Bleaching and hermits

[sroot17]

Picked up two acropora frags from live Aquaria 3 weeks ago. One bleached out with 10 days. Today I came home from work and the second is nearly white after showing no signs yesterday. Note they are bleaching from the bottom up.

As soon as they turn white my hermits and snails are all over them!

My parameters are all good but I must have some phosphates as I am battling green hair algae. Salifert po4 test kit still shows zero!

What could be causing the bleaching and why are my hermits suddenly so attracted to them? I know phos can be a problem but always thought that undetectable levels are ok for sps. All my other sps and lps are thriving.

 

[wonderballz]

I think that when they are stressed, and slime, that is what attracts fish and inverts to eat them. not sure how true that is, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in.

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[Mattl22]

We need way more info to help u ! List everything u can think of about ur tank! Most important cal, alk, temp,ph salinity

 

[Mattl22]

I saw u said ur parameters r good but how stable r they ? How r u dosing? How much temp swing etc...

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

You could have flat worms also..really inspect your frags and give them a dip as a precaution even if you don't see anything on them. But definitely inspect for a few minutes see if anything moves also look at the plugs. Holes in the plugs is a sign also a hiding spot.

 

[duke62]

sounds like rtn.the hermits will attack your corals when they smell your corals dieing.what type of acros were they.sounds like your system is not stable.your probably having all types of swings causing your sps to die off.what kind of fish are in your tank and how many.what is your filtration like.how do you do water changes and what size system do you have.size of main tank and sump

 

[sroot17]

50g display
20g sump/fuge which cheato
4x39w t5 with 30 wat all blue LED strip
1mp10 and 1 hydro 1060 for flow
reef ocoto skimmer
brs carbon and gfo dual reactor

parameters
sg 1.024
ph 7.9
mag 1280
cal 370
alk 7
no2 - 0
no3 - 0
amm - 0
temp - 79
po4 - 0 hard to tell but must have some low range due to hair algae

2 percula clowns
2 pj cardinals
1 blue dot goby

bunch of hermits and snails, 2 sand sifting starfish and a brittle star and a peppermint shrimp

 

[duke62]

well your calcium is way to low.it should be around 430.your alk is a little low as well try for 8 or 9 reange.you probably have a more po4 then you think..SPS love there water quality very stable and on point.

 

[Mattl22]

Also bring ur salinity up to 1.026 and keep it stable with ato!
Ur ph is also a bit low
U need to get ur parameters set ur close just need some tweaking when u get them perfect then u need to learn how to keep the stable
I use a cal reactor but if I where to do it over would defiantly use a doser. And esv 2 part ! Once set it will keep ur cal and alk dead on ! The other thing I would do is get urself a controller for ur temp ! Keeping the temp from getting too high will help!

 

[sroot17]

Also bring ur salinity up to 1.026 and keep it stable with ato!
Ur ph is also a bit low
U need to get ur parameters set ur close just need some tweaking when u get them perfect then u need to learn how to keep the stable
I use a cal reactor but if I where to do it over would defiantly use a doser. And esv 2 part ! Once set it will keep ur cal and alk dead on ! The other thing I would do is get urself a controller for ur temp ! Keeping the temp from getting too high will help!

My salinity is stable at 1.024 using a reef fanatic ato.
I does brs 2 part and Kent mag manually, will be adding dosers soon.
Been having a hard time getting my ph up. Have some kalk on the way which I'm going to dose via my ato. will see if that helps.

I run fans on my display which keeps my temp stable for the most part. Neptune and chiller one day....

Thanks for the advice


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