BigPhatReefer
New member
I've experienced some issues with some maricultured Acropora over the last few days "“ tip burn and recession at base, plus a little browning out.
I think I understand the cause as my Alk is rock steady and the pieces were acclimatised to light and in different areas of the tank - all my Acro frags and other pieces seem ok (Monti's, styro's etc.), just my rather expensive maricultured colony's.
It looks like my salifert nitrate kit was giving me a false reading 2.5PPM when in fact it's closer to 7PPM, as I replaced it with a new one.
Same with my calcium which is 470 rather than 440 - i'm assuming Calc and N03 have been consistantly higher than i thought for awhile (so at least stable if not ideal)
As I seemingly had low nitrates I assumed that I had very high phosphates (tank is well fed) and may have used too much GFO to compensate for this (salifert test kit was showing zero but I know these aren't accurate at higher levels) when I had a bit of an algae bloom on the back glass.
Does it sound likely that high nitrates have caused some browning and over using GFO has caused STN?
I have started feeding my corals more to help them repair the damage as well as up water changes to 15% per week.
Still seeing reduced polyp extension on the effected colonies..
I've fragged and or super glued the colonies and it seems to have stopped..
Needless to say a HANNA checker is in the post"¦
SAL 1.026
Alk 9.3
Calc 470 (duff test kit!)
N03 7ppm
P03 ?
620 litre
Let me know your thoughts and any advice would be appreciated.
I think I understand the cause as my Alk is rock steady and the pieces were acclimatised to light and in different areas of the tank - all my Acro frags and other pieces seem ok (Monti's, styro's etc.), just my rather expensive maricultured colony's.
It looks like my salifert nitrate kit was giving me a false reading 2.5PPM when in fact it's closer to 7PPM, as I replaced it with a new one.
Same with my calcium which is 470 rather than 440 - i'm assuming Calc and N03 have been consistantly higher than i thought for awhile (so at least stable if not ideal)
As I seemingly had low nitrates I assumed that I had very high phosphates (tank is well fed) and may have used too much GFO to compensate for this (salifert test kit was showing zero but I know these aren't accurate at higher levels) when I had a bit of an algae bloom on the back glass.
Does it sound likely that high nitrates have caused some browning and over using GFO has caused STN?
I have started feeding my corals more to help them repair the damage as well as up water changes to 15% per week.
Still seeing reduced polyp extension on the effected colonies..
I've fragged and or super glued the colonies and it seems to have stopped..
Needless to say a HANNA checker is in the post"¦
SAL 1.026
Alk 9.3
Calc 470 (duff test kit!)
N03 7ppm
P03 ?
620 litre
Let me know your thoughts and any advice would be appreciated.
