SPS STN from the tips, looking very brittle. NOT ALK SWING

[CoralWealth]

About my system.

It is 6 months old, lighting is sunpower 8x80w. flow is 3 jabeo pp15 and a gyre 150. skimmer is a reef octopus ext2000, 2 part dosing brs, spectrapure 90 gpd.

Params have been rock steady for over 2 months, testing alk and calc every single day as I thought alk was the issue at first. I can completely rule that out now.

Params are 7.7 Alk, 420 calc, 0.02-0.05 P04, Nitrate is between 4-8, salinity is 1.025-1.026, temp is 79.


Dosing is only 2 part, flatworm stop and coral booster and AF Vitality.

So the situation:

Once I get a frag it looks very very good for 2-3 weeks then something happens and the tips start to look very very brittle, get no PE or very very little and then they start to slowly look white and look like theyre falling apart/being eaten but I know theyre not being chewed with my livestock (tangs and wrasses)

On my last triton test my copper was 7 ppb and I am not sure where it is coming from. I do not run any GFO, no metal corruding in any pumps, etc.

Other high heavy metals:
Tin (Sn at 4.3)
Copper (Cu at 6.97)
Aluminum (Al 8.5)
Silicon (Si 273)
Lithium (Li 453)

I do not know what to do anymore as soon as I think the tank is going great again, one coral will start to show the STN from the tips and then another will. Once it starts the STN even if I trim the tips it will look good for a couple days and then it will all happen again.

COuld the unwanted heavy metals cause this brittle looking STN from the tips or do you guys think it is something else. What I have seen from heavy metals before is more like tissue peeling off and very fast death, this is so slow and looks very very brittle before STNing.

It ALWAYS starts from the tips too, which is why I am starting to think it is something else besides the unwanted metals

 

[Sherman]

How is your PH stability

 

[CoralWealth]

How is your PH stability

I have not tested it in awhile but I dont know why it would be low or swing. I have a cheato fuge running opposite the DT that grows a lot of cheato,

last time I tested PH it was 8.2

 

[Sherman]

Look ok. If ur PH swing is not drastic then should not be the cause.

 

[N4sty T4te]

Have you tried multiple test kits to confirm the Alk is actually 7.7?

I have a red sea kit that tests at 9.5 when the alk is 8.0. So hypothetically maybe your Alk is much lower or higher than the test indicates? That's all I have.

 

[CoralWealth]

Look ok. If ur PH swing is not drastic then should not be the cause.

Thank you, is good to rule out PH, even though I turly never thought of that

 

[CoralWealth]

Have you tried multiple test kits to confirm the Alk is actually 7.7?

I have a red sea kit that tests at 9.5 when the alk is 8.0. So hypothetically maybe your Alk is much lower or higher than the test indicates? That's all I have.

Yeah I use 2 different salifert alk tests at the same time, both are at .50 on once it turns pink.


it looks like something is biting them or something because they become so brittle and have like very very small cuts/slits in the tips, then it slowly goes down that branch.

 

[esolo16]

Could definitely be a pest. I will let someone else more knowledgeable with pests help you there.

This may be a stretch, but did you clean the dosing containers/ato reservoir before using? The reason I ask is that I was having a very similar problem with frags lasting 2-3 weeks, then dying for a reason I couldn't figure out. It was not until I purchased new dosing containers that fit better in my stand that I realized my old containers had a very distinct chemical smell coming from them (I bought them off of ebay for cheap). Since switching dosing containers, I have not lost a single frag. Again, this is a complete shot in the dark but figured I would throw it out there.

 

[CoralWealth]

Could definitely be a pest. I will let someone else more knowledgeable with pests help you there.

This may be a stretch, but did you clean the dosing containers/ato reservoir before using? The reason I ask is that I was having a very similar problem with frags lasting 2-3 weeks, then dying for a reason I couldn't figure out. It was not until I purchased new dosing containers that fit better in my stand that I realized my old containers had a very distinct chemical smell coming from them (I bought them off of ebay for cheap). Since switching dosing containers, I have not lost a single frag. Again, this is a complete shot in the dark but figured I would throw it out there.

I definitely will have to check this out. I bought 2 cheap 5 gallon of those water gallon things that you use to see in offices to get cold water and use those for my alk and calc. How would you go about testing this? What dosing containers do you recommend, thanks for the reply. I am willing to look for anything as this is very frustrating. Triton tells me while it is ideal to have those unwanted heavy metals lower, they would not kill my corals

 

[watchguy123]

Pests are always a possibility. Although, if it were aefw you should see bites, typically at or near the base. Black bugs should be visible as well as red bugs.

Heavy metals at high levels would be an obvious culprit but I don't know values well enough to know if your levels are indeed high and abnormal. I presume you make your own ro/di water and so you may want to look at everything you can with that including tds, chlorine and chloramines. I can't imagine a source of heavy metals unless either some piece of equipment is breaking down or you have funky (high level metals) in your source water. If your source water is bad(the water to your house) that goes through your ro/di unit and if that unit is incapable of removing those impurities then you may want buy your saltwater and consider a no water change system e.g. Triton. Is your water source a well by any chance.

 

[esolo16]

The containers I had were acrylic and I am guessing whatever the company used to bond all the pieces together did not properly cure or was corrupted in some way. Since your containers are not bonded together, it might not be the problem. I would just want to check and make sure those containers are safe with liquids other than water. Some plastics are only safe with water and will corrode with other liquids.

I ended up going with OXO FlipLock Storage containers you can buy off of BRS and drilled some holes in the top. I have a small tank so do not need anywhere need five gallons of two part. If your containers are the actual cause of the problem, you could probably just use a standard five gallon bucket instead.

 

[CoralWealth]

Pests are always a possibility. Although, if it were aefw you should see bites, typically at or near the base. Black bugs should be visible as well as red bugs.

Heavy metals at high levels would be an obvious culprit but I don't know values well enough to know if your levels are indeed high and abnormal. I presume you make your own ro/di water and so you may want to look at everything you can with that including tds, chlorine and chloramines. I can't imagine a source of heavy metals unless either some piece of equipment is breaking down or you have funky (high level metals) in your source water. If your source water is bad(the water to your house) that goes through your ro/di unit and if that unit is incapable of removing those impurities then you may want buy your saltwater and consider a no water change system e.g. Triton. Is your water source a well by any chance.

Definitely not AEFW, dipped and found nothing close to that and it's starting from the tip. Looks like something is chewing on them very slowly or something. Ro/di yes I'm making myself and I have city water that is over 400tds before I run Ro/di but it is 0 after that. I am also adding another carbon and DI just in case. I don't know how I can tell if my RO/DI is doing a good enough job or not besides testing TDS on the handheld that says 0. I tested copper with the API copper test, I know obviously not the best but it showed nothing on my tap. Same with a chlorine strip.

 

[CoralWealth]

The containers I had were acrylic and I am guessing whatever the company used to bond all the pieces together did not properly cure or was corrupted in some way. Since your containers are not bonded together, it might not be the problem. I would just want to check and make sure those containers are safe with liquids other than water. Some plastics are only safe with water and will corrode with other liquids.

I ended up going with OXO FlipLock Storage containers you can buy off of BRS and drilled some holes in the top. I have a small tank so do not need anywhere need five gallons of two part. If your containers are the actual cause of the problem, you could probably just use a standard five gallon bucket instead.

How would you suggest testing to see if this was the problem? The bottle I am using are 5 gallon bottles from AmericanMaid

 

[Reefltx]

Any pics of those sps?

 

[esolo16]

Looks like those are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which I believe is reef safe and probably not the problem. There is not really a test for this, I just assumed my containers were problematic because they stunk of chemicals.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Perhaps you should run some gfo or polypad to pull some of the heavy metals out.

 

[bubbaque]

Why not stop dosing anything but two part and see if it helps?

 

[CoralWealth]

Any pics of those sps?

Can see the bottom right branches are effected, if you're able to zoom in more you'll see what I mean by it looking like it is chewed or something.

%5BURL=http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/c...A534-15708AF9A167_zpst10wspgw.jpg[/IMG][/URL]




This last one is probably the best and closest picture I have so you can see how I mean it becomes so brittle and looks chewed or something.

 

[CoralWealth]

Looks like those are made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which I believe is reef safe and probably not the problem. There is not really a test for this, I just assumed my containers were problematic because they stunk of chemicals.

Dang, were wishing they were the cause actually haha

 

[CoralWealth]

Why not stop dosing anything but two part and see if it helps?

I did this and it did nothing at all, the good corals actually looked worse.