STN Advice

Krazy_Karl

Krazy_Karl

New member
1.5 year old SPS dominant reef. It's been pretty much on cruise control and growth/color has been excellent. About a month ago I tried to perfect my dosing routine and skipped out on water changes for about a month. My nitrates crept up a bit but nothing out of control. It was also during this time that I decided to change from Red Sea pro to the regular mix to lower my alk which was running in the low 10's to mid 8's. For four weeks I did two 10% water changes every 3 days or so to lower the alk and get rid of some of the raised nitrates. It was during this time that I noticed some STN on a few of my pieces (Ora Cali, Ora yellow fuzzy, Ora pearlberry). Also, at random times I notice one of my 4 favia's will just shrivel up and look ****ed off for no reason. I've been racking my brain to figure out what I did to mess up the equilibrium of the system but can't seem to get to the bottom of it. I added a small koralia to my sump during this time which turns on for a few hours a day to stir things up so I thought it may be stray voltage but I don't feel anything in the water when it's on and I've since unplugged it and still have the same results. I've been using nitrile gloves ( powder less) where as before I would just use bare hands. The salt mix isn't any issue either bc I've tried three different batches. Any ideas??

Sg 1.026 (Milwaukee digital)
Ca 445 (Red Sea)
Alk 8.344 (Hanna)
Mg 1400 (Red Sea)
Phosphate 0.0 (Hanna)
No3 10 (Red Sea)
 
You grow cheats in that refugium? Dying/untrimmed cheato can cause a lot of problems. Have any pics? They tend to help.
 


I do grow cheato, and actually I trimmed it before this all started. It's due for another trimming but it's nice and green. I'll snap some pix of the coral tomorrow and post them.
 
Krazy_Karl said:
1.5 year old SPS dominant reef. It's been pretty much on cruise control and growth/color has been excellent. About a month ago I tried to perfect my dosing routine and skipped out on water changes for about a month. My nitrates crept up a bit but nothing out of control. It was also during this time that I decided to change from Red Sea pro to the regular mix to lower my alk which was running in the low 10's to mid 8's. For four weeks I did two 10% water changes every 3 days or so to lower the alk and get rid of some of the raised nitrates. It was during this time that I noticed some STN on a few of my pieces (Ora Cali, Ora yellow fuzzy, Ora pearlberry). Also, at random times I notice one of my 4 favia's will just shrivel up and look ****ed off for no reason. I've been racking my brain to figure out what I did to mess up the equilibrium of the system but can't seem to get to the bottom of it. I added a small koralia to my sump during this time which turns on for a few hours a day to stir things up so I thought it may be stray voltage but I don't feel anything in the water when it's on and I've since unplugged it and still have the same results. I've been using nitrile gloves ( powder less) where as before I would just use bare hands. The salt mix isn't any issue either bc I've tried three different batches. Any ideas??

Sg 1.026 (Milwaukee digital)
Ca 445 (Red Sea)
Alk 8.344 (Hanna)
Mg 1400 (Red Sea)
Phosphate 0.0 (Hanna)
No3 10 (Red Sea)
Click to expand...
not really an expert here. But my gut feel would be dropping kh from 10 to 8 within a month. U did 10% water change every 3 days .
So approx u did 10 x water change of different kh within a mth. The kh might have dropped to 8 by the 5th water change in mid month.
 
I figured the alk "swing" was the culprit but that drop as well as the amount of time I gave myself to lower the number seemed like it would have minimal stress on the corals. All parameters have been stable for the past three weeks and I still see some STN and the favia still shows signs of stress at random times of the day.
 
Not an expert, but in my experience corals don't necessary respond to an alk swing immediately. There is a lag. Sometimes the effects even show up after you've "fixed" the problem. Of your parameters are good, I'd just ride it out. Maybe someone can confirm this, but it's been my observation in my own tank. I had an alk spike 1.5 months ago and I'm still dealing with some burnt tips, even though alk has been lowered and maintained.
 
Nice sump very clean. How do you does the alkalinity is it one shot or small multiple times? How's your temp? My alkalinity has large swings from week to week, depending on the tests and the increase on my doeser
 
Thanks! I use ESV B-Ionic 2 part dosed via BRS 1.1ml dosers. Dosing starts at lights out and the pumps alternate every half hour until lights on. Temp is fairly constant at 78.
 
I havnt but being through that before I know the signs and what to look for with red bugs and AEFW. I know 100% it's neither of those thankfully.
 
Hey Karl, IME looking at the potential issues, I would put it to these things:

1. Bad batch of Salt. I change salt regularly. Completely from one brand to another...never had an issue. However, heard of people losing corals due to bad batches...ie crazy parameters etc.

2. Unless your Alk dipped crazy low or high, I doubt a small dip or increase would cause the issues you are seeing (providing you arent running not running a carbon dosed system).

3. Specific Gravity: Many times even with good equipment, this parameter being read wrong can cause the SG to become too high or too low.

4. Very high Magnesium levels.

Are you able to double check your parameters with completely different kits?

With regards to pests; AEFW's will cause the coral to lose a LOT more colour first, with visible bitemarks before the coral starts to STN etc.
 
Wow that's some heart break. I think they look like they are being stressed. I would when you do your water changes is there a bit difference of temps? You might want to slow down on the water changes. Maby try using an iodine dip
 
Temp of water change is always within 1*. Dipping is pretty much out of the question since most are encrusted. In regards to the salt, I've tried three different batches of regular Red Sea and this started at the tail end of using Pro. I've been considering using Lugols.
 
Damm bro I didn't know it was that bad. Hope you bounce back. Did u adjust light intensities in your Radions when playing around with your reef link device
 
I would look into lighting and Alk. Do you carbon dose? I noticed this when my Alk started to creep up. I have since lowerd it to below 8 and things have been stabilizing. If you are not carbon dosing, disregard this.
 
Ya bro, sucks, but I just dealt with this on a similar level, not quite the same though. I was running to clean and once my pellets kicked in after installing and already having BB, high flow, GFO and carbon in line, I was really stripping my water with the alk at 10 is when I observed exactly what you are showing. After reading, alk around 7-8 is much more forgiving in that kind of environment, I dropped from 10 to 8. Once that was complete, I had pale corals from the low nutrients so I went to 20 fish, and upped all the feedings and everything came back - including a bit of algae which I guess is a trade off.

I would keep it stable, lower the light schedule, and bump up the feeding a bit. I am also no expert!
 
In my experience, sometimes things click and sometimes they don't. I think a lot of it has to do with how certain parameters and conditions interact with each other in ways we don't completely understand yet. My tank might have a different ideal Alk level than yours based on differences in our lighting, CO2 in our homes, nutrient levels, etc. I think we have all had times when everything looked good on paper but things weren't doing well in the tank.

My suggestion is to revert back to when things were doing well. It sounds like you decided to lower your alk from 10 to 8, but the tank was doing well when it was at 10? Bring the alk back to 10 then. If it isn't broken, don't fix it.
 
I definitely dont think dropping your ALK like you did would cause this. If you raised it up maybe...

I think this is the salt, or some testing kit issue.
 
I think you are spot on Rovi.

rovster said:
Not an expert, but in my experience corals don't necessary respond to an alk swing immediately. There is a lag. Sometimes the effects even show up after you've "fixed" the problem. Of your parameters are good, I'd just ride it out. Maybe someone can confirm this, but it's been my observation in my own tank. I had an alk spike 1.5 months ago and I'm still dealing with some burnt tips, even though alk has been lowered and maintained.
Click to expand...
 
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