Acans shrinking and exposing skeleton

[Mike628]

Just recently my acans have started to shrink, then the skeleton gets exposed, and they end up dead...I dont know whats going on...please help me! Ive attached a photo to show whats going on (sorry for the bad pic). My parameters are the following:

Calcium - 440
Dkh - a bit under 8
pH - 8.0
Nitrate - 0
Phosphate - 0
Salinity - 1.027

 

[Va_Reef]

How long does this process take after introduction?

Salinity is a tad high, 1.026 is the top end for me.

Could be something picking at it or too much flow.

 

[Ljaus]

Did you feed them or broadcast feed your tank?

What is your lighting, light period?

Where are they placed in the tank?

 

[Tori]

Following! I'm having a similar issue. My salinity got up to 1.028 but maybe it's just a coincidence. I've since lowered it back to 1.026 so we'll see if that helps.

 

[Rick.45cal]

0 Nitrate and 0 phosphate could be the culprit. My friend who's house contains a wicked amount of CO2 also had acans disappear exactly like that.

What are you doing for nutrient management? Do you run a refugium with a reverse lighting schedule?

 

[alexgray1122]

Salinity is high. I would go back down to 1.024-1.025

 

[Jimbo662]

Mine do that when the phos / nitrates are too low. They like the water a little dirtier.

 

[AcroNem]

Salinity is not too high, I run mine at 1.026/7 and everything is fine, others run higher than that, reefs where a lot of our coral comes from is 1.028. As I'm always saying don't chase someone else's numbers, just make sure yours are stable. If you aren't feeding your acans that's more than likely the problem, they originally come from very turbid waters and do better when fed often.

 

[Mike628]

How long does this process take after introduction?

Salinity is a tad high, 1.026 is the top end for me.

Could be something picking at it or too much flow.

They've been in my tank for a few months

 

[Mike628]

Did you feed them or broadcast feed your tank?

What is your lighting, light period?

Where are they placed in the tank?

I have a Kessil A160WE Tuna Blue at about 25% intensity and they are on the sand bed with little to moderate flow

 

[Mike628]

0 Nitrate and 0 phosphate could be the culprit. My friend who's house contains a wicked amount of CO2 also had acans disappear exactly like that.

What are you doing for nutrient management? Do you run a refugium with a reverse lighting schedule?

I have a 29 gallon biocube with no top on it. I do not run anything for nutrient management

 

[Mike628]

Also I've been having some trouble with my hammers. They haven't been opening as much and I dont know why...

 

[Ljaus]

Can also be too little of light. What percentage spectrum are you running? What size is your tank? How high is the light off the water?

 

[Mike628]

My tank is 29 gallons, I run like a 50/50 percent white/blue mix, and my light is about 6 inches from the surface of the water

 

[Rick.45cal]

I'm going with too little light, too little nitrates, and too little phosphates! Increase all three incrementally and magic will happen!

 

[AcroNem]

I don't think lighting is the issue, those usually manifest themselves fairly quickly. If you're just barely having issues it's something different, one of your parameters swung too quickly, something you haven't seen yet. You said your salinity is 1.027sg and that's fine but has it been there for some time? Now for temperature, has that been stable too? If you're having issues with other corals that could be swinging, being winter now where I am we aren't used to checking heaters now and we don't see for a few days that it's too cold.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Mine do that when the phos / nitrates are too low. They like the water a little dirtier.

Salinity is not too high, I run mine at 1.026/7 and everything is fine, others run higher than that, reefs where a lot of our coral comes from is 1.028. As I'm always saying don't chase someone else's numbers, just make sure yours are stable. If you aren't feeding your acans that's more than likely the problem, they originally come from very turbid waters and do better when fed often.

Also I've been having some trouble with my hammers. They haven't been opening as much and I dont know why...

Can also be too little of light. What percentage spectrum are you running? What size is your tank? How high is the light off the water?

Id say we might even add all three of these.

 

[Mike628]

I don't think lighting is the issue, those usually manifest themselves fairly quickly. If you're just barely having issues it's something different, one of your parameters swung too quickly, something you haven't seen yet. You said your salinity is 1.027sg and that's fine but has it been there for some time? Now for temperature, has that been stable too? If you're having issues with other corals that could be swinging, being winter now where I am we aren't used to checking heaters now and we don't see for a few days that it's too cold.

The temperature swings a bit. Many degrees up or down between day and night. I never thought of that...

 

[AcroNem]

I'd start with getting that stable. Small, slow changes are key. You've been given many ideas don't go trying them all at once you'll do more harm than good.

 

[reefguyty]

I've ran into a similar issue. I think mine started receding when I stopped target feeding them and lowered the overall nutrients in the tank. I started target feeding them again and it looks like they are all improving.

I've had the same amount of light when they were thriving and receding. I've been running t5's 7 hours a day.