STN/RTN help required..

ULNS and high alk would not do that to clams or an anemone. I have run ULNS with high alk and never had any problems, but I know others have had problems, but not a fast die off. Have you tried running a poly filter to see if there is metal poisoning?
 
Seems like your Params are in check. What brand of Carbon are you using? There is an issue with Kent Carbon that caused a similar issue in my tank.
 
i have not run a poly filter yet and carbon is from BRS.
Anemone dies in 3 days. while clam lasted 2 weeks.
any recommendation of ploy filter i am not familiar with them.
 
A hobby grade test kit will not have enough resolution to detect harmful copper levels for corals, but the poly filter will. With all of the things you have tried, it is time to start ruling some things out. I would also stop dosing anything you may have been, other than the CaRx, no vitamins or other additives, replace the carbon weekly and try to keep any additives to a minimum. Is the sulphur denitrator freshly serviced?
 
no additives, i run cal reactor that keeps cal,mag and alk up in range. sulfur denitrator has been in use for 2 yrs with media just recently changed 6 months ago.
poly filter will take out some of the things that i cant test for.
i have 2 BRS reactors for carbon with 1 new and 1 old media at all times. i change carbon once a month, i change 1 canister leave next for next month.
 
I know how frustrating it can be, I went through it a few years back, I never found the issue but after dumping all the CaRx media, tossing out carbon and buying new and new membrane, filters and salt and a lot of large water changes things got better. I don't know where the problem was but by taking each part of e system apart one by one and starting with fresh stuff it got better.

Many people have gone through this over the years, there is always a reason but sometimes we do not find the exact cause, sometimes we do, a screw, a coin or something in media that should not be there has also been found.
 
yes its frustrating. i have a beautiful green acro 6" tall by 5" wide multi branching doing perfectly fine, 3 small frags of acros also doing fine but little frags are not colored just brown.
here is what i have gathered so far. and my game plan:

adding poly filter for sure.
1st i will bring the alk down to 7.5dkh and hold it there. along with cal(420) and mag(1350)
2nd if 1st option fails i will take out the gfo try my luck then
3rd if that fails too then carbon goes.

salt i use is red sea coral pro, i buy small bucket, one that makes 55gal water. i have a 55 gal bin so i use the whole bucket at a time.
i do 3 gal per day water change so it lasts half a month.
 
Buy frags from other reefers whenever possible. Too often you find maricultured frags that have been chop shopped and have a hard time with our tanks. I try to avoid maricultured corals, they just have a poor survival rate for me, but I rarely ever have an issue with corals from friends. I know you are also aware that several people have had issues with RSCP lately. I have doubts that it is carbon, salt or gfo related, but you never know.
 
i have 10 little buckets of RSCP salt mix sitting in my garage. if its the salt what a shame.
i havent had any mixing issues nor parameter issues with it.
freshly made saltwater at 79F results in
alk 11+ (max 12)
cal 460
mag 1350+

alk does drop from 12 to about 8 over few days in the saltwater mixing bin. water it still crystal clear and no residue left in the bin either.
 
ok guys i didnt change anything except i shut the co2 off to cal reactor and let is gradually fall to just 7.8 range and now maintaining at that level. today i noticed the only coral that survived through all the stuff been happening start to STN from base up.
posting some pics for everyone to comment.
20120618_155504.jpg
 
from the base (a close up) you can see its started to bleach white.
water parameters as of today.
salinity 1.026 (refractometer and milwaukee digital salinity)
temp 80.1 (rke probe and Apex temp probe)
ph 8.2 (rke ph probe 8.2 apex ph probe 8.17)
ammo nitrite nitrate phos = all 0 (api and hanna checker)
cal 420 (Salifert 430 and red sea 420)
Alk 8.06 (hanna checker)
mag 1350 (salifert)

AI SOL Blue x 6 units. White 50 Blue 75 RB 25 (all ramp up to these levels over 240 min)

20120618_155533.jpg
 
by the way this coral been in my tank for 3 weeks now. no signs of distress till today.
i have not noticed any parasites such as flat worms or anything. i dipped this coral when added it to the tank and dipped it again today in coralrx. nothing but 1 amphipod came out.
just in case if there are some worms or parasites that kill SPS are in my tank can SPSLESS tank rid the worms (as fishless rids ich)
 
i feel dumb now. i was pretty sure it would've been your alk. but since your alk was stable, your sps still got RTN.

try and get another frag of an sps. and see how it does. if its still rtn then im stumped..
 
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