My 55g 2.0

I have no experience with fkatworms, but plenty with Redbugs. They are really hard to see. They are copper colored and are about the size of a pinhead.

 

I doubt bugs are your problem Danny, although you have added a lot of new coral lately from what I can recall. I'm still on bored with lighting being the root cause.

 

I can tell you this about my recent find of red bugs. Neither my daughter or I could see them with the naked eye. If we had not taken the macro pics we would have never seen them until there was complete infestation.

Break out the magnify glass or something and take a good look at some of the corals with the least extension.

(Edit..In reference to my light theory below. Maybe my theory is just pertinent to newly purchased corals. If just the old established corals showing poor polyp extention and going from T5 to LED I can see where DSC and Civ are possibly on to something).

Will have to go back and look at original lights and what you added.

Could be light but I am still not sure I am buying that whole story(then again I am still running my white at 55%). There are still a good majority of LFS and Vendors utilizing the halide so if we are putting them into our tanks utilizing LED and running them at 50% there really should not be an issue(IMO without proof of crap, just a theory). I do not see how LED at 50% would match halide 100%.. am I wrong? Not saying you guys are wrong I am just starting to question this theory that is out there which I still adhere too. Also Even if Vendor using LED are they not running them 100%(I ask what a vendor uses and what they run lights at) our 50% should have an impact(again just theory and thoughts).

The last few times I purchased acros I acclimated 1 or 2 days max at bottom then literally straight to the top. No signs of bleaching, no issue polyp extension. A great cresting flow and all seem to do just fine.

Keep an eye on your Mag level also as the kalk is driving mine down (and it is driving my alk up). You could probably back off the amount(just a little) of kalk you are using which will help reduce those rates slightly. I have had to do this on mine.

 

was going back through your thread and found an interesting pic. could be nothing just color of coral but if you look there are a couple spots almost rust colored slightly darker than coral. They would have to be huge red bugs but maybe because of coral color they showed up?

Worth a look. Also I have great shot of some in thread I posted couple days ago(I am so lucky)

 

I'm sure it's a big debate and I'm only going on theory but a 150 watt halide would probably alot less then say a kessil at 50%. I'm thinking the spectrum, the way the light penetrates the water and hits the coral all play a role. I'm saying light being an issue because I noticed definite bleaching. Chris nailed it with that there can be a number of issues causing a bigger issue.

 

I am hoping bugs aren't the problem but when i get a chance today, I will take a look for piece of mind.

The alk and mag may be an issue as well. I have put a couple doses of Mag in since i noticed it was lower than it usually is and will be checking my parameters today and more than likely lowering my kalk concentration as you and Cheryl have suggested. The alk does seem to have crept up a smidge, maybe my acros are just not liking it that high.

If it is a lighting issue i am thinking more on the too low side, I don't know if that is how Civic is seeing it but it seems this is what DSC is talking about. Most of my acropora are frags from Civic's tank which were under halide. The one doing the worst took a long time to start encrusting and once it did start to, is when it started to recede its polyps. All but one of the Monti's were under t5 and are looking better than they were when i got them colorwise. The other monti is actually doing better than it has been in a while.

This piece i haven't had much trouble with other than it not growing so much but i will check it out closely.

I figure it is more than one thing because it usually is. I am hoping it is problems i can deal with.

I will update in a little bit.

 

Calcium 440
Alk 185 - 10.36
Mag 1350
SG 1.025
pH 8.34

The Mg is just a little higher than the 3:1 ration to Cal. Do you think it should be increased? I am adding rodi to my ATO/Kalk I figure since it is stable I will add a few gallons and retest the next few days to see how much it begins to drop to lower the alk a bit. I hope i don't mess up my calcium level too much doing this.

I looked all over my not so good corals and am seeing absolutely nothing on the flesh. The picture mentioned earlier was either more polyps in line with each other being blurred by the poor photo quality, or bugs which have moved on or are hiding.

I am still open to any suggestions anyone has, just wanting to update the parameters.

 

Mag is fine just watch for dips

is there any difference in placement of corals with poor extension vs those with good extension. Height in tank, flow??

Params look good to me. I still don't know the effect of running higher alk vs lower end.

 

The ones doing the worst are in the middle of the tank ( 2 fixtures, one per side) between the fixtures getting less light.

One which has lost the little amount of PE it had is directly under one of the lights maybe a little lower than the ones in the middle. There is nothing obstructing flow as they are on the top of the rockwork.

The ones under the other light are still doing well but are a little higher and a little more centered under the light.

 

One of my Montis which is showing the most growth right now is a little lower but in line with the Acro doing the worst.