juff74]

Thank you.

Man, thank you for taking the time to even chime in here. I'm at my wits end trying to figure this out. This same post was put on BRS page 30ish hrs ago and not a single response.

 

[Juff74]

I am not sure that i have any real good suggestions but acans are definetely a favorite and i have a ridiculous amount of them so will share any thoughts i do have. Sorry for all the words lol i just love talking acans and have been fortunate to be pretty successful with them.

Lighting:. Personally i have had the most success using mostly blue in the 100 to 250(at peak) par range. On my acan tanks i do low levels of white around 2 hours a day. In my experience many do fine at lower than 100 par levels and depending on the acan may develop there best colors that way....but i also find that at those levels i was having slow growth and less success overall. I found that anything over 9 to 10 hours light my acans dont do well even if i decrease par and go longer period. I doubt light is your issue but again just sharing my experience.

Pests:. The only issues with acan pests i have had is with worms. Not even sure what they are called and only seen them on imports but they bore fairly large holes(pencil eraser diameter) in skeleton and while i never seen them directly eating acans(or really ever come out from inside the holes) the ones i get that have those worms are always in poor health until i eliminate the worms. Otherwise i have heard of some varieties of the large polyclad flatworms eating them bit never experienced it myself.

Food:. I feed extremely heavy and spot feed my acans at least once a week with lps pellets. I am not saying this is required, but in my experience it helps with growth a lot and if you have a very clean tank i would say give it a shot.

Flow:. Low to moderate flow should be good. Make sure waste is not settling in the polyps and adequate flow to remove it, but otherwise low flow should be fine.

Crabs:
I wont use crabs of any sort with my acans. For years i did, but then noticed that occassionally they get smart enough to rip open the mouths of the acans(usually late at night) and pull out the food. They never ate the acan or immediately killed it, but once i stopped having crabs in my acan tanks it solved a lot of issues.

Dips/baths:. Kanaplex would be my suggestion. See this thread if interested in why i say that, but it has been doing wonders for me when i have an acan that just seems sick/unhappy/receding. My use of it wont pass any stringent scientific testing methods lol but my results so far have convinced me it is very effective.

Anyone use Kanaplex for corals?

Curious if anyone else out there regularly uses Kanaplex for sick corals? The reason I ask is I have started using it regularly for corals that are "not doing well" and my results have been fantastic. I buy/sell/trade a lot of corals locally so am often buying lots of coral and inevitably...

www.reef2reef.com

One last thing i found is that acans are very sensitive to me at salinity above 1.027. When i have had refractometer calibration or ato issues and salinity increased my acans were always the first to let me know there was an issue.

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to respond to this. I can't explain how much this means. My tank is therapy for me, I will leave it at that for now. Would you suggest a lighting adjustment? As for pest, could a frag rack help? I have noticed that they open up and look pretty after acclimation and decline from there. I have a Pygmy Angel but I don't see him picking at them. I feed a variety of frozen food and reef roids. Just got some Fauna Marine pellets and Benepets, Vitalis on the way from Germany. I feed AB+ Aminos and I switch it up about once to twice a week. Doesn't seem like waste is settling, thinking about getting one or a couple of Nero 3's to create some more aggressive burst/ waves on occasion. Crabs: I have two hermit crabs but I almost never see them. Dips: I will read up on the Kanaplex thread and give it a try. Thank you again so much!

 

[Sean Clark]

I re-read everything to see if I missed something that stood out. All I can do is support you and wish you luck. I don’t see anything out of line and you have clearly done your homework. Some corals for whatever reason (hopefully some day we will know) just do not thrive in certain aquariums, even when parameters make it seam as though they should. Stay positive.

 

[Juff74]

Ya the shrimp can be an issue like crabs of getting on the acan and trying to eat out of its mouth. Never seemed to rip them open like the crabs did bit did irritate them.

I had a coral banded shrimp but I gave him back to my local LFS, He was picking at the mouths to get the food. I tried feeding him directly but he wouldn't stop. This was about 6 months ago.