My corals keep dying... PLEASE HELP

[lpsouth1978]

We are getting to the end of our rope and cannot figure this out. We have already lost one coral and at least three more are declining. It started about a month ago with a deep water tabling coral that started to STN. Despite our efforts, it did not survive. We are now battling with an unknown acro, Pink Birdsnest, and Orange Milli that all have STN. we have not seen any brown jelly, AEFW's, Red Bugs, etc...

We have dipped in Coral Rx and bayer (though there have never been any sign of pests). All params are stable, no new fish additions, etc. The params and tank inhabitants are listed below. Please help with any ideas you may have.

Params:

Temp - 78 (Ranco controller)
SG - 1.025 (Refractometer calibrated with 35ppm reference fluid)
Alk - 7.2 (Lomaotte)
Ca - 480 (Nyos)
Mag - 1275 (Nyos)
N03 - <10ppm (Red Sea)
P04 - undetectable (Hannah)
pH - 8.1 (Milwaukee pH controller)

Fish:

Naso Tang
7x Green Chromis
3x Lyretail Anthias
Pair of Blacker Ice Clowns
Pair of Diamond Watchmen Gobies
Midas Blenny
Royal Gramma
Lineatus Wrasse
Melanurus Wrasse
Carpenters Wrasse
Cleaner Wrasse
Green Mandarin

We feed 2x daily a mix of Mysis, Calamus, LRS Reef Frenzy, and LRS Herbivore Frenzy as well as Nori for the tang.

We dose sodium bicarbonate with an auto doser. We also dose amino acids daily by hand.

 

[nuttyd]

Had a stn on my birdsnest recently. Started dosing alk and it stopped. Regrowing now. Was in the mid 7 also. Keeping at 9 now.

 

[lpsouth1978]

Had a stn on my birdsnest recently. Started dosing alk and it stopped. Regrowing now. Was in the mid 7 also. Keeping at 9 now.

This may be one of the most frustrating parts of keeping a reef tank. We were keeping Alk at 9dKh but were told that we wanted it closer to 7 in a low nutrient system. I suppose I can try raising it over a few days if that is the issue. I just want to keep the tank stable with params the corals need. We are getting pretty tired of always fighting problems instead of enjoying the tank.

 

[Drewl117]

I'm sorry but... What is STN?

 

[nuttyd]

Agreed. Im trying to get mine dialed in so i dont have to mess with it much. Finally hooked up a sump so now my wc is down from weekly to maybe monthly. Once o grt alk and cal dosing down im set.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Drew, STN is Slow Tissue Necrosis.

 

[shubunk]

I'm sorry but... What is STN?

i would also like to know. :strooper:


Edit: it means slow tissue necrosis

 

[Drewl117]

Thank you.... I need to get up on all the abbreviations.

 

[scottwhitson]

Does your water appear cloudy/dusty? We were having issues with tissue necrosis and just overall poor coral health in our 600 gallon tank. The water appeared very cloudy/dusty we hooked up a UV sterilizer to take care of the bacterial bloom that we were having and that turned our coral issues around.

 

[lpsouth1978]

Does your water appear cloudy/dusty? We were having issues with tissue necrosis and just overall poor coral health in our 600 gallon tank. The water appeared very cloudy/dusty we hooked up a UV sterilizer to take care of the bacterial bloom that we were having and that turned our coral issues around.

No, the water is crystal clear.

 

[DSMpunk]

One reason to keep alk at around 9 is the inaccuracy of our test kits and testing methods. If your alk is around 6 dkh, but your testing resolves alk to 7.5, you think you are golden, but the tank suffers. Keeping it at 9 is kind of the middle of the road so it allows a little breathing room on both sides due to inaccurate and inconsistent test results.

I am not a big fan on ulns because of the small range of acceptable alk numbers. I personally have seen the best growth and color from 7 alk, 420 ca, BUT the slightest deviation usually results in tissue loss and unhappy coral. This is why I stopped running GFO, feed more and keep my tank around 8.5 dkh and 450 ca.

 

[anbosu]

This happened to a local reefer, and the most likely culprit was amino acids. He stopped dosing them and in an few weeks most of his pieces recovered.

I would also double check your RO/DI filters.

 

[Sk8r]

Your alk and mg are a shade lower than I used when I ran acros, prior tank. I had 8.3 alk and 1300-1400 mg.

 

[lpsouth1978]

This happened to a local reefer, and the most likely culprit was amino acids. He stopped dosing them and in an few weeks most of his pieces recovered.

I would also double check your RO/DI filters.

Thank you for the suggestions. I am pretty sure the amino acids are not to blame. They were only put into service about a week ago, but this problem has been going on for a month or more.

I am still getting 0 TDS out of my RO/DI, but I will be sure to change the filters before my next water change.

Your alk and mg are a shade lower than I used when I ran acros, prior tank. I had 8.3 alk and 1300-1400 mg.

I started to slowly raise my alk last night. I setup a 2nd bottle of a weak sodium bicarbonate solution to dose extra and raise the Alk up to 9dKh over the next three days. I will have to get some Epsom Salts to raise my Mag up a little.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Unfortunately it looks like the Birdsnest will be completely lost by the end of the day. The necrosis only took about 3 days to claim it completely. The Milli and the unknown Acro do not seem to be getting any worse at the moment.

 

[Drewl117]

Are you dosing with home made solutions or real 2 part. I red somewhere that home made stuff can be not as consistent as say BRS 2 part or b-ionic... Just a thought.

 

[PhaneSoul]

I had stn/rtn hit my new sps tank, lowered phosphates and it stopped.

 

[lpsouth1978]

I had stn/rtn hit my new sps tank, lowered phosphates and it stopped.

If you read the params in the first post you will see that p04 is undetectable (shows 0.00) on a Hannah tester. Phosphates are definitely not the issue.

We have lost almost the entire birdsnest colony. There is a small portion that was fragged, that is still showing no signs of necrosis, so we may have saved a small piece of it. The orange Milli is still struggling. We removed the dead parts in the hope that the rest of the colony would be saved, but we noticed another part of the colony starting to STN this morning. We once again fragged, but it is not looking promising.