STN Event

[peiloy3196]

Hey Guys,
I am having a STN event that started about a month ago. I have lost 4 large pieces so far that were all about four years old. The STN starts at the base and works itself up and the piece is dead in about a week. All that were lost so far were acros. Currently I am loosing two more acros. My Millis are ok but dont look happy. Montis are also getting dead spots. I have been doing water changes and running carbon to no avail. Lighting has not changed. All parameters are rock steady:

Alk: 8
Calc: 450
Mag: 1400
Phos 0.03
Trates: Undetectable
Salinity: 1.025
Temp 77F - 79F

I checked for Stray Current and cannot find any. Today I started taking apart all of my equipment to see if anything is abnormal. All looked okay except for one of my Vortech Magnets. There is a small tear in the plastic and there is a ring around the whole magnet where the plastic seems to be streching. I have switched wet sides as of now, but can this cause my STN problems? If so will it correct itself now that the magnet is out? Picture of magnet is attached.

 

[peiloy3196]

I have added Cuprisorb to a reactor to see if it will help. Does anyone know if the magnet could be a source of my problems?

 

[lakeviewink]

STN Event

I personally doubt that is the problem currently. I've had to replace mine before and it's usually because once they are cracked the magnet will start to deteriorate and rust but that's just my opinion. Good luck getting to the bottom of this mystery.

 

[dowtish]

Do you run GFO? Bio-pellets?

 

[peiloy3196]

I run GFO and Vodka dose. No bio pellets. My vodka dosage has not changed in a couple of years. Neither has my gfo practices.

 

[dowtish]

Very weird. But yet, at the same time I have heard of this happening as an "event" many times. Some have reported this is a bacterial thing that is contagious. Have you tried fragging pieces as soon as you see it start to see if they will make it separate from the colony?

 

[peiloy3196]

Yes I tried the fragging route with a couple of the colonies. No luck, the frags just continue with stn. I frag very far away from the stn but it does not help.

 

[peiloy3196]

I have not added anything in over a year so unless the bacteria was dormant I am not sure how it was introduced.

 

[dowtish]

I have no idea how it would get introduced either, if that is even the real problem.

I have had this happen to me with not just SPS but LPS as well. And the only thing that was going into he tank was my hands.

 

[trueblackpercula]

I run GFO and Vodka dose. No bio pellets. My vodka dosage has not changed in a couple of years. Neither has my gfo practices.

stop the vodka and feed your sps some good foods. I am having the same problem and it was because my corals were starved after stopping the vodka and feed oyster feast and coral V power things look much better. dosing a carbon source like vodak,gfo is stripping the water to clean.
hope this helps

 

[peiloy3196]

Ok so Vodka dosing and GFO stopped and I am upping feeding. I will keep you posted on if I see a turn around.

 

[peiloy3196]

So Vodka and GFO offline and I have upped feeding. Things have taken a turn for the worse now. I am loosing three acros now, also One red monti, one blue milli and one blue stag. I am really stumped and have no idea what to do at this point.

 

[Piper27]

Kalk helped me get through mine, along with cutting affected pieces. I lost at least one a week for a few months, switched back to using kalk in my top off and that seemed to help. Eventually I took the tank down and luckily already had a system running that I restarted with. Slowly adding the pieces I had left that looked like they were healthy. The sign I got that showed me an acro was about to die was a color change to neon green.

I would be weary of the advice to start feeding heavily especially if your quitting the vodka, I mean if its bacterial how is that going to help anything? I can see if your acros were pale or whatever that may be a good action to take.

Also if you have been dosing vodka for years I would be careful just quitting, especially if your planning on feeding more than normal. I am NO expert so I will let some one else say if I am right or wrong. I thought cutting the dose back was the first step, have you tried that yet?
Have your acros looked healthy for the past few years?

 

[sirreal63]

I would suggest some large water changes. I have dealt with this before and doing a few large water changes stopped it and the corals began to recover.

 

[peiloy3196]

Thanks guys. Yes all acros were heathy, colorful and great pe. The first thing I noticed was pe loss. I've never had pale colors. I tried cutting back on vodka with no change. I'll do large water changes and see if there is a change.

 

[ros_sco]

Sounds just like my event last year. Did you have an alk dip? My event started about 3 weeks after a big alk dip after I missed my calcium reactor running out of CO2.

 

[ssscuz]

Do u have a sand bed and is it very deep? Could you be suffering from a combination of old tank syndrome and the vodka? Did you change salt mixes lately? Or got a new batch?
This could be worsened if your doing large water changes, the salt may have something in it

 

[peiloy3196]

No alk changes. I have a sandbed about 2" deep. I have not changed salt mixes. Using reef crystals for a couple of years now. What exactly is old tank syndrome?

 

[Piper27]

I also wasn't keepin up with my do filters, is your tds correct and all filters workin correct? I also did a few decent waterchanges but it never really helped but did seem to slow it down, especially after I got my filters in order. From what I remember it only slowed down once I was done weening down off vinegar, tank ajusted to Kalk, and I was proactive in gettin any affected rtn out of the tank, I fragged even though I only saved a few pieces. It was really rough and the corals took a few months to look better even in the new system.
Mine started with color changes to green, and some corals had loss of polyp extension and loss of color, but mainly the skin on the corals became very thin looking and I knew something was off as soon as I saw the thin skin. The event didnt start til a few months after my acros skin was looking thin and colors were beginning to dull.

I wish you luck it's a tough experience to go through! I know the few pieces I put in friends stable tanks never rtned and started recovering from the thin skin and dull colors quickly. So I did save a few pieces that way, before my other system was ready. I think I did some quick iodine dips before moving them to friends tanks too. (Which I never do with acros because its harsh but figured it would help more than revive since it was specifically bacterial).

 

[rgfast]

Here's a thought, did this start after maybe using a new batch of salt? I recall awhile back of bad batchs of Reef Crystals wiping out complete systems