just tested my salt! could this be the reason why my sps are not happy??

murphreef

Active member
ok everyone well i have had problems with my sps for a while now.....

not knowing what the deal is ive tried everything possible to figure this out.....

removing soft corals adding more flow adjusting flow....

reducing photo period and changing bulbs and so on.....

well i tested my Ocean Pure Pro salt today for the first time in along time!!!!

when i first tested it when i first started using it it came back at:

ca 440
alk 9dkh
mg 1350
sg 1.025
temp 80

i tested again today and heres what my current bucket test at.....

ca 550
alk 10.6 dkh
mg 1350
sg 1.025
temp 80

this seems a lil high to me what do u guys think??

can this salt be causing the issues with my sps corals??

ever since starting sps ive used this ocean pure pro salt and my sps have never done great most of the tips will fry and burn especially the ones facing the lights.....

ive had ones do good then all the sudden go bad and it seems to be happening slolwy over time and im wondering if this salt is causing this issue or has caused this issue for the last year....

i change 15-20% every 3-4 weeks in my 180.... however all parameters usually check normal when doing water checks....

CA 400
Alk 9
mg 1350
sg 1.025
temp80

but can doing a water change with a higher alk and ca water cause tips to burn on sensative sps corals and for montis to bleach and die away over time??

this issue has perplexed me for the last year and if the salt is the issue i might have just finally figured out the reason!!!

please respond with ur insight!

thanks
 
Ah, the salt...interesting, very interesting. Maybe it's just enough of an elevation in ALK to burn the more sensitive corals. Doesn't seem like only 40g of water change has enough ALK to raise the whole tank. How do you pump the water back into the tank...are any SPS that are burned getting new change water pumped directly on them?
 
hey sean....

lol yeah i keep trying to figure this out to no avail lol

maybe ill start all over and buy all new equipment and do it again for the 3rd time lol

i put the new water in the sump and return it through the sump return pump so i dont think anything gets blasted directly....

yeah doesnt seem like 40g would be enough to harm the tank and burn the corals.....

whatcha think?
 
no ive never really tested right after a water change but hmmm i just dont see how that would really harm them i dont think it would be high enough to burn them

welp im still confused then
 
are these from your tank or the new saltwater before the change:
CA 400
Alk 9
mg 1350
sg 1.025
temp80

Start with checking the tanks parameters. Also what is the alk on the reactor set to and how much are you dripping. Check does parameters and see what happens. I was having some issues as well and most where form my alk being to high so I lowered my alk and things have been doing a lot beter. I would start with that.
 
those first measurements are from the tanks water....

the higher ones are from a new batch of water that was freshly mixed....

my reactor is set at about 60 bubbles per minute in CO2

and the effluent drip rate is around 150 drips per minute im guessing im not totally sure its a high drip not a stream though....

it keeps my PH from the first chamber around 6.6ish

what happened in your situation??

did u have burns on the tips of ur sps also??
 
I find it highly unlikely that an increase of that small amount of DKH will burn your tips....High Ca certainly isnt going to cause that either.
 
I had some with burnt tips but other where not looking so good. My alk was 13 so it was realy high. Have you checked to see how much alk your tank uses up per day. The best thing I did for my tank was set my reactor to what I needed and everything is looking a lot beter and growing more. I dont think doing a water change would cuase this since its not that big of a diffrence from what your tank is at and what the FSW is at. Can you check you alk and ca of your tank right now? also check what your CA reactors alk is at just to check something out.
 
well i just re adjusted the drip coming from my reactor i was on vacation the last 4 days and it kinda slowed down so i readjusted things let me see....

ill tell u in a few what i got?

well if its not the salt from the water changes what else could cause this i am getting so frustrated with this BS....

this is why i got a whole new bigger tank and better setup so i could keep anything i wanted...

man this is just so frustrating....

only other thing i can think is my lights but i dont see how they can cause any issues if anything my tank is underlite...
 
your alk reading is still in the acceptable range with your freshly mixed salt water, and this is being diuted 4.5 times into your total water volume.

What have you done to your tank recently? How many bulbs are you running at what time period? And what species of coral are reacting negatively?

I doubt that it is the chemistry but you could easily moniter these changes over the course of the next month or two and draw some conclusions.
 
my water chemistry has stayed pretty much stable for a while now....

i just dont know what else it could be....

as of now i only run 2-250W phoenix 14K HQI's over my tank along with 130W of PC acitnics....

i know its not lot but i keep the acros up higher in the rocks and some do awesome down low!

i also had this light setup on my old 100 and corals acted the same way tips fried so i dont think lighting is an issue but im not sure...
 
thats weird, so what kind of DE pendents do you have. Also how do your fish look like. I mgiht be something else but did you check your water? Also do you have some pictures of the lighting setup?
 
ok well i checked my tanks alk it was 9.6dkh so it went up some from vacation but prior to that it was very stable in the mid 8's

i dont think this 1 point increase is of any signficance becuz this was recent and it took 5 days for it to increase 1 dkh ....

all of this tip frying has happened over the last year with alk readings from 7-9 dkh but all readings were stable readings....

ill post a pic of my lights in a second....

they are PFO mini pendants for 250W HQI bulbs on PFO HQI ballast....

could the lights be doing something to certain acros?? burning the tips??

all i have left is either lights or salt mix please help with some insight....

fish look great and are all healthy
 
ok so heres a pic of the lights....

some corals do good suh as a few wild colonies... my millis do good and my valida which is center bottom.....

the ones doing bad are various aquacultured stags over the year green slimers and all monits of any kind.....

what do u think....

the pendants maybe too bright in certain areas im confused i mean they are only 250W 14K's

what u think??

lightss.jpg
 
nope lighting has noting to do with it I have the same lighting on my tank and its only 36"L and thats alot of light. So in that pictrue which ones are not doing good. Also just a question ima sure you know but do your pendents have a glass shield on them? Could you show what kind of burn your corals look like? Sorry I know to many request but I think there might be someting going on and want to see if I can help you out.
 
shoot my lights went out but ill take some pics tomorrow of the tips of some of the affected acros for u to look at and see what u think....

yeah i have the glass shield on the pendants....

i know 2-250 watters isnt that much over a 180 im actually adding anotehr pendant this week just waiting for it to get here so ill be running 3 of them....

i actually retested my tanks alk and its still at 8.3 dkh i did a mis test the last results were wrong ....

so my current tanks alk is 8.3 dkh and the Ca is 410 mg is 1350

these levels have been stable for a while now

what other possibilities do u think might be happening here??

BTW thanks for all ur help and concern id really like to find out whats goin on here
 
The only thing I can recommend at this point would be to try a diffrent type of salt. Untill I see the pictures of the burnt tips its hard to say. Let wait and see what the pictures look like then we can go from there. I have never used OPP salt so iam not to sure how good it is. I know a friend of mine tried it but did not like the results so he went back to Tropic Marine pro. I my self will only use Tropic Marine (regular) since I've had good results with this salt.
 
i just got a bucket today of TM reg and am planning on doing a 25% water change this week

thanks for ur help ill post pics of some of the affected acros tomorrow afternoon then maybe u can tell me then....

thanks alot!!!
 
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