Whats wrong with my efflo ??

[FWC]

So over the past few weeks my efflo has been going down hill.

Its been sending out stress slime ,and its polyps have been extending less and less. Now there are little white areas on it.

What is wrong with it ,and how do I fix it ??

Its the purpleish brown one.

http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj404/Fishy-Boy/DSCF5270.jpg

http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj404/Fishy-Boy/DSCF5271.jpg

http://i554.photobucket.com/albums/jj404/Fishy-Boy/DSCF5272.jpg

[Aquattro]

Need all tank parameters, lighting, age of bulbs, how long have you had the piece, has it grown during that time, have polyps been out, type of flow hitting it.

[Bblinks]

Also what kind of white spots and how small are we talking about? How are the other acros?

[FWC]

Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: I'll test for it tomorrow.

Salinity is at 2.025

Running dual T5's ,bulbs are hagen brand ,and about 8 months old (Ya ,its time for a change)

I've had the efflo for a good 5 months at least ,yes ,it has grown a bit since I got it ,had killer polyp extension up until a few weeks ago .I have a 425 gph powerhead near it.

The sps around it is all doing fine ,its just the efflo and a peice of acro growing on the other side of the tank. It looks similar ,however it is smaller on the acro.

The spots look like the tissue is damaged/ripping off. Also their pretty small :P

Could it perhaps be emerald crabs ?? I only put them in a few weeks ago (the tissue damage started to show around that time) I dunno. I just really want this efflo to live.

[Aquattro]

If it were mine, I'd do a reasonable(not too big) water change and replace the bulbs. Make sure there is no direct flow hitting it. Probably not the crabs.

Ca and alk levels would help too

[FWC]

Ya ,I have hanna testers for alk and Ca ,but I don't really have the RO water to use with them :o

However a water and bulb change are quite do-able.

Its not under direct flow ,and has done quite well and the spot until now ,so I'm stumped as to what it might be.

[Aquattro]

I have a coral that would fade over a couple of days when the bulbs needed changing. Could be that. Start there, see if it helps. Don't over expose it, and don't change too much water, the coral is compromised, so nothing drastic

[reefermadness]

Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: 0
Ammonia: 0
pH: I'll test for it tomorrow.

Salinity is at 2.025

Running dual T5's ,bulbs are hagen brand ,and about 8 months old (Ya ,its time for a change)

I've had the efflo for a good 5 months at least ,yes ,it has grown a bit since I got it ,had killer polyp extension up until a few weeks ago .I have a 425 gph powerhead near it.

The sps around it is all doing fine ,its just the efflo and a peice of acro growing on the other side of the tank. It looks similar ,however it is smaller on the acro.

The spots look like the tissue is damaged/ripping off. Also their pretty small :P

Could it perhaps be emerald crabs ?? I only put them in a few weeks ago (the tissue damage started to show around that time) I dunno. I just really want this efflo to live.
The sps around it also look in poor condition from what i can tell. Perhaps something or things aren't quite right for sps success.

[Aquattro]

The sps around it also look in poor condition from what i can tell. Perhaps something or things aren't quite right for sps success.

Agreed.

[dreef]

When i see tip damage on my sps,i have found that my mag was to low..below a 1000.Got the mag up to 1400 and the tips healed and everything started growing again.

[FWC]

Yes ,the SPS around doesn't look the best ,the lighter piece was just introduced to the tank a few hours before hand. The milli beside did suffer some tissue damage at the base ,however it has good polyp extension and has been growing well.

Also that sounds like something to check for. I'll for to go out and buy a magnesium test. Thanks :)

[ScubaSteve]

In addition to new lights, when I see white spots like that a few things come to mind:

-Super low nutrients (ie. excessive biopellets). Basically it's starving. But seeing that the other corals around it are not super hot, I don't think this is the issue.

-Alk fluctuations. How are you topping up your calc and alk? It looks like the swings might be too large.

-New GFO. I've had a couple of colonies go belly up on me if I change too much GFO at once. The process by which they depart sound similar to what you are seeing and takes a few days to a week. The GFO, in addition to dropping phosphates to very low levels, can cause other parameter fluctuations which can take out more sensitive corals.

Based on what I see there, I'm putting my money on a parameter fluctuation; probably alk but it could be any one of them.

[Stones]

As dreef already mentioned, check to see what your Mg levels are at as STN from the tips down is often associated with a Mg shortage.

Running only a 2 bulb T5 fixture is likely also not enough light for your aquarium. To sucessfully maintain SPS under T5's, most people typically run either 6, 8 or 12 bulb fixtures. Personally, I feel that a 6 bulb fixture would be a little on the weak side to keep SPS happy and healthy.

Also, I'm pretty sure that you've misidentified your Acropora. An A. efflorescens is one of the few plating species of Acropora and typically looks like this:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g47/prestieb/Aefflorescens2.jpg

They are an extremely sensitive and tempermental species of acropora that often take years to color up and can sit for prolonged periods of time without growing or changing color. They brown out from changes in nutrient levels, changes in light or rapid changes in alkalinty very easily as well.

[FWC]

Thanks for the advice everyone :)

I'm not sure if it really is an efflo ,I bought it as a "blue rim efflo" ,so thats what I've been calling it.

So pretty much it sounds like I need to do the following to get my efflo (and sps in general) back into tip top shape:

-Add more lights. I've been wanting to do this for quite a while. I was thinking four T5's with two LED strips.

-Make sure to test/dose accordingly for Cal/Mag/Alk

-Keep up on water changes.

Also I did add GFO to my tank for the first time in a while about a week ago ,however when I was last using GFO in the tank I saw nothing like this with the coral.

Also my tanks not a low nutrient system by any means :p

[reefwars]

The sps around it also look in poor condition from what i can tell. Perhaps something or things aren't quite right for sps success.


agreed also, im thinking if you want to do an sps tank, the most important things are :

parameters, lights,flow and nutrients.....its very important to keep these in sync consistently to keep sps colored and thrieving.


basically your lights may be under powered, the flow to laminar and your tank parameters are constantly changing.

if your not using your test kits then you prob have no idea where your calcium and alk stand, so chances are they are fluctuating up and down with water changes:)

hope this helps:)



i woulld get to checking and logging my alk and calcium, i would run some gfo for phos and look into a flow and lighting upgrade.


perhaps starting with some easier sps will help as well as some of those are tuff to take care of under the best of conditions:)

[reefwars]

Thanks for the advice everyone :)

I'm not sure if it really is an efflo ,I bought it as a "blue rim efflo" ,so thats what I've been calling it.

So pretty much it sounds like I need to do the following to get my efflo (and sps in general) back into tip top shape:

-Add more lights. I've been wanting to do this for quite a while. I was thinking four T5's with two LED strips.

-Make sure to test/dose accordingly for Cal/Mag/Alk

-Keep up on water changes.

Also I did add GFO to my tank for the first time in a while about a week ago ,however when I was last using GFO in the tank I saw nothing like this with the coral.

Also my tanks not a low nutrient system by any means :p



your on the right track , i still would go for more powerfull lighting and flow.

the gfo needs to be rinsed clean through the reactor before it is used.

when you say by no means a low nutrient system what do you mean??

[reefwars]

also judging by the pics tank maturity may not be on your side??