Acropora Bleaching

[amarti2038]

Hello everyone

I was given this piece of acropora the other day and in two days it started to bleach. I think it is because it lacks PAR but I am not sure, in this location there is around 250-260. I post you the parameters. Do you think I can do something to save it?
Thanks for your advice!

 

[SPS2020]

Kind of tough to see from the picture, but it looks like it has lost tissue in those areas. If so, there's not much chance of that coming back. My best advice would be to try to frag any pieces above those areas and mount in a different location.

 

[Jones375]

Agree with frag and try to save what you can

 

[Dburr1014]

Cut only healthy tissue, none that is dead, and mount.

Numbers look okay, par may be good. I say may, 250 is bottom end but if the length of time is longer it's fine.

 

[amarti2038]

Cut only healthy tissue, none that is dead, and mount.

Numbers look okay, par may be good. I say may, 250 is bottom end but if the length of time is longer it's fine.

Ok, I'm going to make frags and position them with the magnet as high as I can to see if I can save any of them. The illumination would have to be improved, but I do not know what to put that is moderately powerful and at the same time aesthetic without having to break the bank.
The program I have is the following, it has always worked well for me, but the acroporas are always more exigent, maybe they are too many hours exposed. Would you reduce it? or leave it like that?

 

[SPS2020]

Ok, I'm going to make frags and position them with the magnet as high as I can to see if I can save any of them. The illumination would have to be improved, but I do not know what to put that is moderately powerful and at the same time aesthetic without having to break the bank.
The program I have is the following, it has always worked well for me, but the acroporas are always more exigent, maybe they are too many hours exposed. Would you reduce it? or leave it like that?

How many other Acros do you have and how long have you had them? If you have been successfully keeping them for a while, I would hesitate to make any changes.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

An acropora frag that RTN’s 2 days after introduction into a tank is probably not light related. Just the stress of being manipulated and introduced into a new environment can trigger tissue loss, especially if the reef is fairly new ( less than 2 years old). I certainly lost a lot of Acropora frags this way, even when I had some SPS doing OK. I just took the loss and plowed through the maturation process. I resisted making changes.

That being said, for Acropora success more light is better than less!

 

[amarti2038]

An acropora frag that RTN’s 2 days after introduction into a tank is probably not light related. Just the stress of being manipulated and introduced into a new environment can trigger tissue loss, especially if the reef is fairly new ( less than 2 years old). I certainly lost a lot of Acropora frags this way, even when I had some SPS doing OK. I just took the loss and plowed through the maturation process. I resisted making changes.

That being said, for Acropora success more light is better than less!

Yes, the aquarium has been running for 11 months and the parameters have recently stabilized. I started it with dead reef rock and then added live rock from another aquarium. I started with an aquarium starter kit with meiliofauna, copepods eggs etc. It is full of copepods and sprinoid snails, filter worms and pineapple sponges. I do one water change a month of 30% (its a 55 Gallon aquarium). It seems to be going well, I have SPS for months and they are growing. The acroporas I caught them all the other day, I bought three small frags and they gave me the one that now has RTN, the others seem to be doing well, but it is too early to tell. Today one had the polyps a little bit extended. I dose all 4 reef during the day and kalkwasser at night. For nitrates NoPox and Red Sea AB+ + plankton from fauna marin.

Which par would be the right 300? How many hours a day? 11hours?

I pass you a photo of the frag.

With that PAR levels would you upgrade the lights? I bought cheap two Red Sea Leds 90 second hand (they have now around 3-4 years). Some cheap suggestion?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Yes, if you want to keep acros you'll need more powerful lights. I get around 500 at the top and 250 at the bottom of my tank with an average around 350. For a mixed tank you're ok, but you'll likely only be able to keep really easy acros at the very top of your rocks.

 

[Ancient Mariner]

Yes, the aquarium has been running for 11 months and the parameters have recently stabilized. I started it with dead reef rock and then added live rock from another aquarium. I started with an aquarium starter kit with meiliofauna, copepods eggs etc. It is full of copepods and sprinoid snails, filter worms and pineapple sponges. I do one water change a month of 30% (its a 55 Gallon aquarium). It seems to be going well, I have SPS for months and they are growing. The acroporas I caught them all the other day, I bought three small frags and they gave me the one that now has RTN, the others seem to be doing well, but it is too early to tell. Today one had the polyps a little bit extended. I dose all 4 reef during the day and kalkwasser at night. For nitrates NoPox and Red Sea AB+ + plankton from fauna marin.

Which par would be the right 300? How many hours a day? 11hours?

I pass you a photo of the frag.

With that PAR levels would you upgrade the lights? I bought cheap two Red Sea Leds 90 second hand (they have now around 3-4 years). Some cheap suggestion?

Your reef looks very good! Looks like you have a purple stylophora that is thriving. I don’t have any specific recommendations for your current Acropora frags except to keep doing what you’re doing and see what happens. If this batch doesn’t make it, then maybe later try some lower light Acropora like A. carduus (red/ orange dragon) or A. yongeii (green Slimer). It might just take a little longer maturation before the environment is conducive for Acropora. More light is always an option now or certainly later if the lower light Acroporas still struggle. I don’t have any specific lighting recommendations as I am LED ignorant ( I blast my tank with 2 400watt metal halide bulbs for 8 hours a day with the Acroporas growing to the surface just 6 inches away from the bulbs!).

For me it was a lot of trial and error with a significant loss of frags. This isn’t an easy or cheap hobby!

 

[amarti2038]

If that's the way it is, you learn from the problems. The acroporas are also very demanding. It's almost a personal challenge, at the moment I'll see if I can get through some of the easy ones.
Thanks to all for the comments, let's see if the frags advance.
All the best!

 

[Dburr1014]

Ok, I'm going to make frags and position them with the magnet as high as I can to see if I can save any of them. The illumination would have to be improved, but I do not know what to put that is moderately powerful and at the same time aesthetic without having to break the bank.
The program I have is the following, it has always worked well for me, but the acroporas are always more exigent, maybe they are too many hours exposed. Would you reduce it? or leave it like that?

My system is doing about 350/400 par at the top.
3 hour ramp up, 6 hours at peak, 3 hours ramp down. During peak I have (4) t5 come on.

Looks like you have 9ish hours of peak. Should be fine.