Sps receding at tips- help
- Thread starter mfollen
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Frags do much better with po4 0.08-0.20. Even Red Sea recommends 0.08 in their reef recipes. Do you have many fish? What are you feeding?
How high are your radions mounted and what are their settings?
It’s most likely too much export and not enough input or it’s your lighting. Unless an icp test comes back with a contaminant, I would start with nutrition (nitrogen and lighting)
How high are your radions mounted and what are their settings?
It’s most likely too much export and not enough input or it’s your lighting. Unless an icp test comes back with a contaminant, I would start with nutrition (nitrogen and lighting)
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mfollen
Valuable Member
OK thank you - I upped the P04 dosage as nitrates are at 5.0 ppm.
Fish: 4 tangs, 3 smaller fish. Feedings have been consistent on top of dosing P04 & nitrates during this fluctuation.
Radions are mounted 12" above the tank. Affected corals are probably 16-20" from the light. I have unaffected acros closer to the lights.
Export is very high with an algae turf scrubber and large skimmer.
Planning to do a water change possibly late tonight. Sending the ICP test in later today, hope to get next week.
Thank you so much!!!!
Fish: 4 tangs, 3 smaller fish. Feedings have been consistent on top of dosing P04 & nitrates during this fluctuation.
Radions are mounted 12" above the tank. Affected corals are probably 16-20" from the light. I have unaffected acros closer to the lights.
Export is very high with an algae turf scrubber and large skimmer.
Planning to do a water change possibly late tonight. Sending the ICP test in later today, hope to get next week.
Thank you so much!!!!
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mfollen
Valuable Member
Without a PAR measurement (I'm pretty sure my levels are not high). Would you recommend to restoring back to 100% intensity? I reduced to 80% yesterday.
6 xr 15’s?? That should be plenty of light, even at 80% intensity. I would take your ats or skimmer, both of it were me, offline for awhile until the po4 and no3 comes up. Higher nutrients are not going to crash your tank. My acros are beautiful and growing like crazy, even more so now that my no3 is closer to 15-20 and my po4 is closer to 0.3-0.35. There are 20 sps death threads with ultra low nutrients in this forum to every 1 with high nutrients. I can’t even remember a thread of high nutrients leads to sps death but I’m sure there’s at least one.
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mfollen
Valuable Member
Alright sounds good.
Game plan is while I wait on ICP test results later next week:
- Reduced flow to allow for healing / prevent further damage. Bump light back up.
- water change in case of contaminants.
- increase PO4 & no3 doseage & feedings.
- reduce slimmer run time to half day.
Will report on any changes. Otherwise any other recommendations are welcome!!!
Thank you so much everyone. I really appreciate you all helping to prevent any loss of life.
Game plan is while I wait on ICP test results later next week:
- Reduced flow to allow for healing / prevent further damage. Bump light back up.
- water change in case of contaminants.
- increase PO4 & no3 doseage & feedings.
- reduce slimmer run time to half day.
Will report on any changes. Otherwise any other recommendations are welcome!!!
Thank you so much everyone. I really appreciate you all helping to prevent any loss of life.
My skimmer has been off for 6 months
IslandLifeReef
Valuable Member
@mfollen, just remember to go slow. I know that seeing your corals decline in health makes us want to try to fix it immediately, but it will take time for things to turn around. If you make a lot of changes, you may fix one problem, but introduce another.
Your corals are losing flesh due to some sort of stress, thought to be to much flow. Making a lot of changes will further stress them. @Chaswood79 has given good advise on bringing up nutrients, but you don't need to make it happen yesterday.
Your corals are losing flesh due to some sort of stress, thought to be to much flow. Making a lot of changes will further stress them. @Chaswood79 has given good advise on bringing up nutrients, but you don't need to make it happen yesterday.
Normally flow damage from having to sting of flow will peel the corals flesh off, it’s pretty easy to tell the difference in most cases. Hard to believe flow would just affect the very tip like that, or just the base. Gyre pumps might if the tips are in the laminar sting flow area close to the pump I guess.
I would follow the advice on not changing much until you get the test back. Feeding more would be better than turning off the skimmer in my experience. Much less of a change happening that way.
I would follow the advice on not changing much until you get the test back. Feeding more would be better than turning off the skimmer in my experience. Much less of a change happening that way.
Dburr1014
7500 Club Member
Aren't the numbers of po4 in proportion to alk numbers? Lower alk=lower po4.
Could be because his alk is on the lower spectrum that he burned the tips.
How stable have all your numbers been in the past month?
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mfollen
Valuable Member
Interesting..
Everything’s been stable besides the mag jump which occurred days before the issue was noticed.
Otherwise coral feedings and PO4 have been consistently very low. PO4 tests running at 0 or barely detectable. I know some PO4 is in as I’m dosing a low amount on top of feeding the fish. Algae is growing well.
Everything’s been stable besides the mag jump which occurred days before the issue was noticed.
Otherwise coral feedings and PO4 have been consistently very low. PO4 tests running at 0 or barely detectable. I know some PO4 is in as I’m dosing a low amount on top of feeding the fish. Algae is growing well.
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mfollen
Valuable Member
Ok quick update and clearer picture to share:
- Got PO4 up to detectable levels.
- Did a water change in case of contaminant while waiting on icp results.
Going to wait it out, maintain consistent nutrient & other major parameters until I get the ICP results.
The tip issue has spread to two other prized frags (of course the nicer ones). What is interesting is the stringed effect the issue is having. Looks almost parasite or bacteria like. I have seen this on a few others, might be the tissue slowly pulling away. Thought it was worth the share...
- Got PO4 up to detectable levels.
- Did a water change in case of contaminant while waiting on icp results.
Going to wait it out, maintain consistent nutrient & other major parameters until I get the ICP results.
The tip issue has spread to two other prized frags (of course the nicer ones). What is interesting is the stringed effect the issue is having. Looks almost parasite or bacteria like. I have seen this on a few others, might be the tissue slowly pulling away. Thought it was worth the share...
Whasmack
Active Member
Something you can try -
I just went through something similar - all hard corals were affected, very similar to yours.
Took me about 2 months to solve, but I ended up dosing Red Sea Reef Energy A+B every other day & it turned everything around. Even though my nitrates were 5.0, phosphates were 0.21.... (consistently for ~ 2 years).
I went through ICP testing, went down the road of Vibrio / pathogenic bacteria infection, dosing bacteria, raising Mag levels, raising Strontium, potassium & other trace from ICP, dosing a couple things from Brightwell; nothing seemed to work.
I did try nitrate dosing with sodium nitrate, but that didn't help; although it did fuel cyano growth.
So that's my recommendation to try -
I just went through something similar - all hard corals were affected, very similar to yours.
Took me about 2 months to solve, but I ended up dosing Red Sea Reef Energy A+B every other day & it turned everything around. Even though my nitrates were 5.0, phosphates were 0.21.... (consistently for ~ 2 years).
I went through ICP testing, went down the road of Vibrio / pathogenic bacteria infection, dosing bacteria, raising Mag levels, raising Strontium, potassium & other trace from ICP, dosing a couple things from Brightwell; nothing seemed to work.
I did try nitrate dosing with sodium nitrate, but that didn't help; although it did fuel cyano growth.
So that's my recommendation to try -
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mfollen
Valuable Member
Thank you so much @whasmack
I’m going to give it a go. It’s apparent that the corals needs are not being met and I need to reassess nutrition here across the board.
I was battling dino’s (Won that war for now knock on wood) which is why I have been running low coral feedings & aminos.
Thanks.
I’m going to give it a go. It’s apparent that the corals needs are not being met and I need to reassess nutrition here across the board.
I was battling dino’s (Won that war for now knock on wood) which is why I have been running low coral feedings & aminos.
Thanks.
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