Acros with "Burning Tips" and STN - Help

[pterfloth]

Originally Posted by kien

for starters I'm pretty sure SPS enjoy alk 7 and up.. Especially if your calcium is at 420, I believe the proper alk should be 8.4(ish) dKH. Here's a chart of the balanced alk and calc values. I'm sure you'll see it from time to time.

Alk meq/L Alk dKH Calcium ppm
0------------0-----------360
0.5----------1.4---------370
1------------2.8---------380
1.5----------4.2---------390
2------------5.6---------400
2.5----------7---------410
3------------8.4---------420
3.5----------9.8---------430
4------------11.2---------440
4.5----------12.6---------450
5------------14---------460
5.5----------15.4---------470
6------------16.8---------480
6.5----------18.2---------490
7------------19.6---------500

I'm sure there could be (and probably are) other things going on but since the only info you provided were Alk and Calc, that's all I had to go on :-) So what else is going on in your talk? What are the other params? Do anything different lately?

Thanks for your reply. I thought my alkalinity was too low, so I had already increased the setting on my dosing pump. I have been traveling on business a lot lately and haven't been able to keep as close an eye on my tank as usual. When I got home today, I ran a set of tests and found my alkalinity lower than normal. I also recently was away for 16 days and when I came back found my alkalinity at 6 and my calcium at 500. I had gotten things under control before I left for this most recent trip.

Thanks again for the feedback. I'll work on bringing the alkalinity up over the next 24-48 hrs.

BTW. Everything else is normal. Nitrates and PO4 negligible. I have an AC3 controlling everything except the 2-part doing pump.