SPS with burnt tips need help

[ocncheffy]

Don't forget, SPS issues like these can present themselves weeks after you had made a change. I had a similar experience and it turned out to be a bad test kit for alkalinity. It was reporting 7.5dkh, when it was actually at 5.5. Had acros STN/RTN and dead tips. Once I got a proper kit and brought alk up to 8.0, things healed nicely. Also, my phosphates are at a .45 (tested yesterday) and my acros are growing fast and have great color. I did add GFO to cut it in half, but I don't buy the whole YOU NEED >.08 phosphates for SPS. Just not the case.

Verify your alkalinity with another test kit. Also, ensure your refractometer is calibrated.

 

[Backreefing]

Somewhat dramatic take, why would he be "on the edge of a tank crash".
He specifically stated his parameters have been stable for a year.

Could you expand on your meaning of this?

I know of tank crashes firsthand from my own tank . In short I had true zero phosphate. So I started doseing. Phosphate. This screwed everything up and I lost about 60% of my corals . . I dosed to get phosphate up to .050 ( target ) and it went back to zero fast . Repeat , repeat , repeat . The montipora got hit really hard, the acropora about 50% dead . The reason for phosphate going to zero so fast Repeatedly, was I did some rescapeing with new Dry rock . As some of you know new dry rock adsorbs phosphate quite quickly. It took me 2 months of doseing to get the aquarium to hold low levels of phosphate. So yeh I seen lots of Burt tips stn and all . Carbon doseing has the same potential for harm .

 

[92Miata]

Somewhat dramatic take, why would he be "on the edge of a tank crash".
He specifically stated his parameters have been stable for a year.

Could you expand on your meaning of this?

Its important to remember that alkalinity and calcium are pretty much the only things that corals use that we measure directly.

The Phosphate and Nitrate that we test for aren't particularly useful for corals (directly). They act as proxy measurements for "how much food and waste are in the water column". Sometimes "high nutrients" can mean lots of food, little waste. Sometimes it can mean very little food, and tons of waste.

This is why its important to watch what corals are doing - and make decisions based on coral health, not numbers.

There's a very familiar pattern on this forum of people posting something along the lines of "I need to get my phosphates down. My corals look good but they're too high". And then 2 months later we get another thread where phosphates are no longer .5 and now .05, but everything is dying.

The OPS corals are showing signs of stress that are typical of a combination of high alkalinity/low food. And while his test results seem fine - his behavior indicates that's exactly what is happening:

My parameters have been the same for a year except for my phosphate was .16-.20 which is why I started using rowaphos and nopox about 3-4 months ago which brought it down to .06-.08 now.

Also I skim wet and I dose 12 ml a day of acropower and I run biopellets

Feed more or Extract less.

Make sure your alkalinity readings are correct. Use a different test.

 

[Ike]

Going by the limited infor you gave us you might driven your PO4 too low and you're seeing the after effects. Any pics of the effected corals. Have you seen mesenterial filaments on acropora at feeding time?

Feed more, maybe ditch the biopellets, and up your CuC to offset the added food and algae growth that will happen.

 

[OSU]

The only time I’ve ever had burnt tips was when I went a bit crazy with the chaeto and bottomed out the no3/po4.

 

[Silent]

The only time I’ve ever had burnt tips was when I went a bit crazy with the chaeto and bottomed out the no3/po4.

You ever made smoked brisket? I love burnt tips.

 

[Backreefing]

My personal scenarios.

Low nutrients+high alk= burn tips
Spike nutrients = burn tips
Too much activated carbon = burn tips
ALK spike alone = burn tips ,stn/rtn
Low no3 + low alk = bad color
Low no3 + high po4 = bleach from base up
Low no3 + low po4 = dino

Thank you for a basic summary of problems with causes . We need more of this .

 

[honks69]

Have you been running carbon? Maybe your water is too clear lol.

I have never ran carbon on this tank. It’s been up about 2 years

 

[honks69]

are you positive it's not new growth? How much of the tips are white?
[/QUOTE

are you positive it's not new growth? How much of the tips are white?

it’s def not growth. The tips that started to burn first started to get algae growth.

 

[honks69]

My personal scenarios.

Low nutrients+high alk= burn tips
Spike nutrients = burn tips
Too much activated carbon = burn tips
ALK spike alone = burn tips ,stn/rtn
Low no3 + low alk = bad color
Low no3 + high po4 = bleach from base up
Low no3 + low po4 = dino

based on my parameters above do you think I’m any of these Scenarios? nothing has spiked or changed in my parameters

 

[honks69]

Somewhat dramatic take, why would he be "on the edge of a tank crash".
He specifically stated his parameters have been stable for a year.

Could you expand on your meaning of this?

I was actually laughing at that idea. My tank has maybe 100 sps frags/colonies and of those 100 less then ten are showing burnt tips. If I’m about to crash I’d be shocked but I know I have something going on. Many of my sps look totally normal still

 

[honks69]

Don't forget, SPS issues like these can present themselves weeks after you had made a change. I had a similar experience and it turned out to be a bad test kit for alkalinity. It was reporting 7.5dkh, when it was actually at 5.5. Had acros STN/RTN and dead tips. Once I got a proper kit and brought alk up to 8.0, things healed nicely. Also, my phosphates are at a .45 (tested yesterday) and my acros are growing fast and have great color. I did add GFO to cut it in half, but I don't buy the whole YOU NEED >.08 phosphates for SPS. Just not the case.

Verify your alkalinity with another test kit. Also, ensure your refractometer is calibrated.

my alk was tested using my Hanna (8.0) and I have a trident (8.02). I have a refractometer and Hanna and apex all saying my salinity is 34.9-35.0 ppm. I doubled checked everything I could

 

[uhupong]

based on my parameters above do you think I’m any of these Scenarios? nothing has spiked or changed in my parameters

How do you monitor your alk? How often?

 

[honks69]

Going by the limited infor you gave us you might driven your PO4 too low and you're seeing the after effects. Any pics of the effected corals. Have you seen mesenterial filaments on acropora at feeding time?

Feed more, maybe ditch the biopellets, and up your CuC to offset the added food and algae growth that will happen.

what info didn’t I give? I see mesenterial filiaments during feeding and also I see them on the effected coral when it’s not feeding.

I can raise my phosphate but at .08 I didn’t think it was low

I feed a ton already and have a decent bio load from large fish

 

[honks69]

I know of tank crashes firsthand from my own tank . In short I had true zero phosphate. So I started doseing. Phosphate. This screwed everything up and I lost about 60% of my corals . . I dosed to get phosphate up to .050 ( target ) and it went back to zero fast . Repeat , repeat , repeat . The montipora got hit really hard, the acropora about 50% dead . The reason for phosphate going to zero so fast Repeatedly, was I did some rescapeing with new Dry rock . As some of you know new dry rock adsorbs phosphate quite quickly. It took me 2 months of doseing to get the aquarium to hold low levels of phosphate. So yeh I seen lots of Burt tips stn and all . Carbon doseing has the same potential for harm .

i am not dosing phosphate and I don’t have the swings you are talking about soI’m not sure that’s comparing apples to apples

 

[honks69]

Its important to remember that alkalinity and calcium are pretty much the only things that corals use that we measure directly.

The Phosphate and Nitrate that we test for aren't particularly useful for corals (directly). They act as proxy measurements for "how much food and waste are in the water column". Sometimes "high nutrients" can mean lots of food, little waste. Sometimes it can mean very little food, and tons of waste.

This is why its important to watch what corals are doing - and make decisions based on coral health, not numbers.

There's a very familiar pattern on this forum of people posting something along the lines of "I need to get my phosphates down. My corals look good but they're too high". And then 2 months later we get another thread where phosphates are no longer .5 and now .05, but everything is dying.

The OPS corals are showing signs of stress that are typical of a combination of high alkalinity/low food. And while his test results seem fine - his behavior indicates that's exactly what is happening:



Feed more or Extract less.

Make sure your alkalinity readings are correct. Use a different test.

I did test using my trident and Hanna and they are similar.

I feed homemade frozen that is 1/4” thick x 2” x 3” piece every day and nori every day. I’ve always feed that much for at least a year

 

[honks69]

How do you monitor your alk? How often?

I have a trident and I spot check with my Hanna

 

[Tanggy]

bumping this thread to see how your sps is doing.

 

[Badboy GP]

2nd bump