SPS - Death from the tips

Stpatrick · Apr 16, 2015

Hi Everyone. I have an interesting issue happening right now. I have a couple SPS that are dieing/receeding fromm the tips down. They appear to go brown and peal back. Any ideas? Running water test now and will report back.

TUSI · Apr 16, 2015

Did you change anything recently, lights, light bulbs etc

Stpatrick · Apr 16, 2015

Yikes. I think I figured it out. I just checked my params and this is what they are CA-400, ALK-7, PO4-0, NO3-2. This was my numbers after I did a 20% water change. I can only imagine the Alk was below 7. What does ALK this low do? No other changes to system.

whixley101 · Apr 16, 2015

Any pictures?

ritter6788 · Apr 16, 2015

Alk of 7 is usually fine. SPS get "burned" tips from high alk but not low.

trido · Apr 16, 2015

ritter6788 said:
Alk of 7 is usually fine. SPS get "burned" tips from high alk but not low.

Absolutely, Low or swinging Dkh causes recession from the base. Burned tips is usually from high Alk but I have also seen one tank that had this issue randomly for almost a year. We never figured out what the problem was.

Run some carbon and don't start messing with too much. It could just be an isolated random event.

Aquaph8 · Apr 16, 2015

Ive been having similar issues, after ordering new Hanna reagent I found my old batch of 2 bottles to be drastically different. I though my alk was in the 7's and it was really over 12. Took me way to long to figure out what was going on.

awdjosh · Apr 17, 2015

^that. I too had a 9 month old big bottle of reagent go bad and give false readings, was 11.50 when it was reading 6.5...I was chasing numbers and losing my mind. I keep higher than normal KH due to the RS coral pro system.

Crazy Corals · Apr 17, 2015

Do you have any leathers i had and issue with 3 large toadstool leathers

Stpatrick · Apr 23, 2015

I have an update. Fingers crossed but as soon as I got my Alk stabilized them Yellow Tip start to heal up. See the pics.

Her

Here is a picture with the flash.

Gwitness · May 18, 2015

I'm having this issue also and all of my parameters are in line and stable and lights are radions and max out at 50%.....params are (Ca 425, MG 1300, ALK 8.4, 1.026, Nitrates 5-10 and phosphates reading 0) and I do 20 gallon a week water changes on my 180 gallon tank.....Only thing is once my tips burn off some, they grow algae on the tips and just look like crap....sometimes it keeps moving down and sometimes the tips just stay burned with algae on it and just stays like that....I also barely ever get any growth at all even with my LPS corals!! Any ideas what else it could be?? Another weird thing is my harder sps (oregon tort) has polyps out all day and looks great????

Aquaph8 · May 18, 2015

Gwitness said:
I'm having this issue also and all of my parameters are in line and stable and lights are radions and max out at 50%.....params are (Ca 425, MG 1300, ALK 8.4, 1.026, Nitrates 5-10 and phosphates reading 0) and I do 20 gallon a week water changes on my 180 gallon tank.....Only thing is once my tips burn off some, they grow algae on the tips and just look like crap....sometimes it keeps moving down and sometimes the tips just stay burned with algae on it and just stays like that....I also barely ever get any growth at all even with my LPS corals!! Any ideas what else it could be?? Another weird thing is my harder sps (oregon tort) has polyps out all day and looks great????

Burnt tips is almost always an alk issue, when they start growing algae trim it off and they'll usually grow back over.

Reefermadness73 · May 18, 2015

Gwitness said:
I'm having this issue also and all of my parameters are in line and stable and lights are radions and max out at 50%.....params are (Ca 425, MG 1300, ALK 8.4, 1.026, Nitrates 5-10 and phosphates reading 0) and I do 20 gallon a week water changes on my 180 gallon tank.....Only thing is once my tips burn off some, they grow algae on the tips and just look like crap....sometimes it keeps moving down and sometimes the tips just stay burned with algae on it and just stays like that....I also barely ever get any growth at all even with my LPS corals!! Any ideas what else it could be?? Another weird thing is my harder sps (oregon tort) has polyps out all day and looks great????[/QUOTE
Do u run Biopellets??

NeverlosT · May 18, 2015

Ive been having a tissue recession issue for some time. It has resulted in my losing or transferring almost all of my SPS from a fully stocked 150g reef. It has occurred over the course of 6 months and started with changing my CARX media (I believe the new Caribsea media had toxic materials that were then introduced into the system). After that, once the SPS death started, it has not really stopped. Parameters have been stable for months and checked with multiple test kits. Sometimes bad stuff just happens.

Oh and caribsea has admitted that this has been an issue in the past for them but they arent going to do anything to help.

Good luck with your issues!

Gwitness · May 19, 2015

I do not run bio pellets at all or vodka dose or anything.....and anytime I looked up burned tips it always said alk spikes or something with alk....weird thing is I check t same time every day and is less than a .5 difference and almost the same every time!! Do I scrape the algae off or does the coral just grow back over the algae?

Aquaph8 · May 19, 2015

What are you running for carbon /GFO? Any bulb changes? Yeah, it'll have a lot harder time growing over a dead tip, especially with algae on it. Just snip it down to healthy tissue and it'll heal much faster.

Gwitness · May 19, 2015

This problem was going on before I added gfo/ carbon reactor from brs.....I also use radions maxing out at 55% and whites are pretty low!! I run two t5 bulbs also for about 4 or 5 hours...

ycnibrc · Jun 3, 2015

Burn tip with ALK usually result in white tip not brown. Check your nitrate level if it raise more than before it could cause the tip to brown out, brittle and die then the algae grow over it.

Gwitness · Jun 3, 2015

ycnibrc said:
Burn tip with ALK usually result in white tip not brown. Check your nitrate level if it raise more than before it could cause the tip to brown out, brittle and die then the algae grow over it.

My nitrates are always between 5 and 10 when I test them and I test once a week...usually the tips will turn white first and then grow the algae pretty quickly...but like I said I test my alk at the same time every day and it's pretty much spot on!! Most of the corals that had the burned tips now have stopped and the rest of the coral looks fine....except my green slimed it kind of spread down a couple of branches but also stopped spreading as of kate

Joao junior · Jun 5, 2015

Hi,i have the same problem,and i use radion lights,i made two changes in my system,the light configuration and change the calcium reactor to balling,all my parameters are ok,i think the problem is in the light or any toxic material in my diy balling salt,start with white filament in the tips and grow algae turning brown,i lost one sps,the others i get out the tips and it recovered