Help with SPS? Burnt tips or other?

[DanyL]

What exactly are you dosing with to increase nitrates?

Also, have you done any other changes since you posted here?

A jump from 0.3 to 0.6 and now to 0.7 isn’t typical nor trivial to achieve, so I want to make sure it is in fact a valid result.m, because otherwise if you decrease it now and find out it wasn’t, it could easily crash your system.

@Randy Holmes-Farley could this possibly be related to the equilibrium processes?

 

[One Reefing Boi]

What exactly are you dosing with to increase nitrates?

Also, have you done any other changes since you posted here?

A jump from 0.3 to 0.6 and now to 0.7 isn’t typical nor trivial to achieve, so I want to make sure it is in fact a valid result.m, because otherwise if you decrease it now and find out it wasn’t, it could easily crash your system.

@Randy Holmes-Farley could this possibly be related to the equilibrium processes?

Neonitro at 3.5mL/day (in my 50 gal system) so based on their equation in the back it’s just under 0.5 ppm/day.

I’m pretty sure I don’t keep messing up the test but…

 

[DanyL]

What is the test kit you and the LFS are testing with?

How do you feed your fish?

 

[One Reefing Boi]

What is the test kit you and the LFS are testing with?

How do you feed your fish?

Some TDO pellets. I put them into a shot glass with some tank water so they sink a bit. Tank only has 2 clowns, 3 pajama cardinals, a royal gramma, and a yellow watchman goby. I sometimes (maybe 1x every other week) feed frozen mysis

 

[DanyL]

Some TDO pellets. I put them into a shot glass with some tank water so they sink a bit. Tank only has 2 clowns, 3 pajama cardinals, a royal gramma, and a yellow watchman goby. I sometimes (maybe 1x every other week) feed frozen mysis

Yeah, that’s not a lot.

What is the test kit you and the LFS are testing with?

You haven’t answered this yet.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Yeah, that’s not a lot.


You haven’t answered this yet.

Oh, my bad. I use Hannah (use for all my Params) ULR tester (fairly new) and my LFS only does water testing till 4pm and I’m in the office today so I will get it sampled tomorrow when I’m wfh. Not sure what they use

 

[Miami Reef]

Looks like AEFW. Dip the piece to check.

 

[DanyL]

Oh, my bad. I use Hannah (use for all my Params) ULR tester (fairly new) and my LFS only does water testing till 4pm and I’m in the office today so I will get it sampled tomorrow when I’m wfh. Not sure what they use

Make sure the cuvette is clean, even a slight smudge can skew the results.
Testing again with a different test kit would be a good idea.

Looks like AEFW. Dip the piece to check.

I don’t see any bite marks.

One can also use a Turkey Buster to blow on the tissue and see what falls off.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Make sure the cuvette is clean, even a slight smudge can skew the results.
Testing again with a different test kit would be a good idea.


I don’t see any bite marks.

One can also use a Turkey Buster to blow on the tissue and see what falls off.

Will try it again as well tonight after work.

And what should I look for? White specs? Flat worm looking things? I don’t see any bite marks either but don’t want to rule anything out.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Looks like AEFW. Dip the piece to check.

How would I dip the entire rock? It’s heavily encrusted and grown a bit

 

[DanyL]

Will try it again as well tonight after work.

And what should I look for? White specs? Flat worm looking things? I don’t see any bite marks either but don’t want to rule anything out.

It is almost impossible to see AEFW with the naked eye, at least as long as they’re attached to the coral tissue.

One way to test this in place is to use a Turkey Buster, or even a small pump to blow off the tissue from different angles and watching what falls off.

You can search google for examples of how the flatworm looks like, as well as the eggs and the bite marks.

 

[Troylee]

I’ve been watching this thread.. I don’t think po4 is your problem as it wouldn’t burn your tips.. burnt tips is normally from a alk spike.. how have you been keeping your big 3 inline and consistent?

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Looks like AEFW. Dip the piece to check.

Make sure the cuvette is clean, even a slight smudge can skew the results.
Testing again with a different test kit would be a good idea.


I don’t see any bite marks.

One can also use a Turkey Buster to blow on the tissue and see what falls off.

I see little white bugs on another one of my sps frags (looks healthy though besides a little damage at the tips) but they look like pods and scuttle around quickly.

It is almost impossible to see AEFW with the naked eye, at least as long as they’re attached to the coral tissue.

One way to test this in place is to use a Turkey Buster, or even a small pump to blow off the tissue from different angles and watching what falls off.

You can search google for examples of how the flatworm looks like, as well as the eggs and the bite marks.

not on this acro in question, but another one (had RTN but is stable now after dosing nitrate) has little white bugs on it. They sort of move like pods in quick short bursts. Are these a concern?

 

[One Reefing Boi]

I’ve been watching this thread.. I don’t think po4 is your problem as it wouldn’t burn your tips.. burnt tips is normally from a alk spike.. how have you been keeping your big 3 inline and consistent?

Red Sea dosing pump that doses each over a 24hr period based on my consumption I’ve calculated. I haven’t adjusted it lately for the coral growth I have had hence why the number have crept a bit lower than usual

 

[Troylee]

I see little white bugs on another one of my sps frags (looks healthy though besides a little damage at the tips) but they look like pods and scuttle around quickly.

not on this acro in question, but another one (had RTN but is stable now after dosing nitrate) has little white bugs on it. They sort of move like pods in quick short bursts. Are these a concern?

There’s your problem.. interceptor should cure your tank hopefully! The black ones are like impossible to get rid of!

 

[One Reefing Boi]

There’s your problem.. interceptor should cure your tank hopefully! The black ones are like impossible to get rid of!

What are they?

 

[Troylee]

What are they?

White bugs.. sps pest include red bugs, white bugs, black bugs, acro eating flat worms and I’m sure there is more! Those are the most common.

 

[Miami Reef]

I knew there was a parasite of some sort. I am very familiar with the dried look that comes from parasite damage.

Remember, when things look bad, biology is often the culprit, not chemistry. The nutrients were fine.

 

[DanyL]

I see little white bugs on another one of my sps frags (looks healthy though besides a little damage at the tips) but they look like pods and scuttle around quickly.

not on this acro in question, but another one (had RTN but is stable now after dosing nitrate) has little white bugs on it. They sort of move like pods in quick short bursts. Are these a concern?

Like @Troylee already mentioned, white bugs are indeed your culprit.

Never had them myself before, so my knowledge battling them is limited, but there are quite a few threads in r2r that show how others dealt with them, and I recommend reading through to get a grasp on how the treatment may look like and what would be your best approach.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

I knew there was a parasite of some sort. I am very familiar with the dried look that comes from parasite damage.

Remember, when things look bad, biology is often the culprit, not chemistry. The nutrients were fine.

Glad I didn’t start nuking it with GFO after all! Still think my PO4 is high, and I’ll keep dosing nitrates a bit to try and get them up from low 3s to a little higher (I have a ton of torches that like dirty water too).

So I’m in the US, what’s the treatment for the white bugs. I’d prefer not to have to break apart/chip off rock from my scape