So what is alk burn and is it causeing my dead tips?

[redfishsc]

Are you dosing anything like vodka, vinegar, sugar, vitamin C, prodibio, Brightwell Fuel, etc...? If so, these all can cause this problem with an alk of 9-10.


Another suggestion would be that you're seeing some sort of allelopathy from something in your tank that the ROX isn't catching. What little I know about allelopathy bothers me though. Anthony Calfo has me convinced to remove a lot of my soft corals from the 2nd tank I have on my system so that my SPS in the first tank will stand a better shot.

 

[PowermanKW]

Are you dosing anything like vodka, vinegar, sugar, vitamin C, prodibio, Brightwell Fuel, etc...? If so, these all can cause this problem with an alk of 9-10.


Another suggestion would be that you're seeing some sort of allelopathy from something in your tank that the ROX isn't catching. What little I know about allelopathy bothers me though. Anthony Calfo has me convinced to remove a lot of my soft corals from the 2nd tank I have on my system so that my SPS in the first tank will stand a better shot.

I don't dose anything besides Marine SSnow and Aminos. No carbon stuff.

My Zoas sort of slowly melted away over time, I yanked out the clove polyps. I have a coupel Rics and some Shrooms. Those are the only softies I have.

 

[redfishsc]

OK, all sounds good. I doubt a few shrooms would cause this kind of problem if you're running ROX.



The only other things I can think of are (possibly already mentioned, if so, sorry!):

1) Water flow. From the pics it appears that something like harsh waterflow (even for a brief amount of time) could have damaged the skin area and led to some RTN.

2) Compare your alk kit to another alk kit. It's distinctly possible that the accuracy of the kit has drifted over time. Maybe get (or borrow) a different brand and test your alk with that. The API alk test is usually a nice, cheap way to at least corroborate a reading from another kit.

 

[PowermanKW]

I was afraid you were going to say that.

So there is a power head sort of pointing at it away a bit. Sort of indirect. But when it was healthy it had really good PE and it did not look like it was in too much flow.

So I went with Salifert for Alk... got from LFS... ran through that in a few months, then got another one. Well I noticed it was the same lot number, so I don't know if ti is old.

I did cross check it with a SeaChem. Had that for probably 6 months now. I use the Mg kit out of it. Well it reads in meq/l.... but it said my Alk was 8.4 dkh when my salifert reads 9.6 dkh.

So not sure which to believe, and at leas the Seachem says lower so it is not like it was a point higher. not sure what to think about that. But my number were stable for months and I didn't make any changes, they just slowly started dropping off.

By the time I got to 8.6 DKH... I decided to bring it up. I used a calculator and the dose was only what I was dosing daily and when I dosed it it came exactly to where the calculator said, so I think my readings are accurate????

 

[PowermanKW]

So just as a follow up..... it appears to be holding steady now. It looks pretty tattered for sure. I took the power head off it to calm the flow on it down. PE is still not really there..... but for now it seems it has stop spreading. My Alk is pretty stable at 9 and I'm trying to dial in daily dose.

Still don't know if it was Alk burn, but that seems to be the best guess.

I have a new frag of Cali Blue tort that is showing it's tips. Never thought much about alk burn and getting frags from lower Alk tanks. I'll have to ask the guy what his alk is in his tank.

 

[neoalchemist74]

Theres another discussion about the same problem in a Canarygirl thread called ,something like alk burn but not alk burn. check it out theres some other perspectives

 

[PowermanKW]

Thanks for the tip. I have been following it.

 

[PowermanKW]

Just for an update.... my Plasm is coming back. I can see the spots closing up daily and the PE is getting better. My Tank is down to 400 Ca and 9.0 Alk. Things are looking good and I'm happy.

I increased my lights from 6 hours to 8 hours over two weeks. So far no real change good or bad.