Help with STN issues....perfect tank parameters....established reef

[loz]

Large wc

 

[CoralWealth]

you am an see the part that actually went overnight. It’s pure white

Can the zoas be touching that at all? warfare maybe?

 

[Da8]

Rise up your N.

I don't like having alk higher than 7 so there are no strange things happening when low N.


I assume you've got enough flow right?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

First off this is affecting like 2-3% of my corals. I am diligent in inspections and I have just noticed a strange "trend" in some of these corals. I am having a very slow recession mainly on the dimly lit side of the coral. And it is recessing very slowly. Like 3mm per week. On some other corals this might move at only 1mm per week. I currently have two colonies that are going much faster ( RR Pink Floyd and PacMan) but oddly enough secondary colonies of these (in the same system!!!) are doing just great. here are my tank parameters:

600 gallons total, 6 tanks total connected to the same sump.
Par for acros: 1,200-400
Lighting is mostly hybird (MH and LED, T5 and LED, a couple of tanks are T5 only. The LED lights are light bars only. Nothing fancy.
Circulation is what most would consider "high" but not direct blasting.
Red Sea regular salt is used.
Inverts such as snails and shrimp are doing great.
Softies and LPS are doing fine.
Alk: 7.0-8.0 95% of the time. Right now it is at 8.3.....in a 600 gallon system it takes a long time to change (max 0.1 per day). Alk is never outside of 6.5-8.6 (over the course of a full year).
Ca: 450
Mg: 1380
NO3: detectable around 0.5
Phosphates: 0.10-0.15
Zero ammonia or nitrites
I use carbon 1 week out of every 4 weeks. If i change something in my tank (new wavemaker, new plumbing, etc) I will run carbon for a week. Incase there is some residue on it.
My RO/DI water is around 1.0-2.0 TDS
95% of my corals are growing at 0.5"/month on their tips and are rocking! color and growth are killer.

Before we go down the path of pests: I have a QT tank I use for everything. I have a 3 dip system i use for all incoming coral that takes over 3 weeks to complete. I own inspection glasses and inspect all my corals and the left over of my dips. Every month I pick 5 random corals and dip them to observe what dies. I look at them under a microscope for positive ID.

So more on that Alk....it has gone up recently from 7.7...and my Calcium Reactor has been dead constant: 160ml/min and pH of 6.45. So I do know that there is "stress in the water". The corals currently affected are: green slimer, rr pink floyd, pacman, and upscales microlados, and a tich on my GARF bonsia.

Could this be bacterial? Any other ideas? Any suggestions? I am very proactive on this so I have caught this early.

That monthly dip thing is odd, I wouldn't do that. You're adding a point of failure that can kill the entire tank if you don't rinse them enough...you could in introducing slow traces of the dip residue into your display.

Seriously, kill whatever thought process that has you doing that. If your SPS are not encrusting to the point you can do this then your system isn't healthy to begin with. If I mount a frag to it's "home" then there is NO WAY I am taking it out the following month without breaking encrusting. SPS need to encrust, let them encrust.

 

[Lousybreed]

Large wc

I have already done that. I think it might have made it worse.

 

[Lousybreed]

That monthly dip thing is odd, I wouldn't do that. You're adding a point of failure that can kill the entire tank if you don't rinse them enough...you could in introducing slow traces of the dip residue into your display.

Seriously, kill whatever thought process that has you doing that. If your SPS are not encrusting to the point you can do this then your system isn't healthy to begin with. If I mount a frag to it's "home" then there is NO WAY I am taking it out the following month without breaking encrusting. SPS need to encrust, let them encrust.

I do my monthly check with corals that the whole rock can be lifted out. I use KCl to dip. Potassium is a vital element for coral growth. I literally have 100’s of corals on tiles. I dip a couple of those per month. My corals growth rates and encrusting rates are very good. Like I said this is happening to 5-6 corals out of 400!!! I get some people don’t like my dipping regime, but most are not growing to the scale I am. I cannot risk any pest outbreaks. I do not think my dipping has anything to do with it. I don’t dip anything from my DT since it’s all attached to the rock. I am only dipping in my growout flats. And I am have ZERO issues in my growout flats.

 

[Lousybreed]

Rise up your N.

I don't like having alk higher than 7 so there are no strange things happening when low N.


I assume you've got enough flow right?

Insane flow. I have two gyre 350’s, 3 of the SOW-15’s and 2 SOW-8’s and my return is on a sea swirl and flows at 1200gpm. My N is low. You could be on to something.

 

[Lousybreed]

Can the zoas be touching that at all? warfare maybe?

It’s weird because I have been waiting for that. The white death is spreading from that lice and I put it in my growout flat now just Incase!

 

[Lousybreed]

Some pics

 

[drawman]

If you are talking about 5-6 acros out of 400 I sure wouldn't make any drastic moves at this point.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I think you already stated your problem. You said that the affected Acro’s and areas are in low light. As your system has grown, you could be having shading issues, especially if it is an LED only system. Looking at some of the pics, it could also be a little coral warfare. JMO.