Random SPS stripping from base up.

Fisherman Joe

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Randomly having some SPS strip from the base up but still with fully polyp extension and otherwise fine.

This SPS frag below is a red dragon acro.

I have a 120G, 4 foot tank. I’ve had it two years now and before that I’ve had tanks for decades so I’m not new to this.

My parameters are all within normal ranges, even according to a TRITON ICP test.

Salt 1.026
Ca 425
Mg 1350
Alk 8.1
pH 8.2
NO3 5-10
PO4 0.08-0.16

My lights are XR15 Gen5 Pro. But I run the AB+ at 65% intensity and have been thinking of moving to a more warm white spectrum.

There are no fish pecking them. There are no bite marks from flat worms.

Two things worry me, tight control of PO4. I can’t seem to get it <0.04 and keep it there. It’s always just under 0.1 or just over but everything looks happy. I’m not getting that bright colour in my SPS that I want. Could this be upsetting corals? I think it’s unlikely.

The final thing is I run a full GHL aquarium computer setup with an ION director. I absolutely love it but the Alkalinity does slowly swing up and down. It’s set to 8.5 dKH and slowly doses up to this and then overnight drops to 8.0 again. Again, I don’t see a drop of 0.5 dKH as a big deal but it keeps happening.

I had a few Indonesian mariculture corals that stripped in parts from the base up and then stopped, but like here, the coral was still feeding. It’s so strange.

Other than the above there’s nothing massive I can see. I run GFO and carbon. Change it regular too. Odd.

Any suggestions?
 
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Fisherman Joe

Fisherman Joe

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Red dragon acro and also a milipora
 

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Fisherman Joe

Fisherman Joe

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My flow was higher. Two MP40’s on the sides of my 4 foot. I lowered it recently but only 20%.
 

Betex

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Randomly having some SPS strip from the base up but still with fully polyp extension and otherwise fine.

This SPS frag below is a red dragon acro.

I have a 120G, 4 foot tank. I’ve had it two years now and before that I’ve had tanks for decades so I’m not new to this.

My parameters are all within normal ranges, even according to a TRITON ICP test.

Salt 1.026
Ca 425
Mg 1350
Alk 8.1
pH 8.2
NO3 5-10
PO4 0.08-0.16

My lights are XR15 Gen5 Pro. But I run the AB+ at 65% intensity and have been thinking of moving to a more warm white spectrum.

There are no fish pecking them. There are no bite marks from flat worms.

Two things worry me, tight control of PO4. I can’t seem to get it <0.04 and keep it there. It’s always just under 0.1 or just over but everything looks happy. I’m not getting that bright colour in my SPS that I want. Could this be upsetting corals? I think it’s unlikely.

The final thing is I run a full GHL aquarium computer setup with an ION director. I absolutely love it but the Alkalinity does slowly swing up and down. It’s set to 8.5 dKH and slowly doses up to this and then overnight drops to 8.0 again. Again, I don’t see a drop of 0.5 dKH as a big deal but it keeps happening.

I had a few Indonesian mariculture corals that stripped in parts from the base up and then stopped, but like here, the coral was still feeding. It’s so strange.

Other than the above there’s nothing massive I can see. I run GFO and carbon. Change it regular too. Odd.

Any suggestions?
I'm running into the same situation atm very random spots and not all SPS too, havent been able to pin point my issue as well:

Salt - 34-35
CA - 450
MG - 1350
Alk - 8
ph - 8.3-8.4
NO3 - 2
PO4 - .03

I have been trying to dose Witch Hazel nightly to see if that helps and the ones with issues seem a little better but cant say for sure just yet. Same as you my ICP tests are good as I do MoonShine method and test via ICP regularly.

For the last 10 days or so I have also tried stopping carbon usage all together and I dont use GFO

Thanks,
Dave
 

Charlie’s Frags

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IN my case neither are around.
These are digitate hydroids, in case you don’t know what they are. They can only be seen with a flashlight with the lights off

They can and will sting sps in random places
 

Charlie’s Frags

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IN my case neither are around.
Pics of yours would help
As a general rule (for me anyway)
Random spots of pale/thinning tissue is caused by some pests. Usually bugs if it’s in shaded areas like under branches/base

Uniform circumferential white Stn usually means a chemistry issue. The only times I had that was from over stripping the water with carbon dosing and/or gfo

Rtn is anyone’s guess…..anything from bad lighting to wearing the wrong pair of underwear
 

ReefBeta

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digitate hydroid won't really do that much damage. I had tons of them, and thought they were the cause of similar problem. But at the end I found it's AEFW.

Not having bite mark doesn't necessarily mean you're clean from AEFW. Blast it, take it out and dip it, to really find out.
 

Betex

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digitate hydroid won't really do that much damage. I had tons of them, and thought they were the cause of similar problem. But at the end I found it's AEFW.

Not having bite mark doesn't necessarily mean you're clean from AEFW. Blast it, take it out and dip it, to really find out.
In my case I have dipped them already and nothing used magnifying glasses to try and search for eggs and such and nothing.
 
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