Acropora in a nano reef help

[adam567890]

Hello all,
I am brand new here but I figured after a few days of lurking I would attempt to put myself out there to try and benefit from the depth and breadth of knowledge available on this forum. I've recently been trying to dip my feet into the Infamous world of acropora after trying in a larger tank years ago and failing. I have since then honed my knowledge a bit more but I'm always humbled by the finicky-ness of acros. I've managed about a 3/5 success rate on frags establishing in my mixed reef; my issue is, I am completely smitten with the strawberry shortcake acro and after two failed attempts I am looking for advice. The first frag I attempted isn't totally dead yet, but it's been steadily STN-ing for the past 3 months. The new frag i placed yesterday melted overnight. My staghorn and other acros are happy as can be. I will post pictures, specs and water parameters below.

Kh: 8.5
Mg: 1380
Ca: 465
Ph: 7.8
Sg: 1.024
Po: 0.5
Temp: 77°

Flow; sicce return pump. Hygger mini powerhead on ramping flow pattern

Lighting: Red sea ReefLED50 ~41%
ATO with Rodi water that I test for 0tds each fill
Reefdose pump for kh, ca, mg
I dose acropower daily
I feed phyto, reefroids, and LPS pellets twice a week
I feed frozen mysis/brine/cyclops pods for mandarin and clown daily

I've noticed an increase in algae and what I think are diatoms. My NO3 and NO2 are undetectable on my hanna checker, salifert teste and quick test strips. Ammonia also zero. I'm puzzled because the tank has been up for 2 years and is properly cycled, and I know I am putting nutrients in. I'm wondering if I should start dosing Nitrate.

I welcome all thoughts, comments, and ideas from anyone with experience!

 

[KC2020]

Welcome to R2R !
For an Acro to just melt like that can indicate a number of things.

What were the water parameters, flow and light levels it came from ?

How did you acclimate it ?

Your salinity and pH are low.

And yes you need to increase nutrient levels to support your corals. You didn't say what your fish population is and why are you only feeding twice a week ?

The worlds reefs are inundated with food 24/7/365. Feeding smaller amounts, so food is consumed in a minute or two and don't make it to the substrate, but doing it several times a day is the first way I'd try and change water parameters. You can dose but you need to change things slowly. Don't try and correct it all at once.

What about water changes ?

 

[adam567890]

Welcome to R2R !
For an Acro to just melt like that can indicate a number of things.

What were the water parameters, flow and light levels it came from ?

How did you acclimate it ?

Your salinity and pH are low.

And yes you need to increase nutrient levels to support your corals. You didn't say what your fish population is and why are you only feeding twice a week ?

The worlds reefs are inundated with food 24/7/365. Feeding smaller amounts, so food is consumed in a minute or two and don't make it to the substrate, but doing it several times a day is the first way I'd try and change water parameters. You can dose but you need to change things slowly. Don't try and correct it all at once.

What about water changes ?

I'm not totally certain what flow and light levels it came from, I ordered it from WorldWideCorals; I have been into their store and i've seen the display tanks so I had guesstimated the flow and light based on that. Unfortunately, since most of their business is done online and customers are not permitted in their larger warehouse area of the store I cannot be certain. I also tested a few parameters such as KH and SG before drip acclimation (airline tubing) and the largest parameter difference I found was the KH was 9.3 versus my ~8.6 at the time. I will work on slowly raising pH; I find water changes particularly nerve wracking because while I keep premixed salt water around my room temperature tends to be on the lower end of 70 degrees and since its such a small tank, I worry about temperature shocking the more sensitive SPS. I change the water around twice a month at this point usually 30% or 40%, although I would be open to increasing the frequency. I have definitely noticed my Ph tends to creep down over time, probably due to the oxygen concentration in my apartment. I have one clownfish and one mandarin that get fed once or twice a day with a combo of cyclops pods and mysis/krill chunks.

 

[KC2020]

I'm in Southern California where my room temp rarely gets below 72 and I heat the water I'm going to use for a water change. If you don't you're definitely shocking corals and fish. You need to match salinity, temp, kH and Calcium when you're keeping SPS. Mag isn't quite as important and you can't accurately test for it anyway.

And you're right, the low pH is probably because there's not enough fresh air In the room or it cold be surface agitation needs to increase. Using Kalkwasser for your top off after the lights go out would help. Dosing it slowly overnight would be ideal. Even half strength would stabilize pH.

So you're feeding the corals a couple times a week, I see. I thought you meant the fish. You could easily double the fish feedings.

WWC ships quality frags. I'd email them, tell them what happened and see what they suggest.

 

[adam567890]

I've gotten my hands on a small 25W heater for water changes, that was a very good point and I suppose I should have done it sooner. I had stayed away from kalkwasser because I thought it might mess with my calcium dosing regimen, so far as I understand it is a calcium carbonate solution; I dose with Red Sea foundation A, B and C and I did not want to double up on supplement reagents. I was wondering, shouldn't the sodium carbonate I dose (red sea foundation KH) have a similar effect on pH? I do have a free dosing head on the pump, so I can certainly set it up with an RODI solution of kalkwasser for overnight dosing. I'll have to pay more attention to the KH and calcium when mixing my saltwater, the big bucket of instant ocean (reef crystals) I have doesn't specify KH at any specific sg, just calcium and magnesium. I had toyed with the idea of trying a different salt mix, but a year or two ago I bought this bucket (5 gallon size) and I feel like it would be a waste to not use it (I had a 70 gallon system back when my living situation allowed for it). I suppose I will email WWC, I just wasn't sure what would come of it because it's obviously something on my end, they pack and ship very well and the frag arrived in good condition. The frustrating part is, its only the frag that I was most invested in, I believe they call it 'strip tease' but so far as I understand it is just a super colored up Acropora Miroclados. The PC rainbow frag from the most recent order is doing just fine.

 

[Lavey29]

If you have 0 nitrates as you indicated then none of your corals are doing fine. They are slowly starving to death.

Welcome to the site. Don't hesitate to ask anything. Everyone here always willing to help.

 

[adam567890]

If you have 0 nitrates as you indicated then none of your corals are doing fine. They are slowly starving to death.

Welcome to the site. Don't hesitate to ask anything. Everyone here always willing to help.

I just took another measurement, Nitrates seem to be at 0.5 ppm after a water change yesterday. The odd thing is I am getting rapid growth in all of my LPS and softies. I feel like 0.5 ppm is still low, no?

 

[Lavey29]

I just took another measurement, Nitrates seem to be at 0.5 ppm after a water change yesterday. The odd thing is I am getting rapid growth in all of my LPS and softies. I feel like 0.5 ppm is still low, no?

LPS need nitrates at 10 to 15. I'm running 25 currently in my SPS dominant mixed reef.

 

[KC2020]

LPS and softies are far less demanding of water parameters. But none of your corals are really happy with nutrients that low but I also don't think that's the cause of the frag melting so quickly. You've got nothing to loose by emailing WWC. Tell them your parameters, how you acclimated and see what they say.

If you do an overnight KW dose with the extra pump it will help to keep pH from swinging over a 24 hour period. And yes it will contribute calcium and you'll want to test to see if you need adjust your other dosing.

 

[adam567890]

LPS and softies are far less demanding of water parameters. But none of your corals are really happy with nutrients that low but I also don't think that's the cause of the frag melting so quickly. You've got nothing to loose by emailing WWC. Tell them your parameters, how you acclimated and see what they say.

If you do an overnight KW dose with the extra pump it will help to keep pH from swinging over a 24 hour period. And yes it will contribute calcium and you'll want to test to see if you need adjust your other dosing.

I got in touch with WWC and they suggested lower light for acclimating the SPS; however I've run into an issue and I was wondering if anyone had any two cents about it. I think part of the reason for my nutrient deficiency is a presence of Dinos; I've ordered a microscope to confirm but as I've been trying to increase nutrients these have also begun to bloom (photo attached). I've gotten phosphates to be stable at 0.02-0.03, I got one reading once of 0.06 but it seems to have come back down. Nitrates I've gotten as high as 1.6 ppm but they always seem to rapidly drop back down, whether it's just the corals consumption or the dino issue remains to be seen. I'm dosing for a daily climb of 0.5ppm in nitrates but it's a battle. I am also dosing microbacter7 and AlgaeBarn phyto.

Lastly, my salt mix seems to have a higher KH than I'd like when I mix it to 1.025-.026. It comes out around 10.5-11, I was trying to find tips regarding lowering the KH without diluting the salinity and I've come up dry. I would really love to not throw out the whole bucket of salt but it's looking like I may just need different salt mix.

 

[twentyleagues]

I got in touch with WWC and they suggested lower light for acclimating the SPS; however I've run into an issue and I was wondering if anyone had any two cents about it. I think part of the reason for my nutrient deficiency is a presence of Dinos; I've ordered a microscope to confirm but as I've been trying to increase nutrients these have also begun to bloom (photo attached). I've gotten phosphates to be stable at 0.02-0.03, I got one reading once of 0.06 but it seems to have come back down. Nitrates I've gotten as high as 1.6 ppm but they always seem to rapidly drop back down, whether it's just the corals consumption or the dino issue remains to be seen. I'm dosing for a daily climb of 0.5ppm in nitrates but it's a battle. I am also dosing microbacter7 and AlgaeBarn phyto.

Lastly, my salt mix seems to have a higher KH than I'd like when I mix it to 1.025-.026. It comes out around 10.5-11, I was trying to find tips regarding lowering the KH without diluting the salinity and I've come up dry. I would really love to not throw out the whole bucket of salt but it's looking like I may just need different salt mix.

10-11 is the correct range for rc salt. You could look up lowering your kh using acid. I am not 100% certain what the amount of acid to fresh salt mix is but I know it works. Muriatic acid is what is used and is readily available at most bb hardware stores.

As for why that coral rtn'd overnight no idea. Could vary well be lighting or flow have you tried putting them in different places in the tank? The coral you are talking about I mean. Or do you keep putting it in the same location?

 

[adam567890]

10-11 is the correct range for rc salt. You could look up lowering your kh using acid. I am not 100% certain what the amount of acid to fresh salt mix is but I know it works. Muriatic acid is what is used and is readily available at most bb hardware stores.

As for why that coral rtn'd overnight no idea. Could vary well be lighting or flow have you tried putting them in different places in the tank? The coral you are talking about I mean. Or do you keep putting it in the same location?

I'll look into the muriatic acid; thanks. I had been experimenting with flow when placing the frags but I hadn't dropped them to lower light because I had just assumed high par for sps; it seems the consensus is to start low and move them high if they can handle it. It's odd, I tried with another frag of strawberry shortcake from Vivid Aquariums and it seems happy. I think I'm going to give it one more go with the 'Strip tease' from WWC and try it under lower light. I want to get this dino problem under control first, however.