Is this RTN/STN?

[4ddiction]

Does anyone know what is happening here? And why it’s happening?

Water Volume: 85g
Salinity: 35ppt
Temp: 78

Cal: 420
Mg: 1395
Light: radion G4 with t5 bulbs

Filtration: Skimmer, chaeto, siporax, Carbon, rowaphos
Carbon dosing: Nopox

I had an increase in nitrate/phosphate about a month ago when I had a shipment of bad snails put into the tank. They were quickly removed and carbon dosing was changed.

I’m not too sure but I feel at my current alk which is around 9.2-9.4 is too high for my nitrate levels. I’m striving to keep no3 at 2ppm to keep the sps happy. Im currently in the process of slowly reducing my alkalinity dose to bring it down to around 7.9-8.2

not sure if that’s the case so I’m open to opinions and ideas of what’s causing my sps to do this.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

You are headed the right direction. This happened to acros 6 months back. I increased my alkalinity but my phosphates and nitrates were too low. The higher the ALK with lower nutrient levels causes them to bleach out. I suggest decreasing between 7-8dkh or raising your nutrient levels. Keep levels consistent and stable most importantly.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Does anyone know what is happening here? And why it’s happening?

Water Volume: 85g
Salinity: 35ppt
Temp: 78

Cal: 420
Mg: 1395
Light: radion G4 with t5 bulbs

Filtration: Skimmer, chaeto, siporax, Carbon, rowaphos
Carbon dosing: Nopox

I had an increase in nitrate/phosphate about a month ago when I had a shipment of bad snails put into the tank. They were quickly removed and carbon dosing was changed.

I’m not too sure but I feel at my current alk which is around 9.2-9.4 is too high for my nitrate levels. I’m striving to keep no3 at 2ppm to keep the sps happy. Im currently in the process of slowly reducing my alkalinity dose to bring it down to around 7.9-8.2

not sure if that’s the case so I’m open to opinions and ideas of what’s causing my sps to do this.

Yes, that looks like RTN/STN. How old is the tank?

It looks like you brought down your NO3 and PO4 pretty rapidly. That could cause this. SPS like stability more than exact numbers.

It also looks like you have a lot of different nutrient control methods going on at the same time. IMO, skimmer and chaeto are enough. The other items can bring nutrients down too rapidly and can make them go to zero, which is bad.

 

[Cory]

It wouldn't hurt to check for heavy metals with an icp test.

 

[4ddiction]

Tank is about 8 months old. Yeah gonna try to lower the alkalinity and see how things are. These are probably goners.

 

[4ddiction]

Definitely RTN almost entire skeleton exposed

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I would check for heavy metals but you’re definitely not headed in the right direction. Your po4 is rollercoastering and using nopox and gfo at the same time is recipe for disaster. You’re better off having a stable 0.20 po4 than 0.15 one week and 0.05 the next. If you want to play with nopox, gfo or both your alk should be below 8. Look at the side of your nopox bottle. It clearly states 0.08-0.12 po4 for sps frags.

 

[C. Eymann]

How do your other corals look? what's your lighting set at? %s ?

I agree it seems like you need to get nutrient levels more stable and stop dosing NoPox.

However, that kinda looks like light burn possibly?

 

[4ddiction]

The par is around 200 for those sps. All the other corals are happy even zoanthids

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Don't give up on them yet. I have had SPS that lost 90% of their tissue and recovered. The key is to stop changing things and give your coral a chance to recover.

With such a new tank, I would recommend keeping you ALK a little lower. Try to use a salt mix with an ALK of around 8-9 dKh.

 

[4ddiction]

Don't give up on them yet. I have had SPS that lost 90% of their tissue and recovered. The key is to stop changing things and give your coral a chance to recover.

With such a new tank, I would recommend keeping you ALK a little lower. Try to use a salt mix with an ALK of around 8-9 dKh.

Aiming on the lower alk now. I checked my po4 just now and sitting at .07ppm on a phosphorus ulr checker.