Acro Tissue Recession

[Syntax]

I have a relatively new tank of 3 months. I started with seeded seachem matrix and dry rock, it’s bare bottom too. The tank cycled fast and I put some “test” corals in at around week 3. Things were good, growth was almost nonexistent, but colors were good.

Slowly some of the acros started showing tissue recession from the tips. I test often and alk has been steady, consumption very slow. I performed my first 20% water change and and the acros began to recover, growing over algae covered tips! I decided to send in an icp test to see why the water change seemed to help. I was surprised at how low some of the trace elements were, given that I just performed a water change several days before.

I have high aluminum, not sure of the source. But some of the trace elements are non existent.

Maybe I had some bad buckets of salt? I’m using Brightwell Marine. Here’s a link to my test results.

Any thoughts?

Shared Results · Reef Labs Portal

 

[tkyee98]

What about lighting and flow conditions? How often are water changes being done? What brand of dry rock did you use? Is all the equipment new?

Chemistry And The Aquarium: Aluminum In The Reef Aquarium

In this article I will give some details of aluminum in natural seawater, and will discuss the sparse literature on the toxicity of aluminum ions to marine organisms.

reefs.com

 

[Syntax]

What about lighting and flow conditions? How often are water changes being done? What brand of dry rock did you use? Is all the equipment new?

Good questions,

I have a 155 gallon 5x24x25 tank with a bean animal peninsula orientation. Flow is a rebuilt xf280 on one side and 2 mp40’s on the other. I have about 75 lbs of macro rock from brs, 20 lbs of kp rock and some crushed coral in my sump seeded with a container of Aquabiomics live sand.

Lighting is 2 reef brite 250 watt 20k halides with the blue xho strips

I just completed my second water change two days ago…. I went about 2.5 months before changing the water.

All equipment is new or rebuilt. The magnets on the gyre are in good condition. The dry side magnets are in the overflow box but I wrapped them using a food saver vacuum device.

 

[dz6t]

First of all welcome back to the hobby.
Since the acro are receding from the tips, it is most likely caused by the lights. If you have UV shields on the halide fixture using DE bulbs, check the UV shields to see if they are tempered glass. I have seen replacement UV shields made out of regular glass which do not block UV as effective.
If you are using SE halide bulbs, the bulbs themselves won’t shield UV effective enough, you may want to add UV shields under them.

 

[Syntax]

First of all welcome back to the hobby.
Since the acro are receding from the tips, it is most likely caused by the lights. If you have UV shields on the halide fixture using DE bulbs, check the UV shields to see if they are tempered glass. I have seen replacement UV shields made out of regular glass which do not block UV as effective.
If you are using SE halide bulbs, the bulbs themselves won’t shield UV effective enough, you may want to add UV shields under them.

Thanks Dong. Nice seeing you at Fragsgiving.

I have SE halides and used these same lights on my last tank without issue. I bought them new from Premium Aquatics so they have the original shields. I wonder if the aluminum can cause an issue?

 

[Syntax]

Here’s a picture from Nov 2 and one from this morning. The first picture was taken before the tips lost tissue, it got worse and now looks like the second picture. The coral is definitely improving. Whatever was going on is correcting itself…. Low trace a cause? High aluminum a cause? Recent water change helped?

 

[scavdog]

Your tank is young. Some might disagree, but given that the tank was cycled using dry rock I'd be wary of acropora as they can be finicky. Montipora and some other "less sensitive" sps might be a better bet until things really start to mature. I had a similar experience last year... and I knew better... Now that the tank has matured 1+yrs, everything is stable and happy.

 

[scavdog]

Good questions,

I have a 155 gallon 5x24x25 tank with a bean animal peninsula orientation. Flow is a rebuilt xf280 on one side and 2 mp40’s on the other. I have about 75 lbs of macro rock from brs, 20 lbs of kp rock and some crushed coral in my sump seeded with a container of Aquabiomics live sand.

Lighting is 2 reef brite 250 watt 20k halides with the blue xho strips

I just completed my second water change two days ago…. I went about 2.5 months before changing the water.

All equipment is new or rebuilt. The magnets on the gyre are in good condition. The dry side magnets are in the overflow box but I wrapped them using a food saver vacuum device.

I like the idea of wrapping the magnets. Did you use a standard food saver bag or something different?

Joe

 

[Syntax]

I like the idea of wrapping the magnets. Did you use a standard food saver bag or something different?

Joe

Standard food saver bag material.

 

[Syntax]

Your tank is young. Some might disagree, but given that the tank was cycled using dry rock I'd be wary of acropora as they can be finicky. Montipora and some other "less sensitive" sps might be a better bet until things really start to mature. I had a similar experience last year... and I knew better... Now that the tank has matured 1+yrs, everything is stable and happy.

Thank you for your comments. The whole young vs mature tank has been debated countless times with people having success and failures with both. Who knows, right?

I posted this here in the chemistry forum to see if my aluminum or other low trace elements could be contributing to the cause. It’s all so complicated.

Thank you again for your comments

 

[ReefAddict]

Most those trace elements are very hard to detect at such miniscule amounts. I like how they say deficient as if there is a big problem going on. There likely is no issue.

As for the Aluminum my latest system had levels similar present for the first 2 years consistently and never caused any problem. It's not uncommon. I think mine came from my Marine pure blocks.

The tip stress is usually cause by too intense lighting and likely too low nutrients which again is common in a sub 2-year tank.

 

[Syntax]

The tip stress is usually cause by too intense lighting and likely too low nutrients which again is common in a sub 2-year tank.

My Nitrates are around 10 and there seems to be plenty of phosphate in the water; however, i am 46 days into a fallow period due to some fish illness.

I don’t understand why things are improving. The only thing I’ve changed is completing a 20% water change.

It would be nice to understand what is going on so I can avoid the same issue from happening again.

 

[dz6t]

My guess is the dry rock. Are they manmade rocks?
There might be some contamination on the dry rock that leach into the water and water change diluted the containment.
For aluminum, are you using any ceramic media?

 

[Syntax]

My guess is the dry rock. Are they manmade rocks?
There might be some contamination on the dry rock that leach into the water and water change diluted the containment.
For aluminum, are you using any ceramic media?

Thanks for the questions Dong. I’m using around 65lbs of macro rock that I purchased new from Bulk Reef Supply a round six months before I set up the tank, I believe it is a natural product. I soaked the rock in RO for a few months changing the water every few weeks.

I did add about 20lbs of the Carib Sea Rock, that is manmade.

I’m using about a liter of Seachem Matrix in a phosban 550 along with a marine pure block In my refugium. I’ve used the same Matrix media for my last build and never had an aluminum issue. I recently removed the marine pure block.

So it seems it could be lights, aluminum, nutrients, or contaminants in man made rock. This hobby is really baffling at times.

I appreciate everyone’s comments. Thank you all for taking the time to read and/or respond.

 

[Syntax]

Just a quick update: The frags all have good color and some are starting to encrust. Things seem to have resolved. Knock on wood.