Widespread STN...

RynosReef

RynosReef

New member
Well I seem to have done something wrong and can't for the life of me figure out what it is. Over the past month, I have had widespread STN from the base up on most of my sps.. The weird thing is my color/polyp extension and vertical growth has been good despite the bases slowly dying.

Recent changes around the time the die off include: switching from manual 2 part to kalk in Ato, replacing 2 month old GFO with new at 1/2 reccomended amount. I also added a used koralia for a little more flow about 3-4to weeks ago. I noticed this past Saturday that this powerhead had visible electric arcing while in the water! It was immediately taken out. I have always used gfi and a ground probe. I suspect that the powerhead may be the cause.

But it's been 3 days since i pulled the pump and the STN continues.. not sure if it just takes more time, if its a contagious infection now and if I should dip. Not sure pretty much sums up how I feel haha. Any suggestions or insights? Thanks! Tank specs coming up...
 
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Tank specs:
75g Sps tank with sump, mostly frags or small colonies
Lighting: 2x250w Radiums in lumenbrites about 14in off water on icecaps
Flow: MP40, LOCLINE return, 1 new 1400gph koralia
Temp: 77-79
s.g. 1.026 maintained by ATO
pH 8.1 to 8.2 tested with a titration kit
Water changes: 15g per week however I've been lazy and went almost 3 wks when STN appeared
Livestock: 8 fish, no softies, mostly sps
Ca: 425 to 440
Alk: 7.5
Mg: 1375

Ca and Alk recently being maintained by kalk in ATO. Notable improvement in growth over manual 2 part, but STN also started around the time I switched to kalk. Alk is very steady now bit took some experimenting to add right amount of kalk which could have shot up ph. But hard to test with only a titration kit.

NO3: 0.00 salifert
PO4: 0.00 Hanna meter. Maintained by GFO reactor at 1/2 amount, 5g chaeto which I've never cleaned, and large water changes in display. I initially noticed the STN after replacing GFO so I turned it off and increased feeding with oyster feast a lot, but algae build up on glass and liverock noticeably increased shorty thereafter. So I've started Gfo again. Hanna meter reads 0.00 whether I use Gfo or not.
Activated carbon is used.
Carbon dosing is not used.
No zeo.
Feeding: 2 cube mysis a day, oyster feast a few times a week
No pest besides some black Monti bugs im about to dip with interceptor

Well that's it. Sorry for the novel of info.. Any clues or things that stand out? Thanks!
 
agree with newreefer, I use 2 part, 3 with mg. I added kalk to the tank with a dosing pump adding only about a quart a day with a 600 gallon system, the first week I got a nice burst of growth and after about a month I had some stn, not much but it was shocking. I stopped the kalk and it stopped. I would do larger than normal water changes. Why is your phosphate 0.0 and nitrate 0.0 that is not healthy either feed more. Get more fish?
 
I had a similar issue with Kalk and subsequently switched to a 2 part with BRS Peristaltic pumps. I found that with kalk in my ATO I was getting wild swings in PH and ALK as the level of evaporation would change from week to week and season to season. Everything has thankfully recovered after getting the new 2 part system dialed in. Now my PH varies .2 during the diurnal swing and my ALK is much more stable at a range of 8.6-8.8 depending on the time of day(and my level of measuring accuracy :))

After doing a ton of searches on the board I found some posts that suggest to use only RO/DI in the topoff and to set up a separate drip dedicated solely to Kalk dosing. This would provide you with a more stable PH and ALK and still allow you to benefit from the use Kalk.
 
Newreefer151 said:
You really have to watch when using Kalk. You don't want the ph to go up more then 0.2.
Click to expand...

Im ordering a ph monitor from bulk reef supply today. I played around a lot with the kalk dosage trying to maintain Alk, but realized I was able to keep it steady with less than I thought. My salifert kit never showed a big jump but it is just color comparison.
 
flipside97ltd

flipside97ltd



The bulbs are about 3 months old.. I doubt this is the issue but I haven't checked with a par meter. I can definitely bleach a coral out with them still though lol
 
toothman said:
agree with newreefer, I use 2 part, 3 with mg. I added kalk to the tank with a dosing pump adding only about a quart a day with a 600 gallon system, the first week I got a nice burst of growth and after about a month I had some stn, not much but it was shocking. I stopped the kalk and it stopped. I would do larger than normal water changes. Why is your phosphate 0.0 and nitrate 0.0 that is not healthy either feed more. Get more fish?
Click to expand...

Interesting.. my Alk has been more stable with the kalk and growth is better. But maybe its negatively affecting other things like ph.. I could cut kalk for now and go back to 2 part until I get a quality ph monitor.

As for feeding and nutrients I had thought the same thing. My nitrates are below 1ppm but close to 0. I had initially turned off GFO and started feeding oyster feast pretty heavy. But my po4 still tested 0.00 and the build up of algae on the glass and rocks was noticeable and corals started losing color until the next water change and they improved. I definitely agree that water can be too clean. But I feed heavy and still can't get my nutrients up. I think po4 must be bound but still there. Good prob to have I guess but its hard for me get detectable nutrients in my tank
 
Ya it was a long shot. Just trying to think of everything. You have very nice corals, i hope that this gets straightened out soon
 
Acronic said:
Ya it was a long shot. Just trying to think of everything. You have very nice corals, i hope that this gets straightened out soon
Click to expand...

Thanks :) it's just painful watching them slowly fade away. And believe me any advice is welcome.. im by no means an expert. I hope I can figure this out.

Ok couple ideas:
1. Stop kalk for now and go back to 2 part until I get a decent ph monitor
2. Large water changes in case its a toxin.
3. Keep up with feeding

What about that powerhead that was arcing in the water? I noticed it when the lights were out Saturday night flashing a bolt of electricity between its fins. This seems like a smoking gun. How soon can I expect STN to stop after correcting what's wrong? Should I start dipping in revive? If I dipped some corals would have to be dipped together rock and all and that worries me.
 
I think your too nutrient poor. You might want to unplug your GFO and up your feedings a little more. I know that was my issue. I've lost a little bit of color without the GFO, but I plan to slowly bring it back in time.
 
29reef said:
I think your too nutrient poor. You might want to unplug your GFO and up your feedings a little more. I know that was my issue. I've lost a little bit of color without the GFO, but I plan to slowly bring it back in time.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure... I tried that when I first saw the STN. I fed Oyster Feast every night with no GFO and heavy feedings. The STN continued, corals started browning, and my glass and rocks got a nice film of algae. I of course don't know what's causing the STN, so believe me everything is on the table. But despite reading 0.00 po4 added feeding didn't seem to help thus far..
 
MammothReefer said:
I had some electricity wreck havoc on a tank once. Took a fair number of water changes for things to turn back around. From what I understand electricity + salt water = chlorine.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1461617&highlight=electricity
Click to expand...

That's something I never would have expected... I wonder if that could have happened and the faulty powerhead poisoned the tank. Were you able to test for chlorine when that happened?

I'm doing a 15g water change tonight, and have gone back to regular water ATO and manual dosing.

I'm debated dipping some corals in Revive tonight. Some are at the point that I need to frag what I can save or dip them, but they are encrusted on the liverock. Can I dip an entire rock in Revive?

Thanks again for all the help!!
 
Pull GFO, double check alkalinity with another test, and use a new calibrated lab grade probe to ensure your temp reading is correct.

I had a similar problem and my temp was actually running around 71 degrees...
 
Thanks for all the help everyone! I've double checked my alk test with calibration fluid and I have about 3 or so temp probes in the tank as I've made that mistake before myself :)

Here's an update... of the 50 or so acros in the tank I'd say at this point 90% are showing STN from the base up... I've lost about 10 already. I've stopped kalk through the ato and have started manually dosing and maintaining alk very steadily at 8.5dkh from the 7.5 it was at before. As for the GFO. I have turned off the reactor. Within 48hrs of turning it off I had a thin film of algae on the glass and some on the exposed skeletons of the sps. Colors also look duller... so I'm not sure if pulling the GFO is helping or hurting. I've raised my lights just in case, dipped all corals in revive, and today started gluing the STN line on what corals I could. Tomorrow I plan on doing another big water change as I'm waiting for a chlorine and copper test kit to arrive next week...

Needless to say I'm maaaajorly bummed... I've lost a blue milli, a 30k lokani, bottlebrush, somewhere over the rainbow, rommels watermellon... and I can go on. This is absolutely killing me, because I can't find out what's causing this.

Colors are still good and polyp extension is normal.

One thing I wanted to ask though. Tonight I was looking at a lokani-esqe coral I have. I was looking at the area of exposed skeleton so close my eyeball as probably touching the glass. And I saw teeny tiny barely visible white bugs (not red, not pink, white) scurrying all over the skeleton. Could this be something?? I've heard of red bugs, but these are not the same. Any ideas? I'm thinking of nuking the tank tomorrow with Interceptor just to be sure.

photobucket-4835-1333252732389.jpg


photobucket-5469-1333252764602.jpg
 
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