SPS with white tips

[Rozman]

I have 1 peach mille with white tips and 1 green bottle brush with white tips. The rest of my acros. and pocci. are fine. Could they have white tips from an inbalance in my tank or is this how they grow? I am currently in Phase 3 of the Zeovit system.
I am adding:
.25ml of Zeostart
4 drops Zeofood
4 drops Zeobak
all 1x weekly.

I have a 125 gallon tank,with a CACO2 reactor and all paramiters are within normal range. I just started using Pro-Marin salt this week. The problem was occuring prior to the salt change.

Please advise on what I should do.

Thanks
David

[G.Alexander]

David, are you able to post some pictures of the affected corals ?

Thanks, G.Alexander

[CAReefer]

If I understand your question correctly, white tips IME are signs of good growth. The growth is basically occuring faster than the zooanthellae (sp?) can keep up with.

Picture from Edward's post here
http://zeovit.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4865

[Rozman]

Yes I can post some picture tonight.
David

[G.Alexander]

Thanks David, looking forward to figure out what is going on

G.Alexander

[invincible569]

If I understand your question correctly, white tips IME are signs of good growth. The growth is basically occuring faster than the zooanthellae (sp?) can keep up with.

Absolutely correct. Its perfectly normal. You are seeing the new base skeleton which will soon be covered by zooxanthallae.

[reeferben]

Very interesting, hope you don't mind if I add a few questions here.
Would it be a good idea to extend the photoperiod in the tank, either actinics or 10k spectrum?
I have the same happening to 2 corals in my tank. One is a mili, the other is a purple tip acro.

Thanks!

[Aged Salt]

Hi Reeferben, if those are grow-tips & not photo-burn tips, then your lighting period time-frame maybe increased. Without knowing more about the specifics of your tank, if you decide to extend the photoperiods, of course, do so slowly[only weekly increases] & do not lower your lights at the same time for fear of photo-over-saturation of your corals. Bob

[Orion76]

Especially milli's have white growth tips, but if in doubt I'd post a picture and get a second opinion because it can also be a sign of trouble.

Easy to distinguish between growth tips and stress tips to the trained eye though

[wasp]

I've found growth tips on pink milli's are yellow. If they are white could be trouble.

[Aged Salt]

David & Ben, pix's would be helpful, if you can.Bob

[invincible569]

A little more explanation ... the new growth you are seeing, calcium carbonate (skeleton) usually bright and a little transparent have UV protecting amino acids & green fluorescent proteins because of its low concentration (density). The brighter color at the tips lack zooxanthallae which is not the true color of the coral, yet.

I have had corals that still grow, but show no sign of white tips.. but when taking pictures, you can see that they have in fact grown. A sign of white tips is usually a postive sign that your coral is growing at a faster rate the zooxanthallae can keep up. Therefore corals with longer white tips, are growing faster. The growth is controlled by polyp excretion which lays out the new white tips you are seeing.

[reeferben]

I don't want to hijack rozman's thread, so if you think I need to start a new thread, just let me know...
Thanks for all the help. I am pretty sure they are growth tips, but I never seen both to tell the difference ... feel feee to chime in.

Here are some tank specs
100 gal acrylic
30 gal sump/ fuge with chaeto
120 lbs LR / SSB (1.5 to 2 inch)
NH4 / NO2 / NO3 : 0
PO4: 0 (although I do not believe so)
Ca: 410
Alk: 9-10 dKH
pH: 7.88 to 8.01
Mg: 1400
ER CS6-2 skimmer
50mg Ozone (offline)
Carbon
Phosban reactor with rowaphos (started 1 week ago)
Zeo: Not yet, maybe soon
1 Tunze 6000 on controller, closed loop with ampmaster 3000 and OM SSquirt
T5HO lights on IC 660, 8 hour photoperiod
Dual chamber Ca reactor (currently offline for pump maintenance)
PM Kalk reactor

Here are some pics. The green milli has been in the tank for 1.5 months.

I don't know what the acro is, I got it brown from a LFS along with a browned monti next to it, about 3.5 months ago.

[gqjeff]

Reeferben, bring the dKH to 6-8 and you are fine.. Those are growth tips no problem at all.. I would say you are on the brink to having some very nice colorful SPS...

Jeff

[Orion76]

Looking healthy to me