Myth or Fact? High ALK and ULN can cause SPS burnt tip?

cee · Apr 7, 2015

Cheng
I used to test both but that was back in the day of the cloudy water K test kit which I had a hard time interpreting. With my new tank that is a few months old and only has a few SPS I'm not overly concerned about these minor elements (yet). I'm a strong proponent about maintaining NSW levels of the "big 3" however. My current dilemma is that I lost a purple monster and Oregon tort frag that came from a tank lit by MH and my other parameters are otherwise "spot on" NSW levels but my NO3 and PO4 levels are basically zero. The few other across I have look pretty good; go figure!

cee · Apr 7, 2015

Oh and to answer your question I did dose strontium and potassium salts to bring levels up. I do agree that alkalinity stability is THE most important parameter to a SPS dominated reef tank, however.

pelagic · Apr 7, 2015

cee said:
Oh and to answer your question I did dose strontium and potassium salts to bring levels up. I do agree that alkalinity stability is THE most important parameter to a SPS dominated reef tank, however.

cee said:
Cheng
I used to test both but that was back in the day of the cloudy water K test kit which I had a hard time interpreting. With my new tank that is a few months old and only has a few SPS I'm not overly concerned about these minor elements (yet). I'm a strong proponent about maintaining NSW levels of the "big 3" however. My current dilemma is that I lost a purple monster and Oregon tort frag that came from a tank lit by MH and my other parameters are otherwise "spot on" NSW levels but my NO3 and PO4 levels are basically zero. The few other across I have look pretty good; go figure!

Yea. I hear you, I have hard time to keep PM and Plana as well. I think some SPS are just not compatible with some tanks. Totally agree with you about the stability!
Will you be at the swap? please back to SPS crazy again, love to get some nice frags from you again.

cee · Apr 7, 2015

pelagic said:
Yea. I hear you, I have hard time to keep PM and Plana as well. I think some SPS are just not compatible with some tanks. Totally agree with you about the stability!
Will you be at the swap? please back to SPS crazy again, love to get some nice frags from you again.

LOL I've got nothing to offer at the moment and due to a job offer that involves relocation I may be a flash in the pan. I've kept PMbefore in a LED tank so wouldn't give up too soon if life didn't intervene. I am planning on coming to the swap and will certainly say "hi".

Dave

fishdoc11 · Apr 9, 2015

FWIW every time I have experienced this a water change has solved the problem promptly. I have not experienced in my current system but it has sand and no skimmer or PO4 reactor. In my last two systems, heavily stocked and skimmed, 2 part, mainly SPS it seemed to always happen when I hadn't done a water change in a while. I can only guess the SPS were missing a trace element that the water change replaced.

David Cher · May 4, 2017

pelagic said:
Nice reply Cee! glad to see you are interested in the topic.

That is very interesting about the potassium, I've also read about other causes of burnt tip

Overdoes of potassium

Active Carbon over-used

However, I personally think potassium and strontium are less likely the causes of burnt tip in a high ALK ULNS.
Do you test/dose potassium/strontium to prevent the imbalance issue? or do you think water change is enough?

this is interesting . Active Carbon over-used - you mean i need to remove some carbon ?

JFD · Jan 2, 2020

pelagic said:
Nice reply Cee! glad to see you are interested in the topic.

That is very interesting about the potassium, I've also read about other causes of burnt tip

Overdoes of potassium

Active Carbon over-used

However, I personally think potassium and strontium are less likely the causes of burnt tip in a high ALK ULNS.
Do you test/dose potassium/strontium to prevent the imbalance issue? or do you think water change is enough?

David Cher said:
this is interesting . Active Carbon over-used - you mean i need to remove some carbon ?

Is this anecdotal or is there scientific evidence that back this up? Just interested in this as I'm having some burnt tips on my acros and want to isolate the cause...

EMeyer · Jan 2, 2020

IME high alk causes all manner of problems including burnt tips. I haven't seen any evidence that nutrients have anything to do with it, although thats often repeated.

100% of the time, when I've had burnt tips, I've had either high alkalinity or salinity problems (high or low).

When the ocean has an alk of about 7 I fail to understand why some run such unnaturally high alkalinities. I've never seen good effects from high alk, only bad effects. Conversely I've never seen bad effects when the alk drops a little low for a while.

JOKER · Jan 2, 2020

I am stressing if my alk gets above 7.5. My acros look so much better, with better color, and polyp extension when alk is around 7. I don't stress when mine hits 6 as long as it doesn't change too fast. I have noticed higher alk causes pale colors, and bad growth with high numbers around 8

JOKER · Jan 2, 2020

I do however believe that the nutrient level in the water is the driving factor at what level alk can be kept at safely with acro. My p04 was 0 last time I checked. I only do small daily AWC to keep my trace elements up. Every time I do a large water change all my acro pale out for several weeks.