[iwannafish83]

I purchased a brown acropora frag with green tips from a LFS about a week ago. I placed the frag near the surface in my tank in similar conditions to what I saw in the store except for lighting. I have approx 4.5 watts per gallon of PC lighting with good current flow. I have kept montipora digita before and remember seeing some polyp expansion during the day but I don't see any polyps on my acro frag day or night. The only information I can find is about general care for sps corals. I was wondering if anyone might have pics or advice/methods on how to tell if my frag is still alive. It has not changed color since I first placed it in the tank and it still fluoresces under acitinic light. Please Help!!!

 

[daytonight]

congrats on ur acro frag

the frag may take time to color up if it is still brown then it is still alive most sps when they die will turn white from what i have seen also keep in mind most acro's require alot of light and color up better under metal halides just give it time to see if it adjusts to ur lights some acro's never gain the color that they should have good luck
randy

 

[sean]

If it is not opening up, it is probably not happy. So he will either adjust and open up after time, or he might start bleaching sooner or later if he cant adjust. Its a 50/50 on the digi's they are probably the hardiest sps, but some just dont fare well on lower light. Some people will tell you that if you have 5 watts a gallon you will be fine. But i have learned thats a useless way to measure. SPS's need intensity, and a lot of the time pc doesnt give it too them, and halides is what gives them that intensity.

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Could you answer the following questions? If so I think we may be able to help.

1. What is the tank size in gallons?
2. What is there for water motion (specifically)?
3. What other corals are in the tank (as specifically as possible)?
4. How long has this tank been established?
5. What precisly is the lighting?
6. What are the measured values for the following and how are you measuring them?

1. Salinty
2. Temperature
3. KH
4. Nitrate
5. Phosphate

7. Any other info you think may be relevent.

Cheers,

-Chris

 

[C.S.]

i have a acro similar to that and it is in a 20 with 110 watts pc over it may be 4 to 6 inches away from the light and that seems to be enough. but any less then that i dont think it will make it especialy if the polops are not comming out. may be bu y a new bulb or clean your reflector? if that isnt it the it might be your water.

 

[tszetela]

The best way to see if an acro is alive is the sniff test!
Pull it out of the water and smell it!
OOooooo OOoooo That smell.....
Can't you smell that smell.......

 

[iwannafish83]

And here are the stats

This is attempt #3 at posting my reply ...

1-18 gallons

2-2 800gph RIO powerheads indirect water flow

3-
4" pagoda cup coral
6" green star polyp mat colony
20" purple sea whip gorgonian
4" green bubble anemone
4" green birdsnest coral
5 assorted mushrooms
1 small pumping xenia stalk
various zoanthid colonies
all doing quite well

4-11 months

5-1 40W 10k/6.5k PC bulb 815AM to 6PM
1 40W 420/460nm PC bulb 8AM to 10PM
2 1W white moonlights 24hrs.

6-1 1.023 measured using deep six float box
6-2 78°F +- 2° over the course of the day
6-3 KH not monitored/measured
6-4 Nitrate 0ppm by Seachem test kit
6-5 Phosphates 0ppm by seachem test kit

7-I dose 6cc of TECH CB two part solution every morning
I feed the tank 10cc of DT's Phytoplankton twice a week

I hope you can help.

I will try to post a tank pic sometime withing the next week.

Thanks for the reply to my post.
Michael Mandziuk

Could you answer the following questions? If so I think we may be able to help.

1. What is the tank size in gallons?
2. What is there for water motion (specifically)?
3. What other corals are in the tank (as specifically as possible)?
4. How long has this tank been established?
5. What precisly is the lighting?
6. What are the measured values for the following and how are you measuring them?

1. Salinty
2. Temperature
3. KH
4. Nitrate
5. Phosphate

7. Any other info you think may be relevent.

Cheers,

-Chris

 

[MCsaxmaster]

Two things:

The salinity of a reef tank should be not less than 1.025. I'm not sure exactly where people got the idea that 1.023 (or even lower) was appropriate, but it can be a deadly mistake. Coral reefs simply do not form (to any large degree) where the salinity is lower than this. Also, my experience with most hydrometers is not only that they are inaccurate, they usually give a false high reading (though it varies). This means that the salinity might be even lower than 1.023. You're in Clinton township, correct? Is this in Clinton county? I forget. In any event, I would recommend getting that calibrated against a refractometer. It may be eye-opening to see how far off it really is. I know they do that at Preuss Animal House in Haslett too.

Second, you really need to test KH. It can change quickly and is vital to the functioning of your tank. The test is super easy and really cheap too (usually $10 or less). The KH should read at least 8 or so and 10-12 tends to work much better (in meq/l that's at least 2.9 with 3.5-4.5 as better). I'd say let's focus on fixing those two things this weekend. Post some pics of the whole tank and some closeups of the frag if possible. Once those two are taken care of we can see if anything else needs to be adjusted.

One last thing: what is the scale like for the seachem nitrate and phosphate test kits? That is, what are the low levels of detection (e.g. 5 ppm vs. 0.5 ppm vs. 0.05 ppm)? I use Salifert nitrate and phosphate test kits and am unfamiliar with the level of detection of the seachem.

Cheers,

-Chris

 

[shermlock]

I agree with tszetela, the smell test will tell you if it is alive or not. It should smell like death with a touch of sweetness.
Scott

 

[iwannafish83]

Hmmm ... it smells ok ...

I believe the frag has passed the smell test. I pulled it out of the water for a few seconds and it smelled salty but nothing past that.

I purchased two new tests both from Nutrafin/Hagen for nitrate and phosphate and I plan on getting a KH test some time this week. The levels still read 0 on both tests. The low level for nitrate, above 0, is 5mg/L. The low level for phosphate, above 0, is .25mg/L.

Clinton Township is in Macomb County around 17 mile and Garfield road.

The hydrometer that I have has a certified calibration sticker from the manufacturer but I'll still try to get a cal vs. a refractometer. I keep my tank at 1.023 based on advice from the TFH Aquarium Corals book by Eric Borneman. My salinity does vary slightly due to evaporation and small tank size but is never allowed to go below 1.023. The evaporation causes a rise in salinity as is to be expected so I can set a low limit for salt content but sometimes find the salinity to have increased after a day or so.

I'm still working on getting some decent tank pics.

Thanks again,
Michael Mandziuk

 

[Planecrazy]

According to Borneman (Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History p.349) "The specific gravity of natural seawater with a salinity of 35 ppt is 1.027; this is a target to keep in mind for a reef aquarium. (Note that readings from glass hydrometers calibrated at fixed temperatures must be corrected for temperature to obtain the true specific gravity.)"

Just a tidbit I thought I'd share.

My questions would be how old are your lights and how often (and how much) do you change water? I've noticed that when I get behind on my water changes, my corals don't open nearly as well.

-Aaron