Acan colony's dying!!!

by **newbie916** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:30 am

Hey guys,

I woke up this morning and my 65 head acan colony that I've had for a year is RTN ing. I moved my tank two months ago and it hasn't been the same since. The polyps aren't the deep red and white. It's more of a white, red, and grey. The polyps haven't fully extended and it's been eating very little. The little polyps seem to be doing fine and are taking mysis and krill, but the center larger polyps have been looking too hot. One of the center polyps just disintigrated this morning and it's just a skeleton. I just tested my water.

Ammonia:0
Phosphates:0
Nitrites:0
Nitrates:0
PH:8.2
Calcium: 490
KH: 12
SG:1.025

It's been in the same tank for the last three years and the bulbs were changed out about 6 months ago. It started with 2 polyps and last count was 60. There's 150 watt MH 14k Phoenix bulb, but it's been under MH's it's entire life. However, I did move it up a few inches and I moved it back down after noticing it's color was morphing.

Here are some pics.

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv20 ... 000367.jpg
http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv20 ... 000365.jpg

Should I do an Iodine dip or should I have the colony cut to save some of the healthy polyps? Thanks guys for the help.

Chris

by **fihsboy** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:06 pm

Personally....I would cut off the ones that were sick and try to salvage the healthy parts. I had an sps do the same thing. Half of it was lost to RTN but the half I cut off is in my tank as frags and still doing well. I would cut it off dip it and see how it goes.

by **gdeeber** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:33 pm

Do you have another tank to salvage the good heads? If not I do not see the point in breaking it apart because you will have the pieces in the same environment. Either treat the whole coral and see how it does or quarantine it or parts of it.

by **newbie916** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 1:37 pm

The colony is in my 24 gallon. I also have a 95 gallon reef that I could seperate the pieces. I was thinking the same thing. I noticed that a few of the other polyps are now starting to RTN. Time for emergency surgery.

Thanks,
Chris

by **blueshoes2208** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:18 pm

why not cut off the good ones, dip the good ones in iodine, and put them in the quarantine tank, i wish the hobby allowed us to have multiple quarantine tanks, then you could put the sick one in there by ittself, dip it in iodine nad see if it makes it. Coudl there be some disease going around??

by **newbie916** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 3:13 pm

I did an iodine dip yesterday and unfortunately the colony's still looking bad. I've lost three or four more polyps. However, some of the remaining polyps look healthy, so I think I'm definitely going to have to cut this rock up. Sucks because it was the centerpiece of my tank.. Oh well, I have a sweet gold speckled red acan frag that I'll replace it with. Hopefully it'll grow out as well.

Acan colony's dying!!!

6 posts