STN And Don't Know Why

[greystreet55]

I have been noticing some of my sps are receding from the base all my cal, alk and ph are right where they should be. Is there something that I could be missing?

 

[Purple Haze]

flow? magnesium? Temp fluctuations? We need more info.

 

[greystreet55]

flow is moderate , no dead areas temp stays between 78 and 80 and havn't tested mag, could this have something to do with it. I have never tested or added mag in my 3 years of reefkeeping. Is this something that is vital. I do a 10 to 20 gallon water change every week. Wouldn't this keep mag levels somewhat stable? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

Maybe your water changes are too large for you tank parameters(Ca,Alk,Mg) to stay stable. I'd suggest doing more frequent water changes and not large water changes all at once.

 

[Hef]

What kind of Salt are you using. Instant Ocean is known for only having about 1150ppm MG. At that rate you could drop you Mg pretty low without noticing.

 

[fishdoc11]

Sorry to hear
Is your alk on the high side ......~ 12dKH ?

I'm probably going to get blasted for this but do you have any metal in the tank on equip? Screws or maybe a wiper bar on a UV?

Chris

 

[DMK]

i was going to ask what brand salt too. i have had a few sps STN for no apparant reason. i blame it on crystal seas salt. i'm doing first water change tomorrow w/new salt, IO/oceanic mix. STN is very frusterating since it's a slow death and alot of times all parameters are fine. Mg is important and is often needed to be supplemented. also check that u don't have direct high flow. what is your alk?

 

[kiddboy]

may be it is good that you can provide us your ca, kh, mg, p04 and n03. your tank size, no.wavemaker, lighting and the salt you use

it is difficult troubleshoot your problem with limited info

 

[Horace]

Yeah I am an IO user as well and I have recently learned about mag being too low. I expect my salifert test kit will arrive this afternoon from premiumaquatics. Im also considering doing the IO/Oceanic mix in the future. Seems this makes a pretty darn good mix. Kind of the best of both worlds.

 

[Philwd]

STN from the base seems to be mostly due to either low flow or high PO4 leaching from the rock. Even if a Salifert's reads zero on the PO4 test does not mean you don't have a problem. It doesn't test for all the organic compounds. IIRC the low Mag cases were tip bleaching. Good way to check for PO4 is the algae test. If you need to clean your glass more often than 3-4 days its probably too high.

Are these frags or wilds? Wilds could be more sensitive.

 

[greystreet55]

No internal metals to speak of. I use Kent Salt My cal stays around 450 , alk can run low at times but I try to keep it steady with the neccesary dosing. As far as flow goes I thought about it but I have some that are in high flow areas that are also showing signs. I am just confused. This is the first timem that I have ever had a problem. I guess I will have to start experimenting after some long hard thought on this one. I went bare bottom about 3 monts ago. Could this be part of my problem?