Can this cause STN?

[ryshark]

I'm trying to figure out what's causing STN in some of my acros. It's not Alk, I've been keeping a close eye on that, which is a pretty stable 9. I found that some people had problems with their Vortech MP10 QD rust on the shaft, so I took a closer look at my two vortechs and found this on the white shaft of only one of them. The tip of the shaft has exposed metal. As you can see in the picture the other has the tip encapsulated with no metal showing. There is no rust, but do you think this could cause a problem with exposed metal in the water? The tank is 66-gallons.

 

[P-Dub]

Clean, dry and put a drop of epoxy on it and see if things change. Do some water changes...

 

[Scorpius]

The newwer vortech wet sides all have exposed metal now . I've had no rust issues.

 

[Waters]

Unfortunately any type of contaminant in the water can cause RTN/STN in sensitive acros....actually if you walk by the tank too fast it can often cause RTN/STN

 

[Tahoe61]

What are your N and P levels? Your alk might in fact be too high if your tank is running an ULNS tank.

 

[ryshark]

I don't know P but my N is 0 with API test kit. I tried testing my tap water and waste rodi water and that also reads 0. I wonder if something is wrong with my kit, or everything really has no nitrates. For the past two weeks I've been dosing a teaspoon of oyster feast daily, still reads 0. Some of my acros look great though, so who knows.

What are your N and P levels? Your alk might in fact be too high if your tank is running an ULNS tank.

 

[McPikie]

I'd be getting an ICP test done. I struggled with SPS stripping and turns out I had high levels of zinc in the tank.

 

[erky]

im in the same boat, something is causing an issue, I should have ICP results early next week. Hope you find the issue.

Id say with N 0 you might have some starving corals.

 

[Lighthouze08]

i've seen where alk is 9 , but low nutrient in tank can cause STN in sps

 

[Alex Costa]

What are your N and P levels? Your alk might in fact be too high if your tank is running an ULNS tank.

I put my bet on this too.....

 

[BigJim]

Can you post some pictures of the acros? Sometimes another member can find a cause in the picture.

 

[ryshark]

Can you post some pictures of the acros? Sometimes another member can find a cause in the picture.

There are no bugs or anything like that. My fish bioload is pretty low, which also points to low nutrients.

 

[BigJim]

There are no bugs or anything like that. My fish bioload is pretty low, which also points to low nutrients.

I was thinking it might show burnt tips. I suspect alk / low nutrients like several others suggested and burnt tips are a pretty big indicator of that. I definitely was not trying to say you have pests.

 

[ryshark]

I was thinking it might show burnt tips. I suspect alk / low nutrients like several others suggested and burnt tips are a pretty big indicator of that. I definitely was not trying to say you have pests.

No problem, you are right I should get pics because one of them is pretty weird. It looked like burnt tips all of a sudden at the top of the frag and on the corallites on one entire side of the frag, however, now it looks more like the tip and corallites just became extremely pale/whitish (definitely not new growth tips) but it still has good polyp extension. It seemed to happen on the side which is getting the most light and all of a sudden out of nowhere.

Another one is STNing from the base up, no question about it, the skeleton is slowing increasing from the bottom up. This one is a pretty new frag as I've only had it a little over 2-weeks.

Lastly, I have another frag which I've had for several months which started getting very pale so I moved it down in the tank. Now it has some STN on the base and some tips.

A lot of my other acros look fine still. I'm thinking about taking my protein skimmer offline for a little to help bring up the N. I'd also like to get a new Nitrate test kit since everything I test seems to be 0 with the kit I have, including waste rodi water. I also want to get some new refractometer calibration fluid since the bottle I have is probably about a year old.

 

[ZaneTer]

Why has no one else commented yet on the fact that you are constantly reading 0 for nitrates?
You are doing the equivalent of locking a dog in a room with no food then wondering why it died eventually.

We have far too many people chiming in on this site who seem to be waiting for the opportunity to comment without actually paying any attention to what has been posted.

@ryshark you NEED to get those nutrients up. You are showing typical signs of starvation...pale colours/slow or no growth/STN and once damaged you corals are almost certainly unable to repair themselves. Your test kit is probably correct and it is extremely easy to bottom out nitrate in our tanks.

 

[P-Dub]

Why has no one else commented yet on the fact that you are constantly reading 0 for nitrates?
You are doing the equivalent of locking a dog in a room with no food then wondering why it died eventually.

We have far too many people chiming in on this site who seem to be waiting for the opportunity to comment without actually paying any attention to what has been posted.

@ryshark you NEED to get those nutrients up. You are showing typical signs of starvation...pale colours/slow or no growth/STN and once damaged you corals are almost certainly unable to repair themselves. Your test kit is probably correct and it is extremely easy to bottom out nitrate in our tanks.

Easy there ZaneTer. If you had read the previous posts, you would have seen both Lighthouze08 & erky already made that observation and when I responded there was no disclosure regarding tank parameters. Just responding to what the OP had disclosed. I think your comment that "far too many" people are chiming in... is a bit of a fetch. You are correct, however, in your assessment that '0' nitrates are certainly not ideal. Good, you caught that as well and I'm with you there 100%. I cannot back your claim that "pale colours/slow or no growth/STN and once damaged you corals are almost certainly unable to repair themselves. " I can't tell you how many corals that were having similar issues in my tank before were able to make full recoveries from such maladies. As long as corrective steps are taken promptly, there are distinct possibilities that the corals will fully recover over time. Now, RTN... that's an entirely different story.

 

[ZaneTer]

I will apologise... I passed over erky comment....my mistake. I won’t concede the second statement regarding people chiming in for the sake of it. R2R is probably the greatest reef forum on the planet. I expect that there is a generally high level of competence amongst us but increasingly people are posting comments without having read what was said.....and yes I realise I made the same mistake not spotting erky advice.

I agree that there can be many causes for STN but if you can perform a test and your most basic parameters are out of balance then that is probably the best place to start corrections, not be hunt around for a million possibilities when the basics aren’t in place.

That being said I have suffered both STN and RTN. STN has always been my fault. I have never gotten to the cause of my RTN incidents. They have always been isolated without any other corals suffering.

OP.... really sorry to derail your thread. Please understand I was not attacking you personally. The only advice I can give you really is try to make a concerted effort to monitor and maintain your chemical levels to some stability and don’t get hung up on the notion that you have to have super low nutrients to keep sps. You will almost certainly kill everything in the process. I know, I have done it before. If you do find the cause of the problem please come back and let us know so we can share that knowledge with the rest of the community.

 

[ZaneTer]

P-Dub
I think you misunderstood when I wrote the comment regarding poor colour etc... it was intended to show stereotypical symptoms of nutrient starvation that perhaps the OP could relate to his tank.

 

[ryshark]

P-Dub
I think you misunderstood when I wrote the comment regarding poor colour etc... it was intended to show stereotypical symptoms of nutrient starvation that perhaps the OP could relate to his tank.

Really only one frag got pale, which was a Fox Flame in probably too high of light. I'm going to work on being able to register some nitrates And get a PO4 checker.
I appreciate everyone's replies, thanks.

 

[Alex Costa]

I'm going to work on being able to register some nitrates

Here I started dosing NaNO3 (Sodium Nitrate). My NO3 was 0~0,2ppm.
I have a little amount of fishes and no intention of get a lot more. My skimmer is big and turn it of will have impact on ORP and O2 levels.
After months watching my zoas suffering and my sps little to pale for my taste, I raised my NO3 to 7ppm (dosing 30 g/2000liters system) last month and yesterday I measured it and it was droped down to 1ppm again.
I raised it again to 5ppm this time (15g diluted in 3 liters of RO water ,dripping in the sump) and this is the value that I intend to keep, maintaining a dosing schedule.
Next months will be of observation.
Each system is diferent but maybe this is a shot that you could try.
Regards.
Alex.