Help Tips are turning white

[Btortorelli]

I have a nice little frag of blue tipped aco that has been in my tank for about three months now and has been doing awesome,just a couple of days ago i noticed like three tips turning white and i have no idea what it could be? All my other sps are fine its just that one acro.

salinity-1.026
Alk-9
calc-500
mag-1350

 

[jhawkor]

White tips are often a sign of growth.

 

[Btortorelli]

Hmm im not sure because it may look like its having a little tissue loss...Ill try and snap a pic at lunch time when i go home

 

[RickMartin]

white tips are often associated with alk issues. I would have your water tested with a different kit.
Have you made any changes in the last 2 weeks?

 

[CleveYank]

All postings about white tips are correct.

If it's Alk Burn you'll get white tips with tissue loss.

If it's just growth because light, current, nutrient and water parameters are just hippey skippey you'll have white tips on alot of your corals because they are growing so fast.

To verify which is happening you can wait until about 1 hour after lights out and use a 1x magnifying glass and a flashlight and inspect the coral at the tips.
If there is -0- polyp extension then you may have alk burn. Dead coral tips will also get whatever algae is dominant in the tank almost instantly begin growing on them too. So for this reason after correcting the out of line or bouncing water parameter(s?) I'd snip those alk burned tips off so the coral can heal and recover without anymore tissue loss.

 

[Btortorelli]

All postings about white tips are correct.

If it's Alk Burn you'll get white tips with tissue loss.

If it's just growth because light, current, nutrient and water parameters are just hippey skippey you'll have white tips on alot of your corals because they are growing so fast.

To verify which is happening you can wait until about 1 hour after lights out and use a 1x magnifying glass and a flashlight and inspect the coral at the tips.
If there is -0- polyp extension then you may have alk burn. Dead coral tips will also get whatever algae is dominant in the tank almost instantly begin growing on them too. So for this reason after correcting the out of line or bouncing water parameter(s?) I'd snip those alk burned tips off so the coral can heal and recover without anymore tissue loss.

Yea i did see last night that the polyps didnt have exension on those three tips...im gonna do a water change today and see if it gets any worse...or should i snip the tips right away?

 

[CleveYank]

If you know you have dead tips I'd snip the dead off just into the good flesh. If the water parameters are corrected and not continuing to change the tips will not only heal, but should actually grow back faster than before. (Some folks purposely snip tips to stimulate growth). Corals that this does not work on and can actually sometimes kill the whole thing is red setosa. (The version of it that is in a few hobbyist here in Cleveland appears to exhibit this sensitivity).

Fix the water, snip the tips and keep things more stable or you need to change something in your system husbandry and or setup for Alk,Ca and Mg supplimentation to stop the swings.

If you are vodka dosing or any bacteria driven dosing scheme then you need to hone your chops a bit more before continuing or re-work the system bioload so that need to dose is removed.

Have fun, :thumbsup:

 

[Btortorelli]

If you know you have dead tips I'd snip the dead off just into the good flesh. If the water parameters are corrected and not continuing to change the tips will not only heal, but should actually grow back faster than before. (Some folks purposely snip tips to stimulate growth). Corals that this does not work on and can actually sometimes kill the whole thing is red setosa. (The version of it that is in a few hobbyist here in Cleveland appears to exhibit this sensitivity).

Fix the water, snip the tips and keep things more stable or you need to change something in your system husbandry and or setup for Alk,Ca and Mg supplimentation to stop the swings.

If you are vodka dosing or any bacteria driven dosing scheme then you need to hone your chops a bit more before continuing or re-work the system bioload so that need to dose is removed.

Have fun, :thumbsup:

thanks for the help! Here is a pic i snapped with my iphone when i was at home real quick kinda hard to see
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/btortorelli/4382063747/" title=" by btortorelli, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4382063747_c67ff31a34.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt=" " /></a>