so i got a glowstick acro frag as part of the dr mac group buy it had been doing excellent until this morning. i turned on my lights this morning and it appeared to have “peeled” all the grren is gone in the matter of a single night its crazy any ideas? i checked my parameters and everything is normal
Dam sorry
Did it start on the tips or on the base?
The tips I think. last night it looked healthy no bleaching and this morning the “skin” was hanging off the skeleton still bright green weirdest thing
[quote=“bsnow, post:1, topic:4781”]
i checked my parameters and everything is normal[/quote]
Everything? Salinity, pH, ORP, temp, PAR, flow, ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrate, Oxygen, Potassium, Phosphate, Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, Iron, Iodine, Boron, and everything else all tested normal for your aquarium based on that specific time of day? 
What do you test for and what is normal?
Images would be immensely helpful.
There are a ton of disease out there which can suddenly cause similar effects to what you describe, but hard to pin point with out seeing the coral(and even then not easy by far). Do you dip or QT new corals?
Do you have other Acropora in the tank doing well? Did you place it low in the tank to start so you didn’t photo-shock it?
lol i guess i didnt check everything. i checked temp, salinity, ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, calcium. i need to get phosphate and alk tests too.
my normal results are
temp 80+/-
salinity 1.0255
ph 8.2 ( a little higher normally 8.0 but just did a water change saturday so that might be why)
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
calcium 380
this is my first acro, i did place everything on the bottom to start and they stayed there for about 2-3 days before slowly moving up the tank and i shortened my light time a little to help them acclimate.
and it was an overnight thing, last night it looked like the healthiest coral in my tank (excluding the gsp) and this morning it looked like someone had peeled it before this morning it hadnt even bleached the tips or showed any sign of problems. i did not dip it maybe i should start doing that in the future
Read up a bit on dipping and QT with acropora. Nothing like building up to have a tank full of Acropora and after years of collection and work you bring home a raffle prize that has Acropora eating flat worms in it!
Calcium is a bit low. What do you test your salinity and pH with? Ever add any calcium or other supplements to the tank? I would highly recommend testing Alkalinity and Mg before purchasing any more stony corals(LPS or SPS). If budget is tight purchase an Alk test kit first then Mg and THEN corals, but don’t let coral purchases come before the other two. I like the Elos brand, I hate the salifert brand.(you’ll find plenty of opinions on test kits this is just mine)
Is there any polyps left on the animal? If so you may want to hit up an LFS tomorrow and look for TLF Revive.(just kind of a last chance, 911, try anything since we have no idea based on the info, and no photos) Maybe bring a water sample with you and see if they would be willing to test for the elements you left out which are critical for stony coral survival. (well MANY elements are critical, but these are the most likely to get off due to an imbalance of salt or being deposited by animals in the tank)
Good luck.
i just had the same thing happen to a mr coral frag that was doing good then it peeled some skin the next day it was white its a goner sorry to hear it. Heard this happens by elevated alk like an alk shock, but i’m sure theres other causes too.
Is there any particular way one should acclimate an acro to a new tank? Im going to start off with zoa’s and then maybe get into acro
Alkalinity is certainly the cause of similar symptoms and easily falls out of accepted range as well.
aonemarine
Zoas are a great way to start things off. Can keep them in as harsh of conditions as damsels.(not at all condoning keeping any animals in rough conditions, just saying they are super hardy)
To answer your question I temperature acclimate then put it in fairly low lighting and slowly increase the lighting. “Fairly low light” you should be able to define long before you consider purchasing an acro. It’s good you’re asking questions now.
Note to all, Acropora are not super hardy easy shippers regardless of any sales pitch you’ve ever heard. A great way to buy acros to start with is to look around your local reef club or ask the local stores if they have aquacultured animals. Animals that come from a genetic line kept in captivity for a while such as ORA, Dr. Mac’s private collection, Jason Fox, and others fetch a higher price, but are much hardier then cheap fresh cut wild collected animals. Some LFS carry Acropora and other animals that are locally grown so there is practically no shipping involved at all.
Would be nice if more people having success would frag corals and trade in the market place. Then we could really keep things “localâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ.
Big point I want to make is wild caught acros may land you an animal never seen before in captivity, but will more likely land you a white calcium carbonate stick. You can spend $5 here, $10 there and bring that cart up to free shipping, or visit a shop and spend the same money on an animal that will live for years to come. If you have ever looked at another person’s tank and said, “man I wish my tank looked like that”, well it’s 100% possible…without ever pulling a coral out of the wild. My two cents, food for thought.
ok now my coral banded shrimp is dead as well everything else is looking ok. guess i need to go get some more tests maybe this afternoon
[quote=“bsnow, post:10, topic:4781”]
ok now my coral banded shrimp is dead as well everything else is looking ok. guess i need to go get some more tests maybe this afternoon[/quote]
How long have you had the shrimp?
Had you ever seen it shed before?
ive had it for a bout a month and yes it had shed about a week after i got it
Shrimp, in my experience, are more delicate then most coral, fish, hermits, and many other animals. They are delicate little buggers.
How much does your salinity fluctuate in between top offs? What is the difference between night and day pH and temp? (highest and lowest) Stability of your chemistry can be as important, and at times even more important, then the exact numbers. You said temp was 80+/-, but if you are at 84 during the day and 78 at night that could be the issue.
salinity fluctuates very little. same as ph. temp is normally between 78-82. i ran and got an alk test and it was low about 3 meq/l but not sure if that is severely low or not
What do you use to measure your pH?
3 meq/l is high, but OK. I wouldn’t do anything to reduce it. I’m actually working on an article for my blog which explains why this is high, but I typically run my tanks at 2.5 meq/l or 7dKH. I know there is some literature out there that will state this is low, but I personally disagree.
BTW, most hobbyist seem to use dKH to describe their Alkalinity. 3meq/l is equal to ~8.5dKH.
Your alkalinity is not the issue. What percentage water change do you do? How long do you mix the water before adding? What is your tank size? What do you use to measure pH?
3 meq/l would be 8.4 dkh
ok thats high then? the test kit said it should be 4-5. i use an api kit for ph, the alk kit came with a ph test too so i will try it too. my tank is 46gal i did about a 10-15% change (7 or 8 gallons) i mix the water for a few minutes until it is all dissolved and not cloudy dont know if that is right or not
What other sps do you have in there? how are they doin?
IME acros are very very finicky, especially small frags, and even worse if they haven’t been “captive” too long.
I myself have had acros go downhill, while 2 ft away, in the same tank, a diff frag of the same exact acro is thriving. I’m still trying to learn, and figure it out myself, but from what i’ve seen, sometimes there is no answer.
It was my first acro all others are lps and soft
[quote=“Hudzon, post:16, topic:4781”]
3 meq/l would be 8.4 dkh[/quote]
[quote=“Gordonious, post:15, topic:4781”]
3meq/l is equal to ~8.5dKH. [/quote]
8.4 is ~ 8.5dKH… How accurate is your test kit? How tight of a range do you keep your alkalinity in.
bsnow. Again, what you have is perfectly fine. Hobbyist have kept thriving reef tanks with alkalinity anywhere from 6.5 to 12dKH. The important thing is stability. I say what you have is high because it is higher then what corals would experience in the wild, but many people say your levels are low because it is lower then what they keep.
Take home point I was trying to make is your alkalinity level is ok and there is no reason to change it at all. I actually would not at all recommend changing it at this point because something else is causing issues and it would be best to concentrate on figuring out what this is.
In my opinion you have no idea at all what your pH is. If you want you can run out and buy a third pH test kit and see how the three stack up. More then likely the chemical test kits will leave you with more questions then answers. They are horribly accurate and more harm the good.
You don’t change or turn off your flow at night time do you? May sound crazy, but I’ve talked with some people that thought it was best to have much lower flow at night time. Never stopped to consider the ocean doesn’t go stagnant at night time. Just throwing random info out there.
If it was just the acropora I would say it was diseased or overly stressed, but with the shrimp passing… I would look into things a little further.
Are you dosing any chemicals at all? If you aren’t testing for it I certainly wouldn’t recommend dosing anything at this point. Especially if you don’t understand 100% of what it is doing.(and not just what it says on the bottle)