i havent heard of that low of a swing causing stn from the base up, i have gone thru a very bad alk swing, maybe 6dkh, it went from 6 to 12 then to 8 then back to 11 then to 6, etc, i was trying to balance alk using baking soda and a calcium reactor, long story short, my acros started dying from the base, later i balanced it out at ~9dkh, and the stn stopped, i lost 2 small colonies, but everything is back to normal now, good luck
sana