Sps:- tip burn,

Heisenberg 78 · Aug 17, 2017

Hi all

Just thought I'd post up an ongoing issue I have with sps;

I've had the tank running now for around 8 months, I've started everything from scratch, clean dead rock fresh sand.. etc

I have been through the dirty stages of the cycle and now appear to be coming out clean..

I run a deltec pf601 calcium reactor which I set running about May time.

The alk went up to but remained stable at 9.7 dkh (on my first batch of corals that I bought), I noticed tip burn then they slowly died..

I had quite low nutrients at the time, with my phosphate being about 0.03 and nitrate about 0.2ppm dosing nopox at the time..

I kept getting a cloudy bloom in my water also which was coming from my reactor, later found it to be calcium carbonate particles.. i then switched it off and cleaned it all out and removed some media..

I then changed my carbon dosing regimen, and tried to increase my nutrients.. typically I aimed go for 5 ppm no3 and 0.01 to 0.03 po4 and stopped nopox.

Today my tank is plagued with Gha and my no3 is at 0.14 and 12-15 ppm no3.

I have recently set up a bacto pellet reactor to try and reduce nitrate, these by the looks of them haven't yet done anything..

I tried adding some very simple frags like stylo guttatus montipora.. and they all did alright for a few week , I then added a acro and the tips started to deteriorate again..

I have my reactor running at 1 bubble per 3 minutes.. yes very very low..but my alk has risen from 7.3 to 9.7 again in about 6 weeks.. (roughly 0.3 dkh rise per week when comparing test results)

I'm predating the Gha by hand and I've turned off the cal reactor.. ive just added some more bacto pellets the pellet reactor to hopefully start lowering my nutrients..

Can someone try and advise what is happening please..pleased to assist with more info if needed, thanks

jmp21677 · Aug 17, 2017

I was recently fighting po4 as well..I have a reefer 170 and couldn't get po4 below .09. I did not want to run GFO and added a DIY chaeto reactor and dosing amino acids..I also swapped out TO units as well. Since then po4 is around 0.03 and I'm okay with that. GHA is almost gone and haven't seen redslime in weeks

Robthorn · Aug 17, 2017

Other people do what ever they find works for them. If it was me I would only use a reactor once you reach 100ml per day dosing. Find a good product and just dose since if you aren't yet growing a mess of coral a decent reactor can make it hard to keep alk low enough for my tank at least.
As for the gha keep nutrients fairly low and it will run its course. Having a rabbit fish or tang like a dejardini can help.
It is hard starting with dead rock comparrd to the good ol live rock days. It needs time.

Rixar · Aug 17, 2017

Are you adding food to the coral? Have you measured the intensity for which you are receiving your corals?

kennedpa · Aug 17, 2017

What kind of reactor media are you using? I'm guessing by your bubble comment you are not doing this by pH meter with an autoregulator?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 17, 2017

Burnt SPS tips often relates to nutrients, especially nitrate, too low, when alkalinity is higher than about 7 dKH or so.

DesertReefBoy · Aug 18, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Burnt SPS tips often relates to nutrients, especially nitrate, too low, when alkalinity is higher than about 7 dKH or so.

I'm a newer reefer and am starting to really get into SPS. Can you explain in more detail what you mean in your comment. I'm following the Red Sea coral growth program and I keep my alk real high.

Heisenberg 78 · Aug 18, 2017

Rixar said:
Are you adding food to the coral? Have you measured the intensity for which you are receiving your corals?

Yes I've added reefroids, and some aminos periodically..

I have 2 radion gen 3 pros running at 65% running on the sps coral lab study. They are 15" from water level and the nearest sps to the light is approx 9" below the water line. (So 24" from light to coral)

I don't have a par meter to measure the intensity I'm afraid.

kennedpa said:
What kind of reactor media are you using? I'm guessing by your bubble comment you are not doing this by pH meter with an autoregulator?

I am dissolving ARM media in my reactor, I've set the reactor to run constantly as you say with no ph meter..

I don't know if that has any bearing on what's happening..?

XNavyDiver · Aug 18, 2017

Livingjewels said:
Yes I've added reefroids, and some aminos periodically..

I have 2 radion gen 3 pros running at 65% running on the sps coral lab study. They are 15" from water level and the nearest sps to the light is approx 9" below the water line. (So 24" from light to coral)

I don't have a par meter to measure the intensity I'm afraid.

I am dissolving ARM media in my reactor, I've set the reactor to run constantly as you say with no ph meter..

I don't know if that has any bearing on what's happening..?

I have the same lights (gen 4), the same amount of them and they're about the same distance from the water, give or take a couple of inches. I also run the same program, but mine haven't reached more than 35% during peak hours. I also don't have a par meter, but during peak, the top of the rock work looks like a very high par area and I'm afraid to go any higher.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 18, 2017

DesertReefBoy said:
I'm a newer reefer and am starting to really get into SPS. Can you explain in more detail what you mean in your comment. I'm following the Red Sea coral growth program and I keep my alk real high.

Burnt tips in SPS corals seems to be correlated with high alkalinity and low nutrients (undetectable).

If you want high alkalinity for high growth, make sure you have reasonably high levels of nitrate (say, 2-10 ppm) and phosphate (0.02-0.05 ppm).

Heisenberg 78 · Aug 18, 2017

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Burnt tips in SPS corals seems to be correlated with high alkalinity and low nutrients (undetectable).

If you want high alkalinity for high growth, make sure you have reasonably high levels of nitrate (say, 2-10 ppm) and phosphate (0.02-0.05 ppm).

Thanks for your response Randy good to have you on board:

So in regards to my case where nitrate is within those ranges of around 10ppm what would you look for in terms of resolving my issues?

My tip burn happened within a week and killed a superman monti within days.. the acropora is not the best but it's alive.

Phosphate is a little higher than I'd like to be at (0.09-0.14 ppm) but I'm working on it..
where the suggestion above mentions that higher alkalinity needs a higher nutrient content to avoid the tip burn, why would I be suffering this issue?..with the higher alk and slightly higher nutrient relationship I thought would work together, it's almost like I have no nutrients ..
Thanks in advance

Luis Figueroa · Aug 18, 2017

Livingjewels said:
Thanks for your response Randy good to have you on board:

So in regards to my case where nitrate is within those ranges of around 10ppm what would you look for in terms of resolving my issues?

My tip burn happened within a week and killed a superman monti within days.. the acropora is not the best but it's alive.

Phosphate is a little higher than I'd like to be at (0.09-0.14 ppm) but I'm working on it..
where the suggestion above mentions that higher alkalinity needs a higher nutrient content to avoid the tip burn, why would I be suffering this issue?..with the higher alk and slightly higher nutrient relationship I thought would work together, it's almost like I have no nutrients ..
Thanks in advance

i have the same problem with my sps like you. I have high alk 10 and nutrients are high too but still have burnt tips or very pale tips.

I've started to lower my alk and calcium to see if that helps out the the tips.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 18, 2017

If you have burnt tips and adequate nutrients, I'd certainly look to reduce the alk to around 7 dKH. I'm not sure if it will solve the problem, but its a good measure to try.

DesertReefBoy · Aug 20, 2017

Another noob question. What is the difference between burnt tips and new growth. I have a bunch of SPS that have white tips. My nutrients as of this morning were No3 3-4 ppm, Po4 0.06, Ca 410, Alk 9.0, Mag 1300

Heisenberg 78 · Aug 20, 2017

With burnt tips you can see the skeleton underneath which looks quite coarse. Colouration is poor and no polyps showed you may see algea growing or that brown tinge to them.

With healthy growth the colour should kind of blend in from white to the base tissue colouration and look like they are 'glowing'..

For reference look at a montipora plate with a white growth rim.

DesertReefBoy · Aug 20, 2017

Livingjewels said:
With burnt tips you can see the skeleton underneath which looks quite coarse. Colouration is poor and no polyps showed you may see algea growing or that brown tinge to them.

With healthy growth the colour should kind of blend in from white to the base tissue colouration and look like they are 'glowing'..

For reference look at a montipora plate with a white growth rim.

Ok thank you!!

DesertReefBoy · Aug 20, 2017

Here are a few pics of new frags that are maybe 10 days old in my system. I don't see any algae growth on the tips. I figure it is new growth but wanted to make sure. The first stick has a piece of chaeto wrapped around it.