Pink Acropora Millipora problems

[erid]

Hey Guys. I have an Acropora Millipora frag that I brought from Twinreef in NY about a month in a half ago(beautiful Coral). It was looking good fro about two weeks and then the Polyps retracted on me (or the little white hairs whatever you want to call them).

The base is growing steadily but I want my polyps back!
What are the requirements of this coral? It's skeletal structure still has the Burgundy color, but it just has a few brownish polyps, no white stigma looking things.

Any advice? What conditions do they like?

90 Gal with good flow, 2-150w Hqi & 2-130w PCs, o phosphates, 0 nitrates, Mg 1400, Cal 450, Ak 9.8 Dkh, & Ph 8.4.

 

[hayabusa2003]

here's a good article I bookmarked about Millis. http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/1096/1096_2.html
According to the article, the long hair-like tentacles aren't the polyps, they are actually stingers, so be careful. Milli's don't have visible polyps.

As for your tank, how much flow do you actually have? Milli's are found in reef crests in nature, so they're used to very high water movement. Those hair-like tentacles should be visibly moving around.

 

[erid]

That's just it. They looked good for two or three weeks then they went away... I'll check out the article. Thanks.

ER

 

[Phyl]

Check your nitrates and phosphates. Those are the things that greatly affect PE.

 

[erid]

Thanks Phyl. My RO/DI water reads 0 for Phosphates and my tank has 0 nitrates.

I may step up to more serious testing equipment. Carlo says that these tests are inaccurate; that's very frustrating.

What do you guys think about colorometers? Refractometers?

I'm doing some wet skimming as we speak. I'll grab some Phosphate removal media later.

Thanks,

ER

 

[Phyl]

There are many sources of PO4 rather than your RO/DI. Food, carbon, etc may all contain PO4, and unless you're actively removing it (remover, huge weekly water changes), there's a good chance you have it in your tank. The remover should help you there. I have the colorimeters for each and like them. PA sells them and they're available in the GB for 15% off.

 

[MikeNapoli]

I'm going to hijack a little bit.

I have 3 Millies and one of the three is the same way. I have a blue/orange millie that looks great. A gold Millie that looks great. And my ORA Nathans green millie ... looks like garbage. I almost took it out a couple of time cause I thought it was dead. It's nice and green and still smells alive and slimes up out of water but no "stingers".

Anyway I'm tagging along incase someone knows the answer to erid's question.

 

[JerseyWendy]

erid, is there any chance any of your fish are nipping/bothering the milli?

---
Wendy

 

[Carlo]

I may step up to more serious testing equipment. Carlo says that these tests are inaccurate; that's very frustrating.

Just to clarify. It's not that the tests are so bad it just that there are two different types of phosphates we need to worry about. One is organic and the other is inorganic. Typical test kits only measure one type. The 2nd problem in measuring phosphates is that while the test kit might do a good job it still might not tell the whole story. You can have algae in the tank that use the phosphates up as quickly as they are produced (or near it). So you test and get ZERO but there is still enough phosphates generally available in the water column to cause you grief with corals and/or nuisance algae.

This is one test where the eyeballs can do a better job. By that I mean if you see algae (hair, cyano, etc) in the tank you KNOW you have excess nutrients in the tank regardless of test results (nitrates and phosphates) because these two items are required for the algae growth.

Carlo