argh, SPS issue (receding from the tips)

gig

gig

New member
so I have this milli mini colony that's been in my tank for months, doing well, good color. Today I notice that two of the branches in the back are completely white from the tips down. I have a couple other millis in the tank that are fine so far.

so what has changed?

well about a month ago I got my Ca Reactor, so my Alk is consistently at 11 dkh versus 7-8 and dipping if I didn't watch it. I've been testing over the last couple weeks and it's pretty much sticking at 11.

last week I was out of town, I have a big fan that regulates the temp, my tank stays consistently between 78 and 78.5 throughout the year. Well, my wife was annoyed with the noise from the fan and turned it off!! (it was not hot out and dind't understand why it was running???:hello:) the tank is in the basement, but with nearly 700W of light on it, it will heat up without intervention.

so the tank on Friday got up to 79.5 degrees at it's peak, before the night came, lights went out and it cooled back down to the 78-78.5 range, where I returned home to realize the fan was off (argh).

so if the tank has been used to this tight range of 78-78.5 for months/years, do you think the temp swing had the effect on the milli? which tend to be a sensitive SPS?

Thanks!
 
Now I'm definitely not an expert, but a 1 degree difference one day shouldn't be that huge of a difference. The ocean changes temperature all the time, between day and night it will go up 1-2 degrees throughout the day.

I don't have any other idea on what could cause the issue you are having, but I personally don't see how a random 1 degree day could have that form of effect.

But this is just my opinion, don't take it as fact.
 
the alk change could be whats doing it, if it was happy at 7-8 before and now is consistently 11. where is it from? fiji millies are notoriously a pita

also what about ph swing with the calcium reactor?
 
thanks all, so I've read that between 8-11 is ok for Alk with SPS? pH has been keeping steady around 8 to 8.1 depending on the time of day.

I supsect that maybe the change in Alk would do it, but it's been reading 11 for the last couple weeks and the bleaching/stn happened over night. I just tested and the Alk is 11

I'll test my phos and nitrates, but I dont suspect they are out of line, but I am overdue on changin out my GFO
 
fwa - I think this stuff is maricultured, the one piece I got from Matt at sho tank several months ago
 
Chris, you're tank has been stable for months now and you're SPS are going to get use to you're levels 11 is a tad high, but if they were accepting the levels for a few months now it shouldn't have been a problem. I think the slight change in temp and maybe Alk as well is what casue this to happen. Some millies are stuborn when it comes to temp changes. Everyone's tanks are different and it's usually the normal temp or Alk that crashes it. I would just keep an eye on the others and continue you're normal routines of SPS maintenence
 
Alk is kinda high most people with sps i talked to keep around 8 to 9 temp of one degree wont harm nothing trust me found out my tank was 6 degrees cooler then i thought. Millies r tricky things i had similar issues . Recently i found out my chiller leaked all the freon into system . Some how my sps survived. Any way maybe a flow issue or light issue. Ps mine always recovered nicely so just keep eye on it
 
alk is what it is, wherever you calcium is in range alk will balance out to what it should be, anything under 12 is fine long as your ph isint being rased significantly by dosing or swingin
 
thanks all

Frankie - yeah, it's a very established SPS tank, I have a mysterious death of a frag here or there, but rarely. Had some issues months ago before the Ca Reactor where my growth caught me off guard and the Alk would not stay above 7 or 8 without buffering, not it's at 11 and I dont dose a thing, my Ca reads in the 440-480 range. I too think it's a combo of the Alk change, the temp change and the fact it's a milli. This one is a blue/grey one with pinkish tips, it's odd, because it only effected like 2 or 3 corallites in the back of it, the 11-12 in the front are all fine and happy.

fwa - yeah, my PH hasn't been swingin, although today oddly enough it's at 7.92, the past week it's been around 8.05 to 8.10, so what causes the pH to drop like that?
 
another question, if the new Ca Reactor is pushing my Alk too high, how do I adjust it so the levels come down?
 
hey Glenn, so right now I'm using the really coarse media, I've got my apex to do the following (pHca is the solenoid and pH is the tank pH)

If pHca > 06.68 Then ON
If pHca < 06.48 Then OFF
If pH < 07.90 Then OFF

so I get sloing down the buble counter, but do you mean changing the above to say?

If pHca > 06.78 Then ON
If pHca < 06.58 Then OFF
If pH < 07.90 Then OFF

will the coarse media break down at these levels?

Thanks!
 
I also retested my Ca today and it's closer to 330 now, so something isn't working right. My effluent was a fast/medium drip, do I need to turn it up slightly to a fast drip/slow stream?
 
thanks fwa, I dont have alot of macro but what I do have doesn't seem to have gone sexual (doesn't it look white or translucent).

anyone else? Glenn? help! :) my pH was down to 7.85 overnight, argh
 
Hope your get this resolved. Ca Reactors scare me. I've never had the guts to experiment with them. I think you need someone very experienced with it to hold your hand for awhile while you get comfortable with it.
 
Advanced Aquatics said:
Chris slow down your bubble count on your CO2. Raising the PH on your controller a tenth or two. Keep monitoring the levels.
Click to expand...

I agree with Glenn, slow down the bubble counter how many drips are you doing per second? I would test until you dial it in again. I had a 72G and I was at 1 drop every 3 seconds. What type of C02 regulator are you using?
 
Chris you have it exactlt correct. by moving your controller up .10 on the set point your regulator won't be running as much. The higher your set point the lower the dillution in your unit. Higher PH setting less CA & Alk. I think this is a case of just slowing the flow and running your original ph setting or lower. I run 6.3 but that is heavily stocked system probably not what you need to do.The only problem you can't control Alk & Ca seperatly. If you want a lower Alk number and you slow down your CO2 by doing this your droping your Ca in your affluent as well. You can't decrease one number but not the other and visa versa. It sounds like your affluent is too fast. It should be a steady or fast drip not a stream on a 180. One liter of effluent per 100 of tank roughly. Diffrent manufacturers will give you diffrent settings but they should be close. On your tank 40-50 mls a min would be my guess.If your were refering to 7.85 on your aquarium that is not uncommon to be under 8 ph. There are two PH number son your aquarium day time and evening. When your lights go on your PH rises during the day based on photsthensis the brighter the lighter the greater the rise. and also reversing at night your fudge would off set this. The fast flow rate on your effluent is causing a greater drop than you would normaly have. Just readjust the flow on your reactor and your probably going to need to then reset the PH back lower on the controller. I think it was just an example of too fast of a flow rate. If you where running the reactor too quickly and slow down the flow and slow down your bubble count you will see a hudge decrease in CA & Alk.
 
thanks Glenn for the advice earlier, I appreciate it!

so one more for anyone who's listening :)

so if I've got the solenoid set to only be on between 6.48 and 6.68, does it really matter how fast my bubble counter is? I assume I just have it at a decent count to get it within range, because once the pH in the reactor gets to 6.48 it shuts off anyway and doesn't turn on until 6.68.

Thanks
 
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