Large acan slowly dying

[CaptainReefer]

I have a large Acan, about 100+ heads. I recently moved and had to take down and set up the tank. Because of time concerns I was forced to use prepared store bought salt water, I usually make my own with RO water and salt crystals. After setting up my tank, my apartment started having heating problems. At night the tank would sometimes dip below 70 and the roo
*temp was around 55 at times. The heat is stable now, but I'm starting to notice the flesh between the heads is disappearing and the heads are slowly dying and lifting off the skeleton and rock. It's only happening in two sections *on either side of the rock. What causes this? How can I save the rest? They
look fine in other places and they arefeeding just fine, even the dying ones. *

 

[anthony27]

how long ago did the temp. drop in the apprment. was that a month ago or 2 moths ago was it recent. also check to see if someting is stinging it on either side, or eating it

 

[rgun2515]

If it has been a while since the fluctuation in temperature, I would look at
position relative to lighting?

 

[CaptainReefer]

The temp fluctuations happened less then a month ago. When I set up the tank the corals were placed higher in the tank than the previous set up. Last week I redesigned the live rock so that the corals were lower in the tank, a bit lower than the original set up. I also noticed alot of white and lime green sponge like on the sides and underneath the acan. When I redid the set up I tried to cut out all the small sponge growths.

 

[thesauce]

Iodine dip and target feed.

 

[CaptainReefer]

I just got back in town after two days of being away. After a close inspection I started noticing that heads are seperating all over the coral, not just the side. Starting to get very worried. I wondering if I should find someone to help me frag. It's still eating. HELP !!!!!!

 

[CaptainReefer]

The heads are lifting up from the coral skeleton and them they slowly die off. The first sigh is the ripping of the flesh between the heads.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

What color is the skeleton of the part where the flesh die off? Is it red?

I personnally think it's infection. It's quite common in acan trade that the whole colony will eventually die if you do not frag them ASAP. The most trusted way by wholesalers are break them off right the way and keeping only a small portion of the good heads that are v e r y f a r a w a y from the part that's peeling.

 

[stedfast82]

frag it now i had it happen and saved some

 

[thesauce]

Go a little heavy on strontium in the recovery phase.

 

[rickytsui]

u might have meltting pot is there any black looking thingy by the dead part of the acan? u should try interceptor the tank . i had this meltting pot b4 when i start buying acan most of the wild acan will have it . go to rc and look for meltting pot good luck

 

[anthony27]

how is it going with the acan

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

u might have meltting pot is there any black looking thingy by the dead part of the acan? u should try interceptor the tank . i had this meltting pot b4 when i start buying acan most of the wild acan will have it . go to rc and look for meltting pot good luck

Ricky,

I was unable to find anything in RC(probably due to my stupidity or just too rare to use that site), can you post link of it when you ahve time?

 

[rickytsui]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1400291&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 here the link but is for chalices but acan can have melting pot also

 

[rickytsui]

btw for any more info on acan just type melting and search on lps forum

 

[bizarrecorals]

you don't have a heater in your tank? even if the home heater malfunctions, the heater in the tank should be able to stablize the temp. There can be a lot of other factors, hows you water perm? if you don't have a tilesaw or dremel around, just use a screw driver and hammer to frag, keep the acan on the bottom of the tank, away from current. If your water perm is not too bad, it should recover, is a tough coral to kill, if you don't check your iodine or strontium, do not overdose it.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1400291&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 here the link but is for chalices but acan can have melting pot also

Many thanks.

Was unable to finish the WHOLE LONG thread before falling asleep. LOL
I am up to where they started to try interceptor with initial results-hope I can jump to the conclusion. :sgrin:

BUT, it's VERY interesting read and I admire the cooperative spirit of the victims and others who chime in without blindly blaming on one thing or another(like bad water quality.) In fact, the thread inspired me to get an electronic microscope next time something like that happen to check whether micro organisms are involved.