ssick92
New member
So over the last few weeks all my SPS and a couple other corals have started to STN, and I have no idea why. They have all been in my tank for a few months but have started to go downhill. I'm hoping you guys can help me trouble shoot.
My skimmer broke about a week ago, and I haven't had a chance to get a new one. My old one was a Coralife 65 so it really didn't do much skimming to begin with. However the corals started to STN before the skimmer even broke, so I don't think that was the main cause, but it probably didn't help anything... I have been running GFO and Carbon as well as UV sterilizer for about 6 months.
My tank is a 30g with a 10g sump running 5 T5 bulbs about 10" above the tank. I do a water change about once a month with B-Ionic salt system. Whenever I put new corals in there, they seem to do really great for about 3 months, then start to lose color and soon start to STN...
My parameters are as follows:
Salinity - 1.026
Calcium - 480 (I usually try to keep it at 450 but I think since corals are dying they are using less)
Alk - 10.6 (I usually try to keep at 9.6 but recently has gone up for unkown reasons)
Mg - 1250
Ammona, Nitrate, Phosphate, Nitrite - 0
pH - 8.2
Inhabitants:
A bunch of Zoas - flourishing, tons of color and growth
Alveopora - Doing great, wonderful color and lots of growth
Toadstool - Same as above
Acans - Same as above
Mushrooms - Same as above
2 Rose Bubble Anemones - Same as above
Open Brain Coral - Good color, not much growth
Pinky Dinky Chalice - Good color, not much growth
Red Montipora - Starting to lose color and STN
Birdsnest - Decent amount of STN
Pavona Maldivensis - Almost completely STNd
Tricolor Acro - Most recent addition, still doing great, lots of polyps extension and good color
GSP - Growing like a weed, like normal
Pavona Frondifera - Barely starting to STN, has looked great for about a year
BiColor War Coral - Barely starting to STN, has had great color but not much growth for about a year
Candy Cane Coral - Started to STN a little bit ago, seems to have stopped but isn't recovering well
Fish are uneffected.
I'm really hoping you guys can help me pinpoint my issue. I'm starting to think I should just get a good quality skimmer to rule that out. Also, for the parts of the STNing corals that are still healthy, should I frag them all and toss away the dead skeletons?
My skimmer broke about a week ago, and I haven't had a chance to get a new one. My old one was a Coralife 65 so it really didn't do much skimming to begin with. However the corals started to STN before the skimmer even broke, so I don't think that was the main cause, but it probably didn't help anything... I have been running GFO and Carbon as well as UV sterilizer for about 6 months.
My tank is a 30g with a 10g sump running 5 T5 bulbs about 10" above the tank. I do a water change about once a month with B-Ionic salt system. Whenever I put new corals in there, they seem to do really great for about 3 months, then start to lose color and soon start to STN...
My parameters are as follows:
Salinity - 1.026
Calcium - 480 (I usually try to keep it at 450 but I think since corals are dying they are using less)
Alk - 10.6 (I usually try to keep at 9.6 but recently has gone up for unkown reasons)
Mg - 1250
Ammona, Nitrate, Phosphate, Nitrite - 0
pH - 8.2
Inhabitants:
A bunch of Zoas - flourishing, tons of color and growth
Alveopora - Doing great, wonderful color and lots of growth
Toadstool - Same as above
Acans - Same as above
Mushrooms - Same as above
2 Rose Bubble Anemones - Same as above
Open Brain Coral - Good color, not much growth
Pinky Dinky Chalice - Good color, not much growth
Red Montipora - Starting to lose color and STN
Birdsnest - Decent amount of STN
Pavona Maldivensis - Almost completely STNd
Tricolor Acro - Most recent addition, still doing great, lots of polyps extension and good color
GSP - Growing like a weed, like normal
Pavona Frondifera - Barely starting to STN, has looked great for about a year
BiColor War Coral - Barely starting to STN, has had great color but not much growth for about a year
Candy Cane Coral - Started to STN a little bit ago, seems to have stopped but isn't recovering well
Fish are uneffected.
I'm really hoping you guys can help me pinpoint my issue. I'm starting to think I should just get a good quality skimmer to rule that out. Also, for the parts of the STNing corals that are still healthy, should I frag them all and toss away the dead skeletons?