SPS recovery time from STN?

[mc-cro]

About 6-8 weeks ago I had a perfect storm of sorts hit my tank. Several factors combined to basically start my sps frag tank into a slow crash. It started off as I was tweaking in a pump on my skimmer and it overflowed while I was traveling for work, but no problem, my ATO kept up with it.:sad2: which of course caused my sg to drop down to about 1.023.

somewhere along the line, my dehumidifier malfunctioned and stayed on long enough for the room temp to rise to about 80*, (its in the basement and I was gone all week) When I arrived home, I found the tank temp was 86*, and I dont know how long it had been that high. After I got all that under control, somehow one of my powerheads fell and blew my shallow sand bed all over the place.

So somewhere between the lower sg, the high temps, and the stirring of the sandbed releasing god knows what nastys, several of my sps started receding at the tips and at the bases. I completely lost a purple stag, and I had to chop up a very nice large mille that was almost the size of my hand.

So, that was all back in early september. Since that time I have been doing 30% weekly water changes, changing carbon, dips in revive and even a couple of iodine dips, but nothing seems to be putting a complete halt to the tips and bases receding.

While it has slowed down to a crawl, I still find myself breaking off tip every few days because they are getting brown film algea growing on them.

so do you think this is still lasting effects of the perfect storm, or do you think I may have something else going on?

my parameters:
sg 1.026( has been for several weeks)
alk 8-8.5 Salifert, tested 9 on Elos, has been rock steady through all this
calc 410 salifert
mag- unknown
nitrates unkown
p04- undetectable- i do run gfo, no algea growth in tank, except a thin film on glass every few days, and the tips of my sps,

 

[JT3069]

im no expert but i have had stn for np pellets last month since i have tok the pellets off line
stn has stopped
and growth has slowly on a few corals started covering the stn spots
so id say it would take 2 months or more for an almost full recovery

 

[mess7777]

I am far from SPS expert, but I have yet to have any recovery from STN, probably because whatever is causing it is still there.

 

[mc-cro]

when I broke up the mille, I had about a dozen or so 1/2-1" frags. its about 50/50 on their survival. some of them lost all their tissue, others have very slowly started to recover?

I would think if something was in the water, after changing out ~200% of the water, I would think it would be diluted down to nothing. Nitrates is the only thing I keep coming back to. There is not much live rock in this set up, <25lbs in a 100g system? but I only have 3 fish.

guess I need to get a nitrate test kit.

 

[psusocr]

if you dont know mag and nitrates these could be two of your biggest problems... you trates could be spiked through the roof or your mag could have been cmpletely deplated etc. etc..

 

[mc-cro]

I agree about the nitrates, they could be spiked. I need to get a test kit.
although I doubt the mag would be depleted, if I am changing that much water every week, I cant imagine something would be sucking it up that quick? but I guess its possible

 

[blakers82]

Which salt mix are you using?

The reason I ask is I've had severely depleted magnesium levels (like 900ppm or less) when new salt is mixed to 1.025sg in RO/DI water. Something to be aware of. I also have to add calcium chloride to my mix.

 

[mc-cro]

I use I/O salt, never had any problems with it, used to always test mag on new boxes, but got complacent because it always mixed with consistent and decent levels.

 

[SaltwaterAdict]

I would up your waterchanges big time. Way to many variables occuring and doing a waterchange will raise you levels including the mag you don't test for which you should be and will also lower the nitrates as well. Other than that, some carbon might help.

 

[mc-cro]

just to recap, I have been doing 30% water changes weekly. I do run carbon, changed out every 3 weeks, I run GFO, normally changed every 3-4weeks, although not religously.

I did test my Mag a little while ago, Elos tested at 1050 on first test, 1100 on second test. I was shocked it was that low. I went ahead and started water for another 30% change. Once its ready I will test it and see where this batch of IO is at.

will see if I can get a nitrate kit at LFS tomorrow

 

[mc-cro]

The new batch of I/O that I just made is 1500 mag w/Elos, and 10 Alk w/saliftert.

So either the last batch of I/O was extremely low in mag, or somethings sucking up my mag fairly quickly.

I did about a 20% waterchange last night, going to make another batch and do another 20-30% over the weekend.

 

[Mikereef1]

Nitrates will not cause stn ime they brown out or for the most part turn a darker shade of the current colour . I've seen systems running as high as 50ppm nitrate for example Paul's tank of the month at aac in Essex he runs high nitrates and I bet money u couldn't find corals as healthy ad Hardy as his. I've found that having at least 1ppm nitrate is beneficial to the corals.

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