Looking for potential sources of STN

Terefel · Sep 17, 2014

Hey folks! So things have been a tad rough in my tank lately. I lost my entire GSP colony in the display when it was attacked by some kind of brown algae (unrelated to the STN I believe). Following that, I began seeing some STN in a blue stag followed by a monti cap frag and then my green slimer. Couldnt get a picture of the stag but the other two are below.

I'm wondering what I should do to narrow down causes. The slimer was doing awesome for quite some time (it had struggled previously but I moved it lower and decreased my light cycle and it started taking off). The monti Cap I tried moving to get more light thinking that might be the cause but no luck.

When I checked Calc was at 400 and Alk was in the mid 6 range so I've been trying to dose 5 ml a day by hand of each until I get my dosing pump up and running. Phosphates and nitrates were both low (0 and 0.2) even though I recently added 4 new fish and have been feeding quite a bit more.

My temp was kind of fluctuating a fair bit (between 78 and 82) until last week when I got my chiller set up and now its consistently 78. I ran carbon (half of the amount BRS recommended) for a few weeks but stopped after my blue xenia started to die out [it's slowly coming back]

Does anyone have an idea of what else I can do to hone in on the culprit?

lurking · Sep 17, 2014

4 degree temp swing is massive for sps. Also in my opinion your Alk is low. Do you know if it was always that low? Or was it at say 9 and dropped to 6? Also The pic makes the live rock look green in many areas and you said you had a algae out break? That may be absorbing everything before you test kits can detect it. What are you doing for nutrient export?

Also the only time I have seen my monti look like yours is when the DKH is really low.

Terefel · Sep 17, 2014

lurking said:

Thank you for your confirmation, I thought either of these might be potential causes.

The heat wave caught me unexpected but fortunately I've been able to get my old chiller up and running and should have that fixed going forward.

I've never been able to get alk above 8.2, its histrionically hovered around 7.2. Finding it around 6.2 or 6.3 was somewhat of a shock and has me moving up the installation of my t-01 pump in terms of priority of projects

M3ace9 · Sep 17, 2014

I would think its an alk issue. That is a pretty low target to be running your tank at. Slowly raise it and see what happens. I also would not move your stuff around, lighting probably isn't the issue and will cause the coral more stress.

bvysochin · Sep 17, 2014

My tanks have been fluctuating between 78 and 84 these last few days and everything has been fine. Mostly sps. It's not ideal, but not the end of the world.. I'd suspect your alk. Mine dropped into the low 6's for a week and I felt the effects for weeks afterwards... stn, rtn, stunted growth, etc. Once I got it back up close to my normal level, between 9-10, everything started recovering nicely.

Six2seven · Sep 17, 2014

I would start looking into a Doser as Manual dosing is never consistent. testing continuously is the only way to know if your alk swung dramatically.

Bouncingsoul393 · Sep 17, 2014

I'm gonna go against the grain once again and say your water parameters have nothing to do with it as I've said before the last time someone posted on this topic. I've kept SPS for a long time and have maintained literally hundreds of SPS frags, cultured colonies, wild colonies all with great success. If anyone ever went into Seaside while I was managing it and saw how Steve Garrett's frags were growing in my system and the color they held they can attest to it.
Like I said before, I manually dosed that system. No fancy gear, no controllers, no dosers, just a couple phosban reactors with gfo, carbon, and microbacter7 when needed to control cyano. Those things like dosers are not needed to be successful with SPS. They are there for mere convenience. And SPS are more resilient to temp swings than people claim. So i disagree that a 4 degree temp swing nor the 6 dkh is the culprit here.

In your particular case I think that the most probable cause of your RTN is from Allelopathy from the algae or soft corals in your system. Read here:http://www.wetwebmedia.com/spscompfaqs.htm

acesq · Sep 17, 2014

Check for AEFWs and red bugs. Those could be the cause.

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lowbudget · Sep 17, 2014

Chemical warfare could be the cause but if we run carbon wouldn't it be enough to stop it? Right now my tank is dominated by soft corals. Very small frags of sps. I think low alk is the problem.

Bouncingsoul393 said:

I'm gonna go against the grain once again and say your water parameters have nothing to do with it as I've said before the last time someone posted on this topic. I've kept SPS for a long time and have maintained literally hundreds of SPS frags, cultured colonies, wild colonies all with great success. If anyone ever went into Seaside while I was managing it and saw how Steve Garrett's frags were growing in my system and the color they held they can attest to it.
Like I said before, I manually dosed that system. No fancy gear, no controllers, no dosers, just a couple phosban reactors with gfo, carbon, and microbacter7 when needed to control cyano. Those things like dosers are not needed to be successful with SPS. They are there for mere convenience. And SPS are more resilient to temp swings than people claim. So i disagree that a 4 degree temp swing nor the 6 dkh is the culprit here.

In your particular case I think that the most probable cause of your RTN is from Allelopathy from the algae or soft corals in your system. Read here:http://www.wetwebmedia.com/spscompfaqs.htm

Looking for potential sources of STN

Terefel

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lurking

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Terefel

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M3ace9

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bvysochin

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Six2seven

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Bouncingsoul393

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acesq

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lowbudget

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