Tips starting to show stress @ 7.5 alkalinity...?

Potatohead · Dec 13, 2020

Reason I think it is nutrient related is I am getting some very slight dusting of dinos here and there. Very minor, but there. The only other things I have changed I mentioned earlier in the thread and they seem mostly minor.

Carbon change could be it. I only run it in a bag in a sump baffle, but it was probably eight weeks since the last time I changed it. I've had the same tub for a year or more and it came out of there. Maybe it is something simple as cleaner water and a significant par increase overnight. I only see what I'm talking about it about 1/3 of my acros. My two euphyllia are retracted slightly though, acans are normal and 2/3 acros normal. Next time I will use less.

I checked alk and phos again tonight and it's 7.6 and 32 on the ULR. So I cut my alk dose a fair bit and phos is still inline with where I want to be. No corals have gotten worse in the last 3-4 days, kind of staying the same so I think I'll just continue along this path and I believe it will sort itself out. I do find it interesting I started feeding a bit more again 2-3 days ago and my phos has come down a touch which points to possibly better carbon availability.

Lovefish77 · Dec 13, 2020

Good luck I have a similar situation. My n and p zero and 0.04 or so. I tried to raise nitrates to like 3ppm using sodium nitrate over a week and all acros are checking out from the top down, other sps are affected too. Pulling my hair no idea what is happening. My alk is a bit higher than you like 7.6 to 7.9 dkh.

Sometimes I just hate this hobby, second time I have something like this while raising nitrates!!!!!

Potatohead · Dec 15, 2020

So I was second guessing my ULR checker, tonight I made a fresh batch of saltwater, it tested out at 6 ppb. So the checker appears to be working fine.

Proceeded to do a small (8%) water change, I don't know if that was a good idea or not, but it's done now. Fingers crossed.