Alk spiked killed huge sps!!

[DEL]

Just as the title says..a huge alkalinity spike from 8ish to 10.5 in as little as a week killed my three biggest colonies. ALL were birdsnest type colonies. Thank goodness my high end frags are doing OK. I thought my alkalinity was high because of an error with the trident.....I was wrong. I lowered my calcium reactor drip rate to half to slowly lower the alkalinity without a fast drop. You can see in the last Pic I posted the brown colony on left side and right side of tank.

 

[nvladik]

Ohh wow... that's a giant colony on the left!!! Sorry for your loss!

 

[MadReefer]

Wow. Sorry to here that. How long was it sitting at 10.5 to do all that damage?

 

[kevin]

Wow. What caused the spike?!

 

[DEL]

Im thinking first it had to do with weather change. Could also be corals stopped the growth spurt, so I had a fast drip rate, and the corals didn't absorb it fast enough. But honestly, I am not sure. All I dose is coral snow and micro bacter purple. A few trace elements as well.

 

[iTzJu]

What was your pH like leading up to it? I’ve noticed with the windows closed from the heat, pH tends to drop more at night. When that happens, alk usage usually slows down at least that’s been my experience. That might explain the spike. I’ve been tweaking my kalk drip a lot lately with the warmer weather to keep it from spiking my parameters.

 

[The Gooch]

Suprised that the Birdsnest died and acros are ok. I have a crap ton more of that blue zing hybrid Birdsnest. I’ll bring you a chunk at the next gathering if you’d like.

 

[MadReefer]

What was your pH like leading up to it? I’ve noticed with the windows closed from the heat, pH tends to drop more at night. When that happens, alk usage usually slows down at least that’s been my experience. That might explain the spike. I’ve been tweaking my kalk drip a lot lately with the warmer weather to keep it from spiking my parameters.

I have this problem during the Winter and added a CO2 Scrubber to my skimmer. So far been stable at 8.2. In Summer usually its 7.5 and in Winter drops below 7.

 

[kevin]

Im thinking first it had to do with weather change. Could also be corals stopped the growth spurt, so I had a fast drip rate, and the corals didn't absorb it fast enough. But honestly, I am not sure. All I dose is coral snow and micro bacter purple. A few trace elements as well.

Ah, that's scary. I just started dosing redsea foundation b to get my alk back up to normal levels. I've been tracking it for the past week.

 

[DEL]

What was your pH like leading up to it? I’ve noticed with the windows closed from the heat, pH tends to drop more at night. When that happens, alk usage usually slows down at least that’s been my experience. That might explain the spike. I’ve been tweaking my kalk drip a lot lately with the warmer weather to keep it from spiking my parameters.

My PH goes from 7.9 to 8.3. Up and down daily. Never had an issue. Wondering if the death in the big colony meant less alk consumption.

 

[DEL]

Suprised that the Birdsnest died and acros are ok. I have a crap ton more of that blue zing hybrid Birdsnest. I’ll bring you a chunk at the next gathering if you’d like.

Thanks man I appreciate that. These colonies were so big i always gave a bunch away to reefers at the meetings. Now time to grow them from tiny frags again. Ah well, that's the game.

 

[ericrodriguez]

Thanks man I appreciate that. These colonies were so big i always gave a bunch away to reefers at the meetings. Now time to grow them from tiny frags again. Ah well, that's the game.

That’s always the case the bigger the colony is the fastest it will go, frags usually can handle the change a bit better!!
Pm me what type of birdsnest it was maybe we have and I’ll get you some in the next meeting

 

[DEL]

That’s always the case the bigger the colony is the fastest it will go, frags usually can handle the change a bit better!!
Pm me what type of birdsnest it was maybe we have and I’ll get you some in the next meeting

appreciate that man. they were three different kinds. The one i really liked was a peach colored one that everyone who came over and saw it always wanted to know what it was, and of course wanted a piece. I see some polyps still hanging around, so i may just keep a bunch of tiny frags and see what happens.