Strawberry Shrotcake

[cwb_reeftank]

ok I got a piece of strawberry shortcake from Jason Fox at a frag swap awhile back. I also got other sps frags. all of the are doing fine but the strawberry shortcake, its actually white now. I don't understand what happened because the of acros I have by it are doing great. I thought it might have to do with the lighting but all of my others are doing fine. can anyone tell me what I should do to try and prevent this for a little bit more success. the one issue I have is my alk I have switched to red sea salt the one with the low alk but it keeps reading high when I test and I will test two or three times in a row and its the same number each time(hanna).

 

[Coral Addict]

How low is your alk running? What are you doing to maintain your level?

 

[cwb_reeftank]

I would like it around 7-8 but when I test it its running at 10-11. I do about 10-15 gallon water change once a week.

 

[bubbaque]

White like dead or just bleached?

 

[cwb_reeftank]

white like dead

 

[reefwiser]

You will find over time that some SPS do not like swings of any kind. If you are using blue bucket Red Sea it is a 7 to 8 alk. I use it all the time. If you are reading high double check it with your LFS or a friends test kit. High alk will kill SPS unless you are running a high nutrient system with nitrates 50 ppm being what works. It can take a month after a alk spike to see the damage.

 

[Scorpius]

You will find over time that some SPS do not like swings of any kind. If you are using blue bucket Red Sea it is a 7 to 8 alk. I use it all the time. If you are reading high double check it with your LFS or a friends test kit. High alk will kill SPS unless you are running a high nutrient system with nitrates 50 ppm being what works. It can take a month after a alk spike to see the damage.

Or an alk drop. Several weeks later I'm still getting random tissue loss on some of my Acros.

 

[cwb_reeftank]

so what happens if I test the alk level from my bucket and it reads high? would that indicate that I have a bad bucket?

 

[Abhishek]

You are sure that your salinity is reading correctly on a calibrated refractormeter ? Also if you do 10% waterchange a week , even if your new water is at high dkh,itcannpr impact a whole lot of your total tank volume .

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[cwb_reeftank]

I check it every time I add a scoop to my new water than when I get it to the right level I have my mom look at it to make sure it where it should be. I was wondering if my hanna checker was off if that was possible?

 

[McMullen]

I check it every time I add a scoop to my new water than when I get it to the right level I have my mom look at it to make sure it where it should be. I was wondering if my hanna checker was off if that was possible?

Oh, it's possible! I keep my Hannah reagent stored upright now. They had a bad lot not too long ago.

 

[Abhishek]

I have had reagents go bad and henceuse calibration fluid .

http://hannainst.com/hi755-11-marine-alkalinity-checkerr-hc-calibration-set.html

You can either get a reagent or the calibration andvalidate

 

[cwb_reeftank]

I was looking at getting the calibration set to check it but I need to get new standards for it I ran out about a week or so ago been busy with finals.

 

[NeverlosT]

if your alk is 10-11 dKh then that is a very likely cause. I run my alk between 7-8, if it ever creeps up past 9, things start going bad, 10 or 11 and I can imagine I would lose significant SPS. I am not positive how some are successful with ALK that high, but most successful tanks that I see these days are 7-8 dKh.

Good luck and sorry about the SSC!

 

[reefwiser]

Or an alk drop. Several weeks later I'm still getting random tissue loss on some of my Acros.

Right it can take a 4 to 8 weeks to see the affect of a water quality issue show up. Then you start chasing your tail.

 

[Scorpius]

Right it can take a 4 to 8 weeks to see the affect of a water quality issue show up. Then you start chasing your tail.

I've been down this rabbit hole before so I don't change much parameter wise trying to fix an issue that happened a month ago. It's better to keep my parameters stable and ride it out.

 

[cwb_reeftank]

I'm going to order the calibration and reagents this weekend and see how this works but I'm good by to try the API test that I have

 

[masssnapz]

I got a strawberry shortcake about 2 years ago. Lost its color day 2 but I noticed slight pe at night so I never tossed it. Just 2 weeks ago I noticed it's finally regaining some pink color. Have patience if it's alive there's always hope.

 

[cwb_reeftank]

haha I don't think there is anyway of saving this, there is nothing but a white skeleton

 

[cwb_reeftank]

I checked my alk yesterday and it's 9.5 I'm going to check again today and see what it is. I got new reagents yesterday.