Sps slimy/bubbly growth on tips?

Beej1254 · Feb 20, 2017

reefwiser said:
Adding nitrate is good if you want to keep your dkh at 9. The issue your are seeing is the coral not liking the higher dkh. Slimy and bubbly at the tips of SPS is their reaction to high dkh without higher nitrates. I always watch for this indicator to tell me how I should set the dkh in my tank. My current tanks SPS like a 7 to 8 dkh level any higher and they will start to slime at the tips . If you let this go you will start getting burnt tips and this will lead to a decline in the coral with stn and algae growing on the area of the tip where there is no tissue .

Interesting information! I appreciate it. Definitely not letting this go

Beej1254 · Feb 20, 2017

So an update. Yesterday I dosed 10ml of the mixture, tested and still got zero reading. Waiting until after work today and tested, still at zero. I dosed 15ml today and I'll test soon to see if anything changed.

I have noticed less stringy bubbles on the tips of the birdsnest. Unfortunately I lost a branch on one sps.

Beej1254 · Feb 20, 2017

Lost the left branch today.

reefwiser · Feb 21, 2017

Yes I have seen this before.

I really watch my alk to Nitrate so this doesn't happen.

mtraylor · Feb 21, 2017

Yeah the pictures looks like the tips have dinoflagellates and algae all over the tips up and down. Your DKH has been between 7-9, in which is an acceptable range. Nothing there is too alarming. The reason I said that you have dirty water, is that I have had this happen to me before where my parameters were all in spec. Nothing had changed but all of sudden the corals started looking like you are describing and see but not as bad. It took me a while to figure out that my skimmer was not pulling out anything and needed servicing. It was actually on and not creating any skimmate. This is what I'm referring too. I know yours is working, but is it working at peek performance? Now I do not know how efficient your skimmer is, but these things can catch up to you over time if not working optimum. Also you may want to get a second reference on your phosphates. I think you said you were going to have them double checked.

Now I agree with the statements above about the dkh as well. That can happen, and I have had that happen as well too.

Beej1254 · Feb 21, 2017

mtraylor said:
Yeah the pictures looks like the tips have dinoflagellates and algae all over the tips up and down. Your DKH has been between 7-9, in which is an acceptable range. Nothing there is too alarming. The reason I said that you have dirty water, is that I have had this happen to me before where my parameters were all in spec. Nothing had changed but all of sudden the corals started looking like you are describing and see but not as bad. It took me a while to figure out that my skimmer was not pulling out anything and needed servicing. It was actually on and not creating any skimmate. This is what I'm referring too. I know yours is working, but is it working at peek performance? Now I do not know how efficient your skimmer is, but these things can catch up to you over time if not working optimum. Also you may want to get a second reference on your phosphates. I think you said you were going to have them double checked.

Now I agree with the statements above about the dkh as well. That can happen, and I have had that happen as well too.

I appreciate you expanding you thoughts on this for me. The more I consider possibilities, the more I realize how I probably got too anxious and upped my dkh too quickly. Didn't raise nutrients along with it (as you guys have mentioned) and this could have caused my goof in salinity being too high? Doesn't 2 part raise salinity over time? I feel as though I just messed up. Today the corals started looking much better. Far less nasty gunk on my sps, but that one frag completely RTN'd over night.

As for a second opinion on testing. I had my LFS test my phosphates and nitrates that day after I tested myself. So they were my second opinion

mtraylor · Feb 21, 2017

No worries. Oh ok, so those parms were looking good. Anything to try and help a reefer not loose corals and live stock. Glad to hear that things are doing better. Yeah any big change in Alkalinity really quick will stress or kill some sps. One little trick I learned from one of my buddies is that when your alkalinity starts to drift...if you have a chalice, it will start to show signs of stress first with like little lines in it and coloration change. That is a good way to tell in between tests. Hope everything recovers.

Africangrey · Feb 22, 2017

You have dino infestation, and I see that you have that on your rock too, it happen when nitrate and phosphate are near or undetectable. go search for dino you will find thousand upon thousand of pages of info on it, but dosing vibrant for 6 weeks cleared everything for me.

Beej1254 · Mar 4, 2017

Ok so quick update if anyone is interested...

after dosing the stump remover to a detectable level of nitrates and adjusting my feedings, my corals have ALL drastically improved. Even corals I thought were already doing well have improved. It's unfortunate that I lost the one acro that I did because it was one of my favorites, but at least it wasn't the whole tank.

Now I am making sure to feed my tank a little more, watch nutrient levels, and I feed corals reef chili every other day.