High Tide Aquatics

Acans receded

Krak256

Supporting Member
I recently came back from vacation and noticed that all my acans are shrunken and a few have receded, exposing skeleton. Meanwhile all my sps and other lps (euphyllia, Goni, and trachys) are open and happy.

What could be causing it? I just did a 30% water change and am running carbon.

Parameters are:
Salinity 1.026
Dkh: 8
Ca: 395
Mag:1335
No3: 5
Po4: 0.2 (a bit high)

I did noticed while I was gone, some of the filter feeders (tunicates I believe) died off. Not sure what caused it but I had quite a lot in my tank. Could that be the reason? Not sure what would cause them to die while I was gone for 2 weeks. Lack of feeding?
 
Possibly from the high phosphate which becomes toxic. When I had my nitrates bottom out and phosphates at 0.1, it wreaked havoc on my acros.
 
No nitrates is way worse than a moderate amount of phosphate ime
I don’t understand the part about toxicity?
My unscientific observation and trying to correlate it to the redfield ratio. I usually see people with high phosphates also have high nitrates. I'd consider 0.2ppm phosphate as high and 5ppm as low/medium. The sweet spot in my tank has been 0.1ppm phosphate to 10ppm nitrate. Toxic probably isn't the right word here.
 
Why would it have changed while he was gone if it’s the light?
In case something happened to the light settings or just a build up over time.

Major water params looked fine...if anything maybe too clean for acans. But sps are happy...which makes me thing not water related as they would be first to react.

Only other thing is ICP to confirm no hidden dangers in water. One of my tanks i run super dirty high phos, nitrates, everything... but all pieces in there particularly lps and softies grow like mad. So don't think phos or nitrate or feeding as the cause.
 
In case something happened to the light settings or just a build up over time.

Major water params looked fine...if anything maybe too clean for acans. But sps are happy...which makes me thing not water related as they would be first to react.

Only other thing is ICP to confirm no hidden dangers in water. One of my tanks i run super dirty high phos, nitrates, everything... but all pieces in there particularly lps and softies grow like mad. So don't think phos or nitrate or feeding as the cause.
hm, no lighting changes; still running on the same schedule
 
You can put them in my tank temporarily until they recover, if that helps. My acans are doing very well. You know where I live.
 
I had acans that were rock solid, and then I had a dino outbreak while out of town and lost multiple heads. That's a stretch, but if it were me I'd rotate in new carbon and do a water change.
 
Pretty much all the time. .2-.6 is my usual range for po4 and 30-80 is my nitrate levels. Corals love the nutrients, and any algae growth is quickly eaten by tangs and the rabbitfish,
Do you dose nitrates to have them so high? Mine are almost i existent acording to my salifer test kit and I do feed corals almost twice a week. My phosphates are around 0.15 - 0.2ppm
 
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