Help with Acros

[msudiver1]

I have been keeping SPS for about 5 years now so Im not new to it. I recently redid the tank and have had great growth and color on an all acros in the tank until about 1 month ago. I have had a few small colonies start to receed from the tips, lost a hawkins and an icefire, but am seeing the same thing on a few other colonies. I watch a few tips almost look burnt, then a few more, then it starts receding. I have not had any big alk swings to justify burnt tips and I do not see any signs of AEFW or red bugs everything was dipped in bayer and qt for 6 weeks before adding to display. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Im thinking of adding Lugols to see if maybe the Iodine is depleted, but im grasping at straws, nothing has changed and half the colonies look great. I do not do frequent water changes. I do about 5 gallons every 2-3 weeks and use salitity salt Here are the spec below.

90 Gallon tank
4 ATI T5 with an Icecap 660
Reef Octopus Skimmer
GEO calcium reactor
2 MP40s
Phosban reactor
BRS dosing pump for mag

Levels
ALK 8.3
Calcium 400
Mag 1400
Phos 0
Nitrates 0
salitity 0.125

Fish List
Powder Blue
Foxface
Purple tang
purple firefish
2 clowns
leopard wrasse
yellow watchman goby
mandrin
dusky jawfish
royal urchin
globe urchin
4 turbo snails

 

[Jim Z.]

Burnt tips is usually associated with low nutrient tanks and high alkalinity. Most reefers that keep SPS under ultra low nutrient conditions keep the alkalinity around 7. A simple solution is to maintain aquarium parameters as is for now and increase the feeding. You can try Rod's Food coral blend which has lots of small food items that your SPS can handle as well as algae, shrimp pieces that your fish will devour. Go Spartans..................Jim

 

[msudiver1]

Thanks Jim, I appreciate the input. I feed once a day usually pellets and myssis and coral frenzy 3 times a week. It just seems odd that I have only burnt tips on some of the tips and only a few at a time, but I am willing to give anything a try. Thanks and go green.

 

[rovster]

This is my experience only, but with ULNS whenever my alk crept up above 8 I would get burnt tips. Try lowering alk 7.5 and see what happens? GL.

 

[msudiver1]

Thank you for the response. Now that you mention it I did raise my ALK up to get over 8 a while ago. Ill try to bump it back down and see if that helps.