Unhappy Fox Flame.....( a good example of what not to do)

[Mirkus]

Just trying to have a little reef fun here.....

I have seriously ticked off my fox flame. What could have caused it? (I’m pretty sure I know what did it) can you guess correctly?

my alk ranges 7-8

 

[SliceGolfer]

You put your hand in the tank

 

[cshouston]

Sneezed in the general vicinity

 

[adtravels]

Alk spike

 

[Ike]

Big alk dips and spikes (dips IME) seem to hit this coral hard for some reason, as does lower N and P...

 

[C. Eymann]

Alk spike

Agree that looks like classic tip burn.

 

[kenchilada]

You were eating Chicken McNuggets over the tank and dropped BBQ sauce on it.

 

[Mirkus]

You were eating Chicken McNuggets over the tank and dropped BBQ sauce on it.

hmm close, i typically dip my chicken nuggets in the tank for a little extra spice. I might have over done it this time....

 

[Mirkus]

My first ”mistake” was ordering p04 reagent after going over 7 years without testing. Next “mistake” was actually using it and seeing my p04 was 0.26. I had been feeding my tank pretty heavily, amino’s, reef roids, auto-feeder for fish, and frozen too. I then decided I was going to try to lower my phosphates (“mistake”) by reducing my autofeeder frequency, run my refugium a little longer, and start running a filter sock. Apparently my phosphate reduction ideas worked a little too well. My phosphate rapidly dropped to around 0.1 and 3 of my sps that I have had for a while were showing signs of alk burn. I do not run high alk, it typically stays under 8dkh, so I was a little puzzled by seeing the tips melt away. With that said, my woes seem to be tied to my decision to lower phosphates. The lower nutrients seemed to make the fox flame hyper sensitive to light and alk fluctuations. I had a couple fox flame frags in a lower par area that were unaffected.

Running lower phosphate hasn’t been all bad though. Many of my other sps are showing improved coloration and growth. It’s just the fox flame and a couple others that are not taking the nutrient change well.

 

[Rjmul]

My first ”mistake” was ordering p04 reagent after going over 7 years without testing. Next “mistake” was actually using it and seeing my p04 was 0.26. I had been feeding my tank pretty heavily, amino’s, reef roids, auto-feeder for fish, and frozen too. I then decided I was going to try to lower my phosphates (“mistake”) by reducing my autofeeder frequency, run my refugium a little longer, and start running a filter sock. Apparently my phosphate reduction ideas worked a little too well. My phosphate rapidly dropped to around 0.1 and 3 of my sps that I have had for a while were showing signs of alk burn. I do not run high alk, it typically stays under 8dkh, so I was a little puzzled by seeing the tips melt away. With that said, my woes seem to be tied to my decision to lower phosphates. The lower nutrients seemed to make the fox flame hyper sensitive to light and alk fluctuations. I had a couple fox flame frags in a lower par area that were unaffected.

Running lower phosphate hasn’t been all bad though. Many of my other sps are showing improved coloration and growth. It’s just the fox flame and a couple others that are not taking the nutrient change well.

A guy I know with a very big (recently "famous") popular store just made the same mistake to all of a sudden decide to chase phosphate.

 

[Reefahholic]

@aquaticlog had some PO4 issues as well. I think he tried to lower his PO4 with GFO and his Acro’s were too accustomed to the higher nutrients and got cranky.

 

[Perry]

It happens to be my canary, and recently mine did exact same thing. 2 mistakes made.
1. Dropped t5's 2 inches
2. Same time, started dripping kalk, despite very consistent alk/ca.
Both dumb decisions impacted fox flame first, ultimately lost most tips, and it has been grumpy since, oops!
Some others were showing mesenterial filaments, but no tip recession. Now it appears to be slowly recovering, and starting to grow tissue again, but I suspect 2 to 3 months to get it back

 

[jda]

Reducing the auto feeder feedings likely did more harm that lowering the P. Lowering the P is fine as long as you keep some nitrogen and stuff available in the water.... and you go slow with the lowerings. You gotta keep up the front end feedings if while you are lowering the back end. Availability > residual levels.

Here is like 15 months of Fox Flame growth with 1-3 PPB on a Hannah Ultra Low Checker. The availability is always good in my tanks:

 

[homer1475]

While I hold @jda to a high standard(one of the people I actually listen to on these forums), I fond it hard to believe that little nub grew into that massive colony in 15 months.

My little frag(not the tiny pinky sized frag of today, but more like a typical frag you would see a few years back. Couple inches long with a few branches) of fox flame has barely put on a couple inches in 6 months.

 

[hds4216]

You put your hand in the tank

Does this actually have a detrimental effect? Because I do that regularly during maintenance...

 

[homer1475]

Does this actually have a detrimental effect? Because I do that regularly during maintenance...

Was more of a "tongue in cheek" kind of comment because of how delicate SPS can be.

We all have to put our hands in our tanks once in a while. You should just limit the amount of times you do that.

 

[Overfloater]

Does this actually have a detrimental effect? Because I do that regularly during maintenance...

I don't know if it is detrimental or not but I have noticed several of my acros will retract their polyps when I put my hands on the tank.

They definitely know I'm in there so I try to keep my hands out as much as possible.

 

[jda]

Hand in tank is a metaphor for constantly messing around with things. Just putting your hands in to take some snails off of an urchin had never made a difference that I can tell.