Help With Deepwater Acro

[viperfish]

I am running 250's and I have the Acro about 10" from the surface. Do you think I need more light? PO4 is undetectable. I am running RO and Purigen, between the two I manage to keep it in check. I am working on the Nitrates, I had a couple of dead spots in my tank so I changed the flow and hopefully that will make a difference. Mu other SPS are all doing fine.

[fkshiu]

If it is truly a "DEEP water" acro I'd move it to where there's less light such as DEEPer in your tank.

[Drock169]

I dont think less light is the solution in this case. They typically bleach out if they are getting too much light, not brown out. I would dip it in something like Revive, see if anything comes of the coral. Have a good look for at the base of the coral for little square bite marks on it. Because it's just a single colony affected, my guess is parasite.

[viperfish]

Originally Posted by Drock169

I dont think less light is the solution in this case. They typically bleach out if they are getting too much light, not brown out. I would dip it in something like Revive, see if anything comes of the coral. Have a good look for at the base of the coral for little square bite marks on it. Because it's just a single colony affected, my guess is parasite.

Sounds like excellent advice. I'll definitely check it out. Thanks.

[fishytime]

Could you post some more details about your system?.....how many gallons? what is your bio-load? what skimmer are you using?....how much and how often do you feed? 20ppm of nitrates is high (IMO) do you have any other acros?....if so how are they doing?

[Drock169]

I have done VSV (vodka sugar vinegar) dosing before and probably wouldnt recommended it. Worked well at the start but I ended up having some problems 8months to a year into it and resulted in some coral morality. I think the best cure for high nitrates is a large scale water change, ie a 50% water change to bring them down to 10. However if you do the large scale water change and they climb up to 20 again, it could mean your overstocked or overfeeding. Either way, I dont think the nitrates are the issue in the situation.

[viperfish]

I have just start a turf scrubber, it's still too new to see any results but I hear good things about it if the maintenance is kept up. The price is certainly right compared to a lot of the other methods being used.

[fishytime]

Ok a year old tank is definitely mature enough to handle SPS.....what are your other parameters? ( calcium,magnesium and DKH)

[viperfish]

Originally Posted by fkshiu

If it is truly a "DEEP water" acro I'd move it to where there's less light such as DEEPer in your tank.

I have tried that, and it made no difference. It is still an Acro. I just don't see it sitting at the same light level as my LPS, but my assumption may be wrong. As far as being a "truly" deep water Acro, I am just going on what I was told when I bought it. If I Google it, I don't get a whole lot of information to go on. I had just hoped that someone on here has gone through a similar situation. I know I need to work on my Nirates and a few folks on here are really sold on ZEO, but this hobby is expensive enough as it is without having to pump money into every latest and greatest remedy. There seems to be a million cures for nitrates, from ATS, to Vodka dosing, to reactors. It's tough sometimes to know which one is best.