Acan coral :/

My acan for the past two days has looked really crappy.. I don't know why, he is always really full and colorful and his feeder tentacles are always fully extended at night, for two nights they haven't been extended.
I have recently added a starfish, yellow choris wrasse and a cleaner shrimp I haven't seen any of near the acan

Prams:
SG 1.026 - maybe 0.27 (my refractometer is on the way )
PH 8.1
DKH 8
Phosphate- 0
Nitrate - 0
Calcium - 500 PPM

Im dong a water change right now as it was scheduled today !

 

If it was my tank and my corals were looking stressed and I was using a hydrometer I would bring down the SG to 1.025-1.024 over the course of 24 hours at most.

I once had a hydrometer that read 1.026 in actuality the SG was 1.031, double checked on a refractometer. Some hydrometers can be very accurate and some horrible. That is why if you are using one you should have 2 back up ones to double check SG.

 

Okay I will try that the candies are still looking stressed too, how should I reduce the SG over that time, I only have the hydrometer, my refractometer is on it way in the mail but I dont have any other way to double check it, this is when a friend in the hobby would be helpful!!!

 

Just add some fresh RO/DI water every couple hours. Just like a top off but more frequently, add it to the sump.

 

Just slowly add fresh ro/di water until you get the reading your looking for. Maybe take out a gallon of tank water and replace with fresh ro/di. This is what I do whenever I notice the salinity is too high.

edit: Corailline, jinx.

 

okay and I am in the middle of a water change as well anyways so I will lower that as well thanks for the help!

 

I wouldn't go monkeying with SG until you know if/how much it's off...hydrometers are notoriously inconsistent...one may read high, anther low, and occasionally even pretty close...stable SG, like everything else, is better than hitting a specific number...bouncing your SG around will cause more stress to animals than it being a bit low or a bit high...once you get your refractometer you can adjust the SG up or down slowly to where you want it...the water change alone may be enough to make your acans happy up.

 

I will see if the water change helps I suppose I dont really know what to do my bubble coral is as happy as ever and so are the zoas and SPS

 

I am a little confused.

You stated in your other thread about the candy can that you were doing a wc, that was last week, 7 days ago.

Does the candy cane look better since your last wc?

Sounds like you are doing too many water changes to me, if you are doing wc every week, unless you are changing 5% of the water on each wc.

If you are not going to get the refractometer in the near future I would invest the 6-8 dollars for another hydrometer and check one against the other.

 

Yea I did a 10% water change then, since the candy canes have looked better.. but still not as happy as they were(no feeder tentacles at night), today I have a 5 gal bucket to change out.

I ordered the refratcometer yesterday morning, but I still am thinking I will take a sample down to my LFS for testing anyways