SPS and Salt Brand

SDREEFS · Mar 20, 2014

Ok so In looking for both input/knowledge on a sensitive subject. SPS is variant among many aspects, i understand that. Ive been keeping SPS for almost two years and I have it down. Nice colonies, good growth, good color etc. However recently a lot of events have happened and im looking or input because many people don't seem to even know where to begin so let's start with the background.

Over the last year I have been using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, I was very religious to the brand and had good success. I was happy with the lower levels due to also dosing KALK +2 on a dosing pump and I supplemented, the potassium, strontium, and iodine. Never had any issues.

My current tank levels - which might i add don't fluctuate -

calc - 440
alk - 8.1(i intentionally run alk this low, sps enjoys lower alk)
mag - 1440
potassium - 445
nitrate - 30ppm
po4 - .04
salintiy - 1.026
temp - 77.5
ph - 8.3

Now to the topic at hand. Within the last two months or so alot of people have been reporting tank crashes, mainly just sps using this salt. Even local stores. Doesn't harm anything really besides sps.... so my conclusion is its bacterial related.

I myself stopped using once I heard of the issues and made a gradual change to Tropic Marin Pro Reef and the tank didn't seem to mind.

But right when I was changing before the salt switch I noticed on 3 colonies - that this began to happen see image

Now this happens pretty much overnight. Hasn't gotten large or worse but he spot occurs..hasn't seem to spread
According to what I can find this maybe "White Pox" - bacteria related - only think this because of the red in the area? it is definitely not AEFW..dipped, check, cut, basted. not AEFW. no bite marks non of that nonsense.

So my question anybody heard of this? Any issues with bacteria problems? Any solutions? Maybe I am way off target.

Just need some advice.

mcarroll · Mar 20, 2014

SDREEFS said:
[...]
calc - 440
alk - 8.1(i intentionally run alk this low, sps enjoys lower alk)
mag - 1440
potassium - 445
nitrate - 30ppm
po4 - .04
salintiy - 1.026
temp - 77.5
ph - 8.3
[...]

I think your Ca is too high, your alk is too low (even lower than you think because your salinity is a little high), I believe K should be around 420 like Ca, Nitrates are very high and temperature is too low. It's not a Caribbean reef after all.

Also, there's nothing that SPS would find particularly desirable about low alkalinity. You may be conflating the observations made by folks who have to dose their tanks with carbon who CAN'T keep high alk. Outside of that scenario there is no reason to keep alkalinity low. 8-12 dKH (@1.025 s.g.) is a fine range, well established.

Though none are very big by themselves, all of these things I named are stressors, and there may be more you didn't include in your description....bacterial infections (if indeed that's what we are looking at) would be an expected side-effect of accumulated stress like this.

RECOMMENDATION
My recommendation is to fix all these numbers, then do everything you can to stabilize the tank that way (nice conditions with no more changes) for a few months. Things should turn around.

[li]A tropical reef would be better off around 80Â°-82Â°F.
[li]At a recommended s.g. of 1.025 you'd want Ca at 420, dKH at 8 or higher, Mg at about 1325.
[li]Nitrates you'd want to be undetectable on a test kit.
[li]Phosphates would be best around 0.03 or less.

-Matt