Completely stumped

[serpentman]

After 1 yr of literally explosive growth, my reef is hanging on the precipice of total meltdown. I'm completely stumped as to why. About 3mos or so ago I had a jump in N03 to ~25ppm due to a dead (large) fish that I didn't catch. This was exacerbated by accumulated detritus in my sump. ORP dropped from 400 to 300. I took aggressive maneuvers by water change, denitrator, lowering bioload and removing all the rock in my sump to lower them. For the past month, my water parameters have been spot on target. Colors are in the tank are literally fantastic, PE is great and some SPS have been growing. YET, most are still continuing to STN, including my most colorful corals. Not sure if this is still due to the initial even or if something is still stressing them. I've looked at my data logs from my controller and nothing appears to be spiking or dropping overnight.

I'm completely stumped. The only two possible causes left at this point could be pests or a bad sand bed. I'm actually contemplating a scorched earth approach and dip everything and removing a lot of the sand. I'd be setting up a temporary QT in case the sand releases something. What do you guys think?

ORP: 390
pH: 8.3
Temp: 78.5
NO3: 0ppm
Ca: 460ppm
Alk: 10.5
Mg: 1400ppm
PO4: undetectable with my kit

The tank at is peak in late April:

 

[Dejavu]

IMO with STN is that once it starts it hard to get rid of it. Basically you have to let it run it's course. I experianced with my 90 gal for over a year.... pretty much lost most of my corals. Everything I tried never seemed to help.

 

[Bullredchaser]

try lowering your alk to 7-8kh.You have a denitrator which gave you a low nutrient enviroment and that alk over 9 is unacceptable.Its the reason zeovit recomends alk of 7-8kh as the tips burn any higher.

 

[Johnly]

never mind

 

[ryshark]

Didn't you recent switch lights from Halides to LEDs? If so does the timing with the issue and the lighting switch relate? I'm sure this is something you have already thought of and have an answer to.

 

[CleveYank]

Well to test the sand theory I'd do some aggressive hydrocleaning before I'd remove all the sand. If the sand is nasty the hydrocleaning will yeild some really dark brown to black pulls into a bucket. If it's heavy then I'd try hyrdrocleaning the rest of the sand via your weekly water changes. Given that your sand is rather coarse this should not be too difficult. With your outrageous flow and turnover I would be rather surprised if you were suffering from filled up sandbed syndrome in only a year. But stranger things have happened.

As far as the parasite question your idea of dipping and removing everything slowly into a quarantine and running it fallow 4 to 6 weeks. And then redip everything from quarantine back to the main after AEFW die off in the main from the fallow run is the best overall move I'd think.

I am not so sure I'd whack at both of these balls at the same time either.

 

[chefzif]

Jeff sorry to see you having problems with the tank! I sure hope all turns around for you and if you need a hand on the tank call me! Chef!

 

[teambutterfield]

try lowering your alk to 7-8kh.You have a denitrator which gave you a low nutrient enviroment and that alk over 9 is unacceptable.Its the reason zeovit recomends alk of 7-8kh as the tips burn any higher.

Is there any article in regarding with this? I am very interested in knowing the alk vs low nutrient.

 

[nivram]

Is there any article in regarding with this? I am very interested in knowing the alk vs low nutrient.

Just look into any of the threads on ULNS, zeovit or carbon dosing.

 

[sanababit]

i doubt its the sand, i see its to shallow, check for electricity leak, maybe something fell into the sump (penny, nickel), pests (try at least a dip on one coral), it happened to me but it was my alk, it dropped and then i spiked it....

Sana

 

[serpentman]

Alk could be the culprit but it would have had to been an event that I was unaware of as my levels appear consistent. The issues appeared before my NO3 really spikes so I'm not convinced that was the cause either. Although it certainly didn't help. At the peak of my problems, I lost a large singularia colony so I was concerned it released something. Ultimately, I'll probably never know for sure.

In the past the only cure I've found for STN was to frag the heck out of everything and hope some of it survives. However, this is the first time I've had STN on such a scale. Very disheartening since I have several large colonies.

I may just let things run their course. However, I will definitely aggressively frag the corals effected and move the cuttings to another system. Hopefully some if it will be salvageable.

 

[serpentman]

I thought I'd share that the tank is doing much better and the ORP has settled around 420. Tony (AD87) came over and helped clear out some of the pest corals and dead colonies. Anything that was STN'ing was aggressively fragged and mounted. So far they are holding on. Also began siphoning out some sand (only removing a few cups at at time).. There was definitely a lot of detritus held in there so it will take some time to get enough out to make me happy. Still suspect some pest issues so will doing some dipping in the upcoming weeks once things are settled.