Acropora tip burn

[Jason McK]

The Reason I asked about the Bacteria based systems is that I did not want to recomment UV or Ozone to someone running that kind of sytem. Both UV and Ozone would destroy the bacteria.

This is my thoughts as Well. I think Brad had a treatment for vibrio at one time

Originally Posted by Samw

I had the same problems in the past. Things turned around for my Acroporas when I started running a UV while all else stayed constant and I was finally able to keep Acroporas alive and growing for about a year. Then, they started slowly dying again. My theory was that some kind of bacteria/vibrio was killing them and the UV sterilizer helped. When I neglected to change the UV bulb, the bacteria came back and I slowly lost all of my Acropora.

J

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Jason McK

I think Brad had a treatment for vibrio at one time
J

Ya, went to the doctor and convinced him to prescribe an antibiotic. Seems to have worked. Can't recall what the med was, but I'll look it up.

tony, I'll talk tou you offline about the symptoms I had that put me in that direction.

[Delphinus]

These pieces pictured haven't died yet, they are pretty much as shown at the moment. However given past corals as a guide for what to expect, there is no hope of recovery at this point for the pictured corals. Well, maybe not the hoeksemai as yet per se, but I am greatly distressed to see the white starting to form on that piece, up until this weekend it had seemed to do really well. It did get knocked over the other day though so I suppose it could just be distress from the fall and landing on something, but ..... I suppose the more realistic explanation is that it's just this coral's turn now.

I'll consider UV or ozone at this point .. clearly me focusing on the parameters, hasn't really netted any results, so I have to broaden the scope of what to consider.

So it looks like J&L sells Coralife and Pentair Aquatics brand UV, and Ocean Aquatics sells Current USA. Are UV systems created more or less equivalent or should one steer away from the less expensive models? What about Ozone? Is that a better option? It looks like an ozonizer with controller will cost roughly double that of a UV. (Oof )

[NAS]

I see in the back ground that you have a colt coral??? Or some leather by the looks of it. Try (Gasp) running activated carbon for about a week, and crank up your skimmer. A quick scrup will help take any organic toixins out. You will have to keep an eye on your trace's but a regular dose should be fine.

That's my two bits....

PS: The carbon wont be harmfull in the short term regardless of which carbon school of thought you subscribe to.

[Delphinus]

Background of picture #1? That's actually a monstrous sized xenia. No leathers (that would be a very plausible explanation otherwise - leathers and SPS don't play well together).

[Delphinus]

Ok, let's look at this from another angle. What if the lighting was totally inadequate? I know things would likely brown out first but could inadequate lighting cause damage this extensive this quickly?

[Sebae again]

IMO they would brown out not burn.

[Flipside]

Do you use any additives? maybe you over dose? Check your potasium and iron as well. and also? how did you measure your salinity? did you use a refractometer or one of those cheap plastic ones? and maybe your lights needs changing too. at 12 months it's about time to change it. No? what do you think?

[Flipside]

You know what else it might be? too much circulation blowing in one continues direction at the coral tips. Are you running some type of wavemaker so you dont have your powerheads blowing so hard continuesly off the tip or your corals.
maybe your temperature fluctuates too much? all these things I mentioned could have a great deal on the matter. maybe all or some combined. or your PH as well. You didnt mention your PH. maybe its too low or too high or it fluctuates between lights being on and off.
Worse case, you should take the burnt tips off to prevent spreading. otherwise you'll loose the whole piece. those are nice collection you got ther.

[Doug]

Tony, I wonder if there is an answer. Most of these threads and there seems to be many, seldom have a conclusion, when a seasoned aquarist like yourself is involved. Of course, many newer ones, make some visible mistakes, that we can help with but the ones like you, usually have enough knowledge to cover all the bases.

I read your thread on RC and similar answers over there, as on all the similar threads on sps problems like yours on the RC sps forum.

I wish I had an answer for you from reading most all of them over the years but dont. Just looking at them to me, looks like burn/bleaching from excessive light at the start. Not saying thats the cause but what it looks like. I cant see them receding like that from not enough light, old bulbs, or anything of that nature.

Definitely, as mentioned, abrupt alk. changes to the corals could cause it. As for the uv working, if you remember when the newest bare bottom fad [not the one we did back in the early 90,s. ], began, most of the experienced reefers promoting the system, also said using uv was a large part of it. If you check some of those large threads on RC in regards to it, most had mention of them.

I cant personally say if they help, as its been 20 yrs. since I used one, but the evidence from them and others like Sam, may show some truth in it. Mind you these were high flow bare bottomed sps systems.

As for ozone, does it not remove organics, similar to carbon? Always thought that,s what it was for. So if your problem is bacterial, then the sterilizer would be the way to help. I have thought about getting a small hang on unit for my nano. The one problem with UV units, is not changing bulbs soon enough, and/or premature bulb failures with some models. Plus I thought I read once about salt reducing the light emitted and models with the wipers to be far superior. [ just trying to remember things here].