Acan/Micromussa help please!

Juff74 · Mar 2, 2022

fishguy242 said:
@mdb_talon ? thoughts?

Thank you so much for the tag! Hopefully I will overcome this challenge and hopefully helps someone else out along the way. The challenge is ONE of the many reasons I enjoy this hobby.

mdb_talon · Mar 2, 2022

Juff74 said:
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!

No problem i love my acans! A frag rack could help if there is something in the sand bothering them(or sand is getting in them). I dont use sand myself. If it were me in your situation i would get a small tupperware and a plastic clamp and i would clean one of the frags not looking good real well and place it in the tupperware filled with tank water. Then i use the plastic clamp to keep ot to the top edge in the corner of the tank. The goal is seperate it from pests in the sand, that pygmy angel, crabs, etc but keep the tupperware in water so it stays at proper temp. Then replace water in tupperware once or twice a day.

That approach does nothing significant to your tank but lets you see how the acan does in a more protected environment. Depending on your setup this may be hard to do without giving the coral too much light but ideally keep it around same par. If the acan perks up in a day or two then this tells you it likely something in the tank irritating it or too much flow. If it does nothing or gets worse then it a good indicator that it may not be those thing. If that does not have an impact then i would use kanaplex in the container(again never putting that water in the DT).

I do those approaches because it allows you to get some ideas or rule out some things without impacting anything but the single test frag in the tupperware. Dont want to hurt your thriving corals trying to fix your struggling ones so i would start with things that have the least impact to the whole tank.

As far as for lighting you are running lower than what i have personally found as ideal, but honestly i am doubting that is your issue in my opinion.

mdb_talon · Mar 2, 2022

My lights are off but this is what i mean about putting it in tupperware clamped to tank. This acan suffered a viscous attack from a torch(because i ignorantly had it too close). It only had 1.5 polyps remaining and they were in rough shape. I have had it in the tupperware for three days with kanaplex and as you can see it is actually opening up now even with no flow and being there 3 days. He gets to go back in tank tomorrow now that i convinced no infection or BJD after the butt whooping he received

Sean Clark · Mar 2, 2022

mdb_talon said:
My lights are off but this is what i mean about putting it in tupperware clamped to tank. This acan suffered a viscous attack from a torch(because i ignorantly had it too close). It only had 1.5 polyps remaining and they were in rough shape. I have had it in the tupperware for three days with kanaplex and as you can see it is actually opening up now even with no flow and being there 3 days. He gets to go back in tank tomorrow now that i convinced no infection or BJD after the butt whooping he received

This is fantastic thank you.

Juff74 · Mar 2, 2022

mdb_talon said:
My lights are off but this is what i mean about putting it in tupperware clamped to tank. This acan suffered a viscous attack from a torch(because i ignorantly had it too close). It only had 1.5 polyps remaining and they were in rough shape. I have had it in the tupperware for three days with kanaplex and as you can see it is actually opening up now even with no flow and being there 3 days. He gets to go back in tank tomorrow now that i convinced no infection or BJD after the butt whooping he received

Oh cool, I see the feeder tentacles out on this one looking more healthy....right? This is SO helpful. I will definitely be trying this. I think I can get similar par at one corner at the top. I'm so glad I invested in a PAR meter, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue.

Juff74 · Mar 2, 2022

Fishfreak2009 said:
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.

So cool, that your wife is supportive. My wife finally gets it after a little over year. The other night she made a comment to a fellow (military) veteran that it calms me. So cool that you are in Veterinary school. I hope you do well.

mdb_talon · Mar 2, 2022

Juff74 said:
Oh cool, I see the feeder tentacles out on this one looking more healthy....right? This is SO helpful. I will definitely be trying this. I think I can get similar par at one corner at the top. I'm so glad I invested in a PAR meter, otherwise I wouldn't have a clue.

Yes for sure. When i found this had been attacked i was sure it was a goner. It was just a blob of "mucus". Today was third day and he started opening again. Just wanted to show the pic what i meant because sometimes people think doing that is no good for coral since it has no flow/etc, but i do this technique often with things like acans and zoas(i am out of room and sadly coral warfare is increasingly common lol). I need to sell a bunch and clear up space because i have no self control to not buy more lol! As long as temp is right i find they can do just fine with changing water once a day. Not sure i would want to do it for more than 3 or 4 days, but for limited time allows for kind of a mini coral qt/hospital and works well.

Juff74 · Mar 16, 2022

mdb_talon said:
Yes for sure. When i found this had been attacked i was sure it was a goner. It was just a blob of "mucus". Today was third day and he started opening again. Just wanted to show the pic what i meant because sometimes people think doing that is no good for coral since it has no flow/etc, but i do this technique often with things like acans and zoas(i am out of room and sadly coral warfare is increasingly common lol). I need to sell a bunch and clear up space because i have no self control to not buy more lol! As long as temp is right i find they can do just fine with changing water once a day. Not sure i would want to do it for more than 3 or 4 days, but for limited time allows for kind of a mini coral qt/hospital and works well.

I got my ICP results back this morning. Magnesium is low at 1287. Test kit says around 1400. Gonna pick up a different test kit. Potassium was low as well at 332, they recommended correction under the very important category. Several trace elements are on the lower end of the spectrum but within range. Almost no iodine. I have a frag rack on order to raise them off the bed to troubleshoot that. Looks like it may be time to start a trace element supplement. I also picked up some Kanplex, gonna read up on that process and try a couple that I'm afraid are not going to make it. Thoughts?

Steven Garland · Apr 18, 2022

I find they like a few hours of full spectrum lighting,doesn't matter when but I find they get fuller heads. Good amount of flow helps them fluff up as well.

At one point and time I had about 30 mini colonies in my old nano. Many ranging from 2-3 heads,some were singles. I found that spot feeding each frag at least 2-3 times a week if not more.

I was ranging 1-3 a month with light feedings,and when I stepped up feedings to 3 or more a week,they exploded. I started getting double the growth. I was feeding a mixture of LPS Max,Reef Roids,SPS Max,Rotifer eggs and Oyster Feast all mixed up in a shot glass and would literally spot feed every head,time consuming but I made sure everything got food with little to no waste compared to just broadcast feeding.

They do appreciate higher nitrates,with just a trace of phosphates. I always usually kept mine at about 150-175 par.

Again,this is all in my experience.

Juff74 · Apr 18, 2022

Steven Garland said:
I find they like a few hours of full spectrum lighting,doesn't matter when but I find they get fuller heads. Good amount of flow helps them fluff up as well.

At one point and time I had about 30 mini colonies in my old nano. Many ranging from 2-3 heads,some were singles. I found that spot feeding each frag at least 2-3 times a week if not more.

I was ranging 1-3 a month with light feedings,and when I stepped up feedings to 3 or more a week,they exploded. I started getting double the growth. I was feeding a mixture of LPS Max,Reef Roids,SPS Max,Rotifer eggs and Oyster Feast all mixed up in a shot glass and would literally spot feed every head,time consuming but I made sure everything got food with little to no waste compared to just broadcast feeding.

They do appreciate higher nitrates,with just a trace of phosphates. I always usually kept mine at about 150-175 par.

Again,this is all in my experience.

Those sure do look happy. Thanks for the help!