Can a .5 Degree Temperature Swing Cause STN?!

[AngryOwl]

So my insight on Travis's video is that it could have been thin tissue due to lack of light and this became a weak spot for STN to start.

In this event would it just continue to peel until when? Forever or until it reaches appropriate light? What would be the best course of action in that event?

 

[JustPoprocks]

Have you added anything recently that appeared to struggle or die shortly after entry?

Because of swings, no. Because of bad placement yes lol

 

[JustPoprocks]

 

[AngryOwl]

So we can clearly see everything is doing horrible! haha jk those acans at the end are awesome!

 

[ca1ore]

I'd have to say keeping a tank at a 0.5 deg f swing daily is next to impossible. Not to mention the swing of a heater is 1 or more for the most part... BRS did a good video on heaters a while back. Just saying

Depends. Internal stick heater thermostats probably cannot, and many add on controllers are limited to a setback of about one full degree. Apex, on the other hand, can easily manage .5 degree or smaller swings. Of course, you don’t want short cycling of devices if you can avoid it.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

You read typical bad advice that plagues this industry. We can thank social media profit centers for that...

Anyone that thinks a .5 temp swing caused stn sucks at trouble shooting and takes the lazy approach to cause and effect analysis to ignore the deeper harder to find solution to the actual problem. They won’t last long in this hobby.

 

[TerraFerma]

I get upward temps swings of plus 4-5 degrees (F) in the summer and my corals are fine. So I'm gonna go with no.

 

[AngryOwl]

You read typical bad advice that plagues this industry. We can thank social media profit centers for that...

Anyone that thinks a .5 temp swing caused stn sucks at trouble shooting and takes the lazy approach to cause and effect analysis to ignore the deeper harder to find solution to the actual problem. They won’t last long in this hobby.

It does appear to be a lazy correlation to me as well. It's equivalent to saying "I had a small alk swing... and my tank had water... so the water caused STN" ;Hilarious

 

[AngryOwl]

For remediating STN, is it wise to leave it alone or try to cut off the part that is dying? I've seen people glue the STN part as well.

 

[madweazl]

For remediating STN, is it wise to leave it alone or try to cut off the part that is dying? I've seen people glue the STN part as well.

It has never made a difference for me.

 

[AngryOwl]

It has never made a difference for me.

In that it will continue or stop with either method (cut/glue)?

 

[Jereamy]

Saw a video recently where it was said that a .5 degree temperature change can cause STN. It was not an accident, it was very clear and defended later in the comments. Just wondering everyone's opinion on if this is true? Another item mentioned was a .5dkh swing, which makes more sense for super sensitive corals, but what about overall? Is it really a big deal?

Holistically listening to this, is there such a thing as keeping your tank "too stable"... in such that your tank cannot adjust to otherwise minor changes?


Video linked:

9

 

[crazywegian]

Definitely not.. It’s likely you temp probe might not even be that sensitive.

 

[crazywegian]

I’ve seen SPS doing great with 10 degree daily temp swings. They reef temps fluctuate a good bit over 24 hours.

 

[madweazl]

In that it will continue or stop with either method (cut/glue)?

Either or; neither makes a difference in my opinion. It can continue or stop with both methods. I dont cut them if the STN is covering a smaller area (say 10-20% of the coral) as it will grow back over the exposed skeleton.

 

[crazywegian]

I find heaters really aren’t necessary as long as you Keep your home near room temp 72-80. I have never used a heater and that has saved me a lot of risk heaters have exploded, gone rogue and so on. My tank goes from 74-80 by the end of the day every day and Ive done that for 7 years now.

 

[Timfish]

Healthy corals should be able to tolerate daily 4-5 degree temperature swings without a problem providing the bleaching threshold for the corals in question is not crossed. WHen you start to factor in species/genotype/variety prefferences, changes corals make to their holobiont to deal with environmental conditions, and how they've been maintained (corals have decadal memories) the issue gets very complicated. Another factor complicating disease is visually healthy corals can have unhealthy shifts in their microbiomes. This quote from a paper on WBD in corals I think highlights some of the difficulty in identifying why a coral gets sick:

"Bacterial diseases can be caused by a few cells of a single pathogen invading the host tissues (low infectious dose) (Zwart, Daros and Elena 2011), a consortium of pathogens that may be sufficient but not necessary to cause disease signs (Lemire et al. 2015) or normally commensal bacteria reaching a threshold, which initiates a switch to pathogenic behavior (Rutherford and Bassler 2012). Furthermore, commensal bacteria could become pathogenic due to an external environmental trigger" Complex interactions between potentially pathogenic, opportunistic, and resident bacteria


So it seems reasonable to me a visually healthy coral could have a shift in it's holobiont putting it at risk with just slight changes in environmental conditions.

 

[AngryOwl]

So it seems reasonable to me a visually healthy coral could have a shift in it's holobiont putting it at risk with just slight changes in environmental conditions.

This hurt my head.

Simply put, the "cause" of the STN could be the underlying bacterial disease while the slight parameter shift would be the "trigger" that initiates it visually. Have I summed that up correctly?

 

[Timfish]

This hurt my head.

Simply put, . . .

Yup!

 

[JustPoprocks]

When ever I top off my tank I do it by hand ( two cups a day) I’m to lazy to match the water temp so I just sprinkle it in and tell myself that it’s nothing more than a cool afternoon rain shower lol