STN help

allsps40

allsps40

New member
Since doing my tank upgrade 40B into a 75g, I have been having some STN on some of my sps. I have lost a few frags and colonies to it. Never had this issue until I moved tanks.
ph 8.0-8.4
alk 6-7 normally around 10 but I have been having a hard time keeping it stable in the upgrade
ca 450
mag 1300-1350
no3 5
po4 0
Now my Red Planet is STNing from the bottom up, all STN has been from the bottom up, the rest of the RP is getting good color and PE. I have no pests, I have been checking. Any help would be great.
 
Could the unstable alk. Are you running GFO? I don't know why but GFO increases my sps growth but it makes them super sensitive to even small parameter changes and I lose a few every time I've tried it. I was battling the same thing you are right now but I went from running GFO and getting what looked like alk burn to pulling the GFO and a few corals have STN from the bottom up.
 
Not running GFO but phos pellets instead, they have been working great for me and are cheaper. I also run carbon, both in a reactor. I dont get why my alk is dropping so much now always was stable in the 40B. I dose kalk to keep up on ca and alk.
 
What is you salinity at. I had an issue with unexplained STN, but then realized that my salinity was waaay too high; and this was due to improper use of my refractometer... as it turns out if you rinse the refractometer in warm/hot water prior to use, it gives a reading that is a couple thousandths less than what really is - in other words while I was reading 1.025 it was really 1.028 and above when the refractometer was used cold. As soon as I corrected the salinity, the STN stopped; and any affected SPS began to recover.... unfortunately I lost a few before nipping the problem.

HTH,

Sheldon
 
No one knows what cause STN. Generally speaking, it's a combination of inadequate flow and less than ideal water parameters. When this happens, the corals are under chronic stress and eventually start loosing flesh (presumably due to bacteria infection such as Vibrio vulnificus - the most dominate bacteria strains in tropic reef). There is a new theory that STN (especially the type that happens bottom up) is trigger by the coral trying to "save" itself. Basically, the coral is unable to grow so it's trying to save energy by "giving up" flesh in the shady bottom of it. If condition doesn't improve, it keeps losing flesh until the whole colony is dead.

Looking through threads and photos of your tank, I am guessing your tank just isn't ready for SPS and the recent move stress them more. If STN doesn't stop soon, I would suggest that you just frag the healthy portion of it.

If you are still dosing any kind of additive, please stop. You really don't need them.
 
personally, im thinken its your alk issue... but that is jmo...

hope it turns around for you bro!!
 
Scej12 said:
What is you salinity at. I had an issue with unexplained STN, but then realized that my salinity was waaay too high; and this was due to improper use of my refractometer... as it turns out if you rinse the refractometer in warm/hot water prior to use, it gives a reading that is a couple thousandths less than what really is - in other words while I was reading 1.025 it was really 1.028 and above when the refractometer was used cold. As soon as I corrected the salinity, the STN stopped; and any affected SPS began to recover.... unfortunately I lost a few before nipping the problem.

HTH,
I will calibrate and check in a few. I keep it at 1.025.

Sheldon
Click to expand...

dzhuo said:
No one knows what cause STN. Generally speaking, it's a combination of inadequate flow and less than ideal water parameters. When this happens, the corals are under chronic stress and eventually start loosing flesh (presumably due to bacteria infection such as Vibrio vulnificus - the most dominate bacteria strains in tropic reef). There is a new theory that STN (especially the type that happens bottom up) is trigger by the coral trying to "save" itself. Basically, the coral is unable to grow so it's trying to save energy by "giving up" flesh in the shady bottom of it. If condition doesn't improve, it keeps losing flesh until the whole colony is dead.

Looking through threads and photos of your tank, I am guessing your tank just isn't ready for SPS and the recent move stress them more. If STN doesn't stop soon, I would suggest that you just frag the healthy portion of it.

If you are still dosing any kind of additive, please stop. You really don't need them.
Click to expand...
Only dosing cal, alk and mag and some lugols when I think of it. I think it may be new tank issues as well, just not mature enough. The weird thing is all the sps that STN'd where looking great and improving in color right before STN set in. I do have less flow in this tank than the 40b but still plenty of random flow Evo 1050, 2X K2's and mag 5 return. I have a modded MJ that I can add if needed but I did not see the need with the flow patterns I have.
 
Take an iodine solution or even melafix to stop the bacterial infection and then put the coral on a medium to strong water flow should solve the issue.

The alk is a problem only if it's bellow 7.
 
allsps40 said:
Only dosing cal, alk and mag and some lugols when I think of it.
Click to expand...

This is the worse type of dosing. Randomly dumping useless chemical for no apparent reason. I don't even think you know what you want or why you are adding it. You probably adding it because a few random people you heard or speak to tell you it's useful.

allsps40 said:
I think it may be new tank issues as well, just not mature enough. The weird thing is all the sps that STN'd where looking great and improving in color right before STN set in.
Click to expand...

That's very typical of STN. Lots of STN stories happen similarly where the coral appear to be "healthy" for a period of time before losing flesh. This is especially true for reefers new to SPS (not implying you are one of them) when the coral is slowly bleaching / starving / stressing giving a false apparent of color improvement when it's not. STN is really not something happen over night and it's usually a combination of stress factors which cause the coral to finally give in.

allsps40 said:
I do have less flow in this tank than the 40b but still plenty of random flow Evo 1050, 2X K2's and mag 5 return. I have a modded MJ that I can add if needed but I did not see the need with the flow patterns I have.
Click to expand...

Hopefully that's the case.

I will keep a close eye on the corals and if they continue to STN, you might consider fragging them. Good luck!
 
I dont dose randomly at all. I dose kalk for ca and alk and it has been carefully dialed in to keep ca at 450-460 and was keeping alk at 10-11 until recently. When alk alone is needed I use Kent Super Buffer. I test Mag every couple of weeks and dose Brightwells Mag as needed to keep it at 1300-1350. I does Lugals 1 drop to the tank when I think of it because it is not that important I could in fact not dose it all. I was doing MB7 to help boost the new tank until what was left of the bottle ran out yesterday. I have already needed to frag up my largest acro colony and a few others. Sucks I was expecting something like this to happen though with the stress of a tank change.
 
It's alk definately. You are running pellets as well. Anything over 9 IME you start losing SPS, probably mostly acropora. If you aren't steady in the 7.5 range then that's your culprit gauranteed. If your birdnest and LPS type corals are doing okay I would again say it's your alk without question.
 
No bio pellets or carbon dosing. I just fragged up my RP and a few others that where effected. I also placed some frags that are doing well.
 
If you aren't carbon dosing or pellets I wouldn't reccomend keeping your alk as you said at 6/7. I would push towards 10 and keep it there in my opinion.
 
No thats just what is gets up to when the lights are on. Ph is not a problem because I dose kalk but the kalk is not keeping up with alk demands now.
 
Weekly water changes RSCP has 14dkh. No not saturated kalk it is dose with ATO if I increase the kalk much more my ca will increase to much.
 
hmmm, you maybe putting to much kalk/buffers causing either a precipitate event adversely affecting your calcium and alkalinity balance.

how often do you check your levels, how fast are they falling?? example you get it to 10 the next day its at 7
 
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