Need some Acro help

[good alex]

heres a little background. the tank has been running for 3 yrs, but ive only been keeping SPS for a month or so. i picked up an acropora frag last week that i was eyein for a while, nice and open. once i got home i temp acclimated for a half hour, checked for bugs and dropped it in. i still havent seen it open up since i got it. oh and the first 2 days i had it in the tank it was on the sandbed to prevent light shock. it currently is in the middle of the tank with a power head pointed in that direction.

 

[good alex]

i took a look at earlier today and there was a thin film of algae on it. is there anyway 2 save it. some tank details - 150g, three 250w 14k HQIs, ammonia/ nitrite/ nitrate/ phosphate 0, ph 8.3, calc 400, dkh 9, mg 1270. thanks for reading and sorry about the question being split in 2 im on a PSP using a neighbors internet.

 

[veni vidi vici]

How much flow do you have? I would try to get some more indirect flow on it and find the cause of the algae.Most SPS like strong indirect flow.

 

[nycbob]

what light was sps under at the lfs? most of the time, i dont find a need to light acclimate a sps if they came from similar lighting. having it on the sandbed might hv cause its demise.

 

[good alex]

for flow i have two mag 18s coming from the fuge. so that would be 3600gph and theres two maxi-jet 1200s in the tank, forgot what those are rated for. As far as lighting at the lfs i think it was under 150w. is there anyway to save it? forgot to add that i do water changes once a week 15g with ro/di and reef crystal salt.

 

[nycbob]

what r ur water parameters? calcium, alk and such? do remember though, that even experience reefers will hv a sps perished on him/her once in a while. maybe it could be a weak specimen to begin with.

 

[good alex]

see 2nd post for parameters. man its fustrating seein this thing die. i believe its a blue tip acro. the other SPS in the tank are doing great. you think i should take it out and try to take off the algae? or would that stress it to much and decrease its chance for survival.

 

[netimreefer]

I would try just taking a power head, and try blowing the algae off

 

[good alex]

i tryed that but nothing came off. there is one branch that dosent seem 2 have any algae on it. should i let it b or frag it.

 

[nycbob]

i'd frag it and save whatever good piece is left.

 

[good alex]

i fragged it and saved the good stalk as well as the branches that had algae on it, ya never kno, i might end up with more than one. heres a pic of the frag with algae on it.

 

[cichlidkid]

umm sorry to say, but all of the tissue has fallen off. It is, sorry to say, dead

 

[good alex]

really?? that sucks.

 

[nycbob]

from the look of it, it looks dead.

 

[netimreefer]

I agree, it looks dead to me as well

 

[darknes]

Was it white like that when you bought it?

 

[good alex]

no it looked to me like it was light blue with blue tips. but i guess that could have been the lighting they were under.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Do you have any pictures of the frag that did not have algae growing on it? Does that frag look the same as this one? Can you see polyps on the other one? Hopefully that one will do alright for you so that you can at least get something out of your purchase. Sorry about your coral though. That always sucks.

 

[good alex]

ill take some pics today and try to hit up the library 2morrow. the neighbor that let me use their computer yesterday is out of town.

 

[good alex]

srry im not gonna be able to post pics today, but just imagine the left side of the frag, its like the main stalk and the other branches branch off of it. i havent seen it open up yet.