AAAUUUGGHH! Melting Acans!

[Samhain]

So all was well and right in my little ocean. Levels have been checking out, and life was good. I added my Midas Blenny, Neo, and was feeding him daily. The recommendation was for twice daily feedings, but I've been hesitant to feed that often due to phosphate buildup. But things were seeming to be alright, levels were maintaining, and Neo was doing really well. Then this week I tested my water prior to my weekly 10% WC, and nitrates were 20 and phosphates were 1.0! I did my water change, tested two days later, and the levels were almost the same, plus two of my acan colonies looked like they were melting away. Another was pretty pitiful looking, withdrawn but not melting, and a fourth was looking like nothing was wrong.

I did an emergency 20% change last night, tested today, and nitrates were down to 10, phosphates were at 0.5. I have another emergency water change mixed up and settling. My questions are these: can I expect my two melted acans to pull through, or should I kiss them goodbye? And can I back off feeding Neo to every other day, or will he starve to death on that schedule?

 

[Salty B]

I wouldn't think that the nitrates is the cause. Acans are one of those corals that benifit from "dirtier" water. I've read about acans actually starving in pristine water conditions if not suplimentally fed. If the acan is getting to much protien then the heads can grow to large for the skeleton to support and can pinch or tear on the undersides of the heads allowing bacteria or fungus to take hold and basically causing the same thing as RTN or jelly disease. If thats the case then you might want to consider fragging off the healthy heads and hope for the best. I gotta say though....95% of the time I read of this issue with acans its already to late. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya!

 

[Samhain]

I wasn't worried as much about the nitrates as I was about the phosphates. I'm feeding a combo of frozen krill, squid, mysis, and enriched spirulina brine. I know the frozen can be a little heavy on the phosphates, and my phosphates were way up. That's more what had me worried, and why I was debating backing off of feeding Neo as much. But that's excellent info on the protein and acans. That very well could have been the problem, especially since it was only a couple of the acans, and the other corals seem ok.

 

[little_fish]

You can feed every other day, nemo will be fine. I would also expect that the phosphates are the problem, but I would still take a very close look at them and see if see anything that looks like brown jelly on them. If that is the case I would remove them asap, suck off all the brown jelly you can see and then dip them in iodine. Brown jelly really sucks because its easy to pass between LPS corals and pretty hard to beat.