Alkalinity

[bizzleb01]

What is a good range for alkalinity in an SPS dominant tank? I can't figure out why I keep losing SPS. They seem to do great for a couple months then seem to die off. I've had a red planet and X factor cap that have done quite well over the past four or five months. I've had a tort, green slimmer, multiple birds nest and a couple stags that I just can't keep alive. My red digi, Duncan, frogspawn and Zoas are all doing great too.

My parameters are 0.0 phosphate
410-420 calcium
1310 magnesium
8.12-8.25 alkalinity
1.025-1.026 salinity
79-81* temp
8.2 ph

 

[chris.scang]

All of my parameters are the same except I keep my phosphate between .03-.06. I haven't had any problems
with my sps.

 

[risin]

I read an article a while back about nutrient levels related to light intensity and alkalinity levels. Didn't think much of it at the time, but i'm seeing similar issues to what you're describing. My nutrients recently dropped considerably, and I started having trouble with some select SPS, while others (like red planet) are unaffected and thriving. I have considerably dropped my light intensity because the corals with issues seem to start with bleaching. It's too early to tell if there is any changes, good or bad.

 

[bizzleb01]

The majority of the corals that die started losing tissue from the base and move up. The green slimmer for instance lost all the tissue on the back side of it but the front is still living but slowly decreasing. I'm running a reefbreeders led

 

[janes_mw]

The majority of the corals that die started losing tissue from the base and move up. The green slimmer for instance lost all the tissue on the back side of it but the front is still living but slowly decreasing. I'm running a reefbreeders led

your numbers look good and the lighting is fine. I run pretty much exactly as your running (including lights) and growth excellent..... but maybe my nitrates and phosphates are slightly detectable. I have no algae growth and feed the tank pretty well. Puzzling "sport" to say the least!

mike

 

[robthorn]

I would want to get out to hundreths on your phosphate reading. If you are .09 that can be an issue but I assume you are not.
How are the coral colors? Brown? Bright ?
I would get a magnifying glass or macro lens and look for an infestation of some sort.

 

[bizzleb01]

I use a Hanna checker for phosphate. Coral colors never brown they retain color until the flesh dies off I've checked for bugs and have seen none. I have to clean my glass about every other day but I have no algae anywhere else

 

[bizzleb01]

So around 8 is good?

 

[snake1]

Doing a quick read through I haven't seen a nitrate level posted what are your nitrate readings. I just had the same battle and thought it was alkalinity because I found my alk in the 10s which could be the case but after correcting the all issue my corals continued to die off until I dusted off the nitrate test kit that I haven't used in a year at least and my nitrates where above 10 more like closer to the 20 ..now that I did some massive water changes and brought it back down in a weeks time I have seen a lot of growth on my corals

 

[bizzleb01]

Checked nitrates and they are undetectable

 

[bizzleb01]

So, all of a sudden my X factor cap is turning brown and looks like it's dying. I really need to figure out what's going on. I can't seem to pin point the issue. I'll be testing water again when I get home.

 

[tsav]

Too little nutrients. Might be starving your coral. Get nitrates to be around 5 instead of 0 and I bet the cyano goes away.

 

[robthorn]

Brown is normally a high nutrient problem. White or light is normally low nutrient.

 

[A1t2o]

Your Alk is not the problem, but I would prefer to have it at 9 if it were my tank. I would agree with the problem being too low of nutrients, except you said that you are cleaning algae off the glass. Make sure your flow is good and check your PH an hour after the lights shut off to check the PH swing.

Also you may want to check your copper levels. If your water source is contaminated with copper or if it was somehow added to your tank in slightly greater than trace amounts then you could have an issue. A LFS had someone put pennies in their frag tank and lost pretty much all their SPS, a lot of the LPS, but kept most of the softies.