SPS losing tissue. Help!

[PensFan05]

I made the jump from a 29g BC mixed reef I had for 2 yrs to this 150g mixed reef I bought from a local reefer back in Jan. It has been doing well up until now. In the past couple weeks the SPS started looking bad. It look as if the tissue on the tips loses color and falls off. Not turning completely white at first though. Now some of the tips are turning white. Some of the milles now are very brittle. If you barely bump it they break. My pH was low but I have been trying to get that back up some. Also varies from 7.7-8.2. Is that too much of a swing? Temps go from 77.5-80.5. Just recalibrated temp probe and pH probe to make sure they are correct.
The specifics on the tank are.
150g 30g sump, and 30g fuge.
Calcium Reactor
Ecobak Biopellets
Apex Aquacontroller
2 mp40w (running in reef crest mode)
vertex alpha cone 170 red dragon 1000 pump
ATO system
3x 250w MH's 20k Radiums (bulbs about 5 months old)
150w MH 14k Phoenix over fuge on reverse light cycle as main tank

Any ideas what could be going on? I'm going to test params here in a little bit and I will post them here also.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[newbie916]

Hard to say without water parameters.

I've heard mixed reviews on the Bio-pellets and several reefers having problems with their sps.

 

[PensFan05]

Temp 79.2
Salinity 1.024
pH 8.09
Ammonia .25
Nitrate 2.5
Nitrite .1
Calcium 470
dKH 8 143.2 ppm KH
Magnesium 1230
Phosphate 0

My ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites have all been 0 before. The biopellets had gotten to about half what they were. I refilled them this week. Could the biopellets getting low and causing that little ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites be the problem?

I have changed to doing weekly water changes. I did 25g three weeks ago, 45g last week, and doing 20g this week.

 

[CichlidMan@<3]

Any ammonia or nitrite is extremely toxic to almost all stony coral and fish

 

[PensFan05]

Would the bio pellets getting low have caused this to rise? They both have always been zero before.

 

[newbie916]

I'm not familiar with bio-pellets, so I can't comment on if they could cause a rise in ammonia or nitrites.

Do you have anything decaying in your tank? A fish or something that may cause it?

Your Mg could be a little low too, but that won't cause the ammonia or nitrites and I'd think with the weekly water changes you've been doing that should help.

I'd try to run some carbon to see if it could pull some of the stuff from your water and stick with the water changes. There's something that's causing what sounds like some sort of mini cycle.

 

[PensFan05]

Ok took some water to the LFS to be tested. Nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia all tested zero. They may have been zero when I tested before. It was so close and I was kind of hoping that was the problem so water changes would correct it. So water parameters are good, dips show no signs of pest, and bulbs are only six months old. What could be causing my tips to turn white?

 

[smokenax]

it could be that your ca is to high or your system is low in nutrient and the corals are starving.this happened to me so i bumped up the feeding and the coral started coming back.

 

[PensFan05]

Yeah I have currently just been feeding cyclops and oyster eggs. I think I may look into starting to feed amino acids. Any suggestions on feeding or dosing while running biopellets?

 

[PensFan05]

Sorry double post

 

[smokenax]

are you running biopellets now? if so that maybe your problem,you may want to do a couple of water changes,calcium seems a little high with the alk being 8 dkh your ca should be around 420 or 430 ppm.