Acro STN Help

[Joel T]

Good morning all - sorry this got to be so long winded. You can skip to the bottom if you don’t need to know the reason I think my alk spiked.

I got an alkalinity swing over a two day period. Alk usually sits around 8.0, tested it about two weeks ago and found it at 9.9. I backed off my kalkwasser dosage but didn’t realize my five gallon jug was almost empty so I went from 9.9 to 7.4 in a couple days. Everything in the tank looked fine but about a week later I found my one acro with a couple tips that stripped. I’m talking like an 1/8 of an inch on the tips. The rest of the coral looks healthy. All other parameters looked to be normal. Temp and salinity were also good. I know people get annoyed when you’re asking for help and say all my other parameters are good. I log all my parameters and they’re all around the same to what I usually test. I think my Alk may have spiked high due to kalk slurry at the bottom of the container I did clean the container.

Question: Should I cut back underneath where it stripped? I understand this might be a silly question, I believe the answer will be yes but how far down do I go? It’s not that big but I can cut right below the stn or do I go down as far as I can go on the branch ?

Advice from an experienced sps reefer would be appreciated. If you want my other parameters I can post them. I can also snap a couple pics when the lights come on.

 

[DEL]

Over this past week my alk went from 8.5 to 13.2. I thought my trident was acting up again, so I tested with hanna. Turns out it's correct. All I did was turn off my doser and leave calcium reactor running. I'm leaving everything else the way it is. Let the corals adapt. They will be fine. Sps have their boost moments where they grow like crazy then stop. I think that's what happened. My advice, leave it alone for now, you may take a hit on a piece or two, but better than messing up a whole tank.

 

[Joel T]

Hey Del. Thanks for the response. I’ll leave it alone. See what happens. Here’s a pic. Coral looks ok other than the three tips . It was actually growing the week before the alk swing.

 

[DEL]

Hey Del. Thanks for the response. I’ll leave it alone. See what happens. Here’s a pic. Coral looks ok other than the three tips . It was actually growing the week before the alk swing.

Pic didn't show.

 

[Joel T]

Pic didn't show.

For some reason it’s not letting me attach a pic

 

[akma]

When my sps starts receding i give it a day or 2. If it gets worse I frag or glue the receding part right away.

 

[The Gooch]

All of your parameters, what you use to measure your salinity with, and testers used for each element. System age, rock type, sand/no sand, lighting type, schedule, par. Aquarium size, flow, and lots of pics. Just one piece affected or many?

If your only question is should you trim off the recession, sure, it’s never a bad idea. If you want a shot a knowing what caused the recession in the first place we need all the info possible.

IME acros survive alk swings just fine. Think about when we transfer them from different aquariums at different levels. The issue is what caused the decrease in AlK consumption in the first place. Any idea? That is the initial problem. An icp test is invaluable for times like this.

 

[Joel T]

Before I send pictures of my tank I need to do a quick explanation of why I have so many frags. I’ve been planning a 100+ gallon upgrade so I’ve purchased a couple more frags than I should have.

I’ve never checked par.
- 40 gallon breeder with 20 gallon sump
- Reefbreeder 32V2 light 12 hour ramping up from 35% to 65% haven’t changed my lighting schedule in five months tank has been running for a little over a year and a half.
2 jebao wave makers
- Bare bottom
-Carib sea rock with some two little fishes stax.
- Checked refractometer for calibration and checked good
-Dose kalk. Dose Tropic Marin a & k at half the recommended rate and I do a 10% water change every two weeks
-Red Sea blue bucket salt

I know I should check par and I am going to do an icp test. You ask a great question, why did my tank stop consuming KH. Let me know if anything jumps out at you.

 

[The Gooch]

3 things.

1-verify your salinity. I stopped using Refractometers solely last year when I discovered 3 different bottles of calibration fluid reading differently. Tropic Marin glass hydrometer with a 500ml plastic graduated cylinder is most accurate. Never needs calibration. Fauna Marine said 70% of American ICP tests come in with low salinity. Trusting Refractometers is why.

2-rent, borrow, or buy a par meter. You need to know your par, not only overall, but from each color diode. Minimum par around 200 and you can really push the par to that lights ability as long as it’s not coming mostly from whites. A strong white peak for a couple hours daily is a safe bet. From 35%-65% I suspect your par is low. There’s too many variables here to discuss in this thread.

3- didn’t ask your water change schedule. If you’re one of those guys that doesn’t do water changes, now is the time to do one lol. Make sure di resin is fresh, and sediment and carbon blocks are changed recently as well. If your sediment looks brown, change it asap. Edit: I see 10% every 2 weeks. You might want to do a 25% wc with fresh resin and see if you get a positive response.

An ATI oes ICP test would be my recommendation. It gives you an rodi analysis as well.

 

[DEL]

Before I send pictures of my tank I need to do a quick explanation of why I have so many frags. I’ve been planning a 100+ gallon upgrade so I’ve purchased a couple more frags than I should have.

I’ve never checked par.
- 40 gallon breeder with 20 gallon sump
- Reefbreeder 32V2 light 12 hour ramping up from 35% to 65% haven’t changed my lighting schedule in five months tank has been running for a little over a year and a half.
2 jebao wave makers
- Bare bottom
-Carib sea rock with some two little fishes stax.
- Checked refractometer for calibration and checked good
-Dose kalk. Dose Tropic Marin a & k at half the recommended rate and I do a 10% water change every two weeks
-Red Sea blue bucket salt

I know I should check par and I am going to do an icp test. You ask a great question, why did my tank stop consuming KH. Let me know if anything jumps out at you.

@Joel T par meter is back and available for rent. Just let me know.

 

[Joel T]

3 things.

1-verify your salinity. I stopped using Refractometers solely last year when I discovered 3 different bottles of calibration fluid reading differently. Tropic Marin glass hydrometer with a 500ml plastic graduated cylinder is most accurate. Never needs calibration. Fauna Marine said 70% of American ICP tests come in with low salinity. Trusting Refractometers is why.

2-rent, borrow, or buy a par meter. You need to know your par, not only overall, but from each color diode. Minimum par around 200 and you can really push the par to that lights ability as long as it’s not coming mostly from whites. A strong white peak for a couple hours daily is a safe bet. From 35%-65% I suspect your par is low. There’s too many variables here to discuss in this thread.

3- didn’t ask your water change schedule. If you’re one of those guys that doesn’t do water changes, now is the time to do one lol. Make sure di resin is fresh, and sediment and carbon blocks are changed recently as well. If your sediment looks brown, change it asap. Edit: I see 10% every 2 weeks. You might want to do a 25% wc with fresh resin and see if you get a positive response.

An ATI oes ICP test would be my recommendation. It gives you an rodi analysis as well.

Thanks for the info. I do water 10% water changes every two weeks. I'm going to send out an ICP and see what it comes back with. Also, I'll rent the PAR meter from the club.

 

[Joel T]

@Joel T par meter is back and available for rent. Just let me know.

Hey Del. let me know what you need from me to rent the PAR meter.

 

[akma]

3 things.

1-verify your salinity. I stopped using Refractometers solely last year when I discovered 3 different bottles of calibration fluid reading differently. Tropic Marin glass hydrometer with a 500ml plastic graduated cylinder is most accurate. Never needs calibration. Fauna Marine said 70% of American ICP tests come in with low salinity. Trusting Refractometers is why.

2-rent, borrow, or buy a par meter. You need to know your par, not only overall, but from each color diode. Minimum par around 200 and you can really push the par to that lights ability as long as it’s not coming mostly from whites. A strong white peak for a couple hours daily is a safe bet. From 35%-65% I suspect your par is low. There’s too many variables here to discuss in this thread.

3- didn’t ask your water change schedule. If you’re one of those guys that doesn’t do water changes, now is the time to do one lol. Make sure di resin is fresh, and sediment and carbon blocks are changed recently as well. If your sediment looks brown, change it asap. Edit: I see 10% every 2 weeks. You might want to do a 25% wc with fresh resin and see if you get a positive response.

An ATI oes ICP test would be my recommendation. It gives you an rodi analysis as well.

Just ordered a tropic marin glass hydrometer. Past week my refractometer has been acting up and between that and my Hanna tester, both are giving me different salinities.

 

[The Gooch]

Just ordered a tropic marin glass hydrometer. Past week my refractometer has been acting up and between that and my Hanna tester, both are giving me different salinities.

Get the 500ml graduated cylinder for it. The checker is good for a round about figure when mixing new saltwater, but dial in with the hydrometer.