why wont acros and stoney stuff survive in my tank

[NewAlbanyReefer]

Ive done all the testing, changed my flow and stuff like acros and such just wanna die after awhile.  I bought a cool acro bright orange and green heads.  but today i noticed that there was some bleaching spots or die off.  I know that the tank at the lfs was having some alk and calc issues (very low) could it going into my tank where the stuff is at normal levels calc at 470 and alk at 9.2 be a shock to the coral.  I do a very slow aclimation however just dont know what it is.  Everything else as far as frogspawn and other soft corals do great.

I did have a nitrate iss (we think) gonna get a new test kit wednesday.

I just changed my lighting tonight so Im gonna see if that was part of the issue.

[Ashlar]

What other corals do you have in the tank? Many soft corals produce chemical compounds intended to keep other corals from growing- kind of like chemical warfare.

Do you run carbon? That can absorb some of these allelopathic compounds.

[Bluewater]

What kind of light are you running? Temp, Salinity Mag?

[entacmaea]

Acros are difficult corals to keep. How old is your system? Are you changing things often? Are you making several changes at the same time? (i.e. Lighting, flow) what is the bioload like? How often do you change your water?

+1 on softies conducting chemical warfare

They are extremely sensitive corals that take some years to master. I personally don't try to keep them for that reason...i like to keep BTAs though...so I'm willing to lose corals if one decides to take a stroll around the block.

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[entacmaea]

So I read that back and forth on RC before it got taken down. You have to realize that reefers are very serious about the living things we put in the tank. From what i have read of yours on cora, reeftools, cincyreef, lear, craigslist, and reefcentral, it doesn't seem like you have that same seriousness about the reefing culture. Personally, i don't have a reef as decoration, i have it as a chance to recreate the beauty of nature. Its a challenge to keep them all. I wouldn't drwam of attempting to keep a coral that i am not sure i can sustain. The fact that you had identified that you couldn't keep sps yet still purchased some and placed them in your tank shows a lack of respect for reefers, their imparted knowledge, and nature itself. Good luck to you. I'm sure you'll be keeping the lfs' in the black for as long as you decide to struggle through this hobby.

[Boonjob]

i like to keep BTAs though...so I'm willing to lose corals if one decides to take a stroll around the block.

 

The fact that you had identified that you couldn't keep sps yet still purchased some and placed them in your tank shows a lack of respect for reefers, their imparted knowledge, and nature itself.

I dont see a difference in either of these comments.

[entacmaea]

Touché...that's why I don't keep corals with my btas...that's the difference. My btas have their own species tank.

[Jon in SW Ohio]

My guess is you need more and stronger flow. For me, that was the magic ticket and one of the hardest things to define to someone else.

What I kinda deduced was:

Won't extend polyps and eventually STN= Not enough flow
Won't grow noticibly fast and some get darker colored= Not enough light
Colors fading= Alk/Ca issues
Turn brown= High nitrates/other water chemisty issues

[kattz]

If you want LPS and SPS, based on my research, unless really HUGE tank and really REALLY LOW amount of softies, give away or sell any softies to someone who will take care of them.  You will NOT see differences in SPS and LPS growth or recovery in days, and in many cases, WEEKS.  My tank is doing great now that I'm running huge amounts of GFO and carbon and set my LED's back about 10% on average about 3-4 months ago, and it has taken that long to recover.

If you think a coral is dead, take it out and smell it.  If it has even a faint odor of a health SPS/LPS, it may recover.  If no smell or is obviously dying like a large wellsy or something and polluting the tank, toss it.

Corals are not furniture, so stop rearranging things.

What Jon in SW Ohio said.

Kev

[Boonjob]

If you think a coral is dead, take it out and smell it

Ya, sounds odd.  Sunny as silly as it sounds, I really would pull it up and smell it

I did take him out and gave him the sniff test.  He didn't smell.  He's moving, just still looks the same

What's up with you people smelling things...   

Though I guess it does work great for my dog....... Hate to think how doctors determine if we are dead or healthy behind closed curtains.