Biopellet burn?

The only thing I've run into is I've had the pellets the whole time and replaced them when they broke down over 3 months my corals are mid tank and my light is a ft off my tank so with that said did I do the right thing?

 

Hum, I read it that you just started pellets... sorry bout that. There is nothing saying you did anything "wrong". Are you sure the tips are burnt and not just new growth?

With pellets I did not want my alk high and wanted it right in the middle 8-9. So work on lowering that, even though you are not extremely high. Most folks with burnt tips had alk higher than you.

If the pellets have been off line now for a while and are dead... well ya, try using half even though you were running them before and get them going again and then add in the other half later when things calm down.

And as always, I don't want to jump to conclusions.. might not even be pellets and alk.... but one word of caution about running lower alk... if you try to stay in the middle, then you have more room when things go bad. High causes more problem than low and if you are on the high end... less wiggle room... I mean even a test kit going bad or faulty reading puts you in a bad place easier. So run mid to low/mid... 7-11 is perfectly fine... so 8-9 is a good place to be. And again, at 10 you are not bad.

 

Well here's the kicker I guess, every Sunday is my tank maintenance day I make sure the day is open until I'm done fixing and I did replace the pellets, it is indeed burnt tips, I use sailfert test kits and am always very precise when doing it, I also test 3 times and take an average reading, the tips are done but there color is bad, and low pe unless I feed, even my Montipora looks like trash, everyday I see new coralline algae growth so my params are indeed in check I dose 15ml of cal 10ml of alk and 10ml mg every 2days and my corals took off growing.

 

As others have said, no one really knows why people get burnt tips. I've run alk 11+ without issue, but I feed a lot. And suspect feeding has to do with it.
Decreased nutrients are definitely associated with increased skeletal growth, but not tissue growth. I tend to suspect that the problem is related to feeding, as you don't get nutrients for tissue growth from light. So, perhaps the skeleton is growing faster in proportion to tissue. The tissue is then thinner and more prone to infection. That's really just a guess though.

As to PE, PE is not a sign of health, it is a feeding response. Which in nature, tends to only happen at night. So, low PE doesn't mean anything to me, other than there isn't much food in the water, or something is nipping, or the corals just waiting for lights out.

 

Well I can also add this, my Ora Hawkins turned brown/base of my coral is white along with my digita and one of my torts but the other is slowly fading, I feed my tank rods food only and as a treat reef nutrition I had a Hollywood stunner chalice bleach out and right next to it was another that is perfectly fine I'll take some pics so everyone can see what I'm talking about its hard to explain it also looks to be some sort of brown algae on the digitas tips not sure what that's all about..

 

That's pretty funny, I always had to do two tests "just to make sure". Sounds like you have very good habits and are on top of your tanks conditions.

Well it's possible the replacement pellets changed thing, and as m2434 said... tip issues can be from slow tissue/fast skeleton growth. I would still do half the pellets... don't worry about alk right now... just let it fall over a couple weeks... heck take 1-2 ml off ans see how it drops... you will need to allow it to drop, but then when it gets to where you want it.. you will need to go back to 10 ml/day... because that is what you are consuming a day.

And it would not hurt to feed more. Some coral specific stuff... rotties, phyto, oyster eggs, cyclopeze. And it you don't do it, turn out your moon lights at night... as dim as they are, they still effect corals... when I went total dark, all my corals came out to feed like crazy... so I would feed coral food and turn off the skimmer for a couple hours before lights out and it made a big difference in my corals.

... the brown algae on the tips is just because it is dead... algae will grow on anything that isn't alive... I realize it's frustrating... I had a couple take a turn on me from a suspected alk swing even though I was never sure. And they make it or they don't. But I nursed them as best I could and all but one came back.

 

Yea i am not running moonlights, how many times do you suggest feeding? i mix up some reef nutrition rotties,phyto, and coral frenzy food by rods food, and i use a turkey baster to spread it around my corals, my skimmer, and vortechs are auto shut off with my RKE, i was told it would be better for me to cut the dead tips off, but on some its really hard b/c one is a bottle brush acro, whitish/tan with purple polyps and id have to basically cut it in half to get it to come back.. and i always test 3 times just to make sure im doing everything right, some day once i know exactly what my tank is consuming on a daily basis, i will still dose accordingly, or i will be testing it once a week, all test kits have flaws, and id rather be safe then sorry when dealing with hundreds of dollars worth of corals.. and fish since i cut the pellets, (still slowly running yet but just barely a trickle coming out of the reactor) ive noticed no more tissue degeneration or (burning) on anymore of my corals, and a slight shift back in color, (not all that much) but im hoping i found the problem and one day i can go back to the pellets, i believe i made the mistake by simply changing all of the pellets when i should have just added a little bit.. ya live and you learn.

 

Ehhh you know what you are doing. I didn't feed coral food every night... like every other night. but same stuff as you.