Issue with SPS

[MyNameIs]

I have a 75 gallon deep blue and just in the past 2 days my red planet is starting to take a turn for the worse it looks like. I have 2 radion LED fixtures above the tank and have been struggling for a long time to get the lights at the right intensity / time. I just recently last week on Sunday cut the whites back on the light by 15 minutes which in my eyes helped my tank a lot, a lot of my corals that were on the verge of bleaching stopped and red planet started to color up nicely. I am not seeing this behavior on any of my other SPS corals at the moment only on red planet. The part that was "white" at the bottom was not like that just 2 or 3 days ago I have been slowly watching it but it appears to be getting worse. I inspected my tank closely, I see no AEFW, or Red Bugs (I actually just got over this 3 months ago and dosed interceptor to take care of the problem). Is this STN or possible RTN? I have been dosing 3 drops of coral amino every day for the past 2 weeks. I also have been using 10 drops of replenish every day (the bottle states 15 drops per 25 gallons) so I know I am under dosing and am starting to think my problem is a ULNS. I dont have any crazy filtration my setup is very simple but it works. I have a precision marine sump has a foam filter in it, with a bag of carbon, and a ASM G2 skimmer which is rated for up to 200 gallons. I am starting to think I am stripping to many nutrients out of my tank and that's the cause of the problem (only thing that keeps me from believing this is my other corals seem very happy). My test kits are fine and every time I test my water my ALK is in the same spot so it doesn't seem to be an ALK swing. Anyone got any idea's?

ALK : 7.8DKH
Calcium : 420
Magnesium : 1280

 

[Reefltx]

Bumping up the alk. to 8-9dkh may help since you are not specifically running a ULNS. Other than that I would check for stray voltage and test your no3/po4. Possibly re check some of the recent changes you made in the last few days or weeks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[swannyson7]

By the looks of the pic, it appears that it might be getting stung by something? Are there any LPS within a few inches that could be sending out feeder tentacles at night or possible an aiptasia lurking in the LR next to the frag?

 

[MyNameIs]

By the looks of the pic, it appears that it might be getting stung by something? Are there any LPS within a few inches that could be sending out feeder tentacles at night or possible an aiptasia lurking in the LR next to the frag?

No LPS near it. I have some Acans like 2 feet away but they are on the sand bed and they don't have sweepers like that. nothing close by that should be stinging it. As for Aptasia no, I killed my live rock completely before I set up the tank. I have nothing but frags in the tank so no Aptasia should be there, and I have never seen a piece of Aptasia there ( I will keep an eye on this). I also just checked my Nitrites and Ammonia and read 0 for both.

 

[islander84]

Are you positive there werent any eggs that survived treatment?

If theres 100 % no bugs left in system i would start by keeping an eye on nutrient levels.

Have you checked PO4 with hanna checker? What do you have for fish and what and how often do you feed them?

 

[MyNameIs]

Are you positive there werent any eggs that survived treatment?

If theres 100 % no bugs left in system i would start by keeping an eye on nutrient levels.

Have you checked PO4 with hanna checker? What do you have for fish and what and how often do you feed them?

Alright so first as a update, I noticed some of my other acros have this problem as well just a few minutes ago.

1. I just looked at my tank extremely hard and I do not see any red bugs at all. I know they are small bugs but I saw them in there when I first got them so I know what to look for.
2. 2 clowns, 2 firefish, 3 lyretail anthias, 1 mandarin. I feed half a cube of Mysis every day.
3. The PO4 is the only thing I don't know at the moment honestly, I used test kits and was out so i'm not sure at this moment waiting on my order. I know this could very well be the problem. Doesn't high PO4 decrease coral growth though?

 

[Chameleon]

does it spread slowly overtime like STN. It looks like base up STN to me. Can be caused by alk swings usually, but in your case I would say unlikely. Do you use kalk in your ATO because pH swings could be an issue. Double check your salinity with a calibrated refractometer. I highly doubt its phosphates if you are getting good growth and with the lack of algae I see in the pic. I run a very similar setup to you and had a similar problem start a few months back. I have since bumped nutrients up and the problem has lessened, but I have still not pinpointed the cause. Oddly enough it only occurred to corals who had been in my tank for 3-4 months plus. I am currently investigating the possibilities of a new/old acropora specific predator based on some other observations and some thing I read on the forums. Write up on that to follow but its too soon to make it public without proper data to back up claim (i'm a scientist...so no premature conclusions with out good data). Good luck pinpointing the issue, but STN is always a hard one.

 

[MyNameIs]

does it spread slowly overtime like STN. It looks like base up STN to me. Can be caused by alk swings usually, but in your case I would say unlikely. Do you use kalk in your ATO because pH swings could be an issue. Double check your salinity with a calibrated refractometer. I highly doubt its phosphates if you are getting good growth and with the lack of algae I see in the pic. I run a very similar setup to you and had a similar problem start a few months back. I have since bumped nutrients up and the problem has lessened, but I have still not pinpointed the cause. Oddly enough it only occurred to corals who had been in my tank for 3-4 months plus. I am currently investigating the possibilities of a new/old acropora specific predator based on some other observations and some thing I read on the forums. Write up on that to follow but its too soon to make it public without proper data to back up claim (i'm a scientist...so no premature conclusions with out good data). Good luck pinpointing the issue, but STN is always a hard one.

Yeah I think I found the problem. I think its an ALK swing. Some other corals are experiencing the problem. I don't think its a PO4 issue as I dont feed much and have enough filtration to handle to my tank. I also still have great SPS growth on most of my corals and have no algae growth. I tested my water with an "older" alk test kit from red sea and it was reading 10dkh. I tested with the test kit that is "suppose" to be good and this time it tested out at 8.4 so either way it looks like my ALK raised a bit which I think is the cause of the problem. I have been continuously checking on my tank and still see no predators. I scoped my tank out last night while it was in sleep mode and only thing I see running around are amphipods. Seems to be it might be my ALK raised. I don't know if it raised to much or just a little as both test kits seem to be failing me. I am waiting on an order of new test kits...also going to try the hanna ALK test out. I am not going to dose any ALK tonight to see how things work out.

I use brightwell 2part and kent marine tech M.

 

[islander84]

Is it only STN from base up or do you have random stn going on like tips, sides....? And does it ever stop on certain pieces then the skeleton turn to algae or does it continue?

 

[MyNameIs]

Is it only STN from base up or do you have random stn going on like tips, sides....? And does it ever stop on certain pieces then the skeleton turn to algae or does it continue?

Only base up, don't know if it "ever stops" as it just started
But it doesn't really look like its stopping or getting worse to fast. I checked my red planet this morning and it didn't spread much more maybe a centimeter

 

[MyNameIs]

Update. My order arrived today and it came with a hanna ALK test, Calcium hanna, as well as the Phosphates. I first checked all levels with my red sea test kits below are the results.


Red sea results
ALK : 7.6
Calcium : 380
Magnesium : 1200

Hanna Results

ALK : 7.6 (right on!)
Calcium : 531 (NOT RIGHT ON)
Phosphates : 0.002

After all of this i'm going to have to say that my Calcium test kit must be bad and that my corals must be RTNing due to the Calcium swing. Does anyone disagree on this theory?

 

[kschweer]

I have heard of a lot of people getting "bad" or readings that are all over the place with the hanna calcium checker. I would try and get a new calcium test kit or have another local reefer check your calcium with another test to compare to the hanna results

 

[MyNameIs]

I have heard of a lot of people getting "bad" or readings that are all over the place with the hanna calcium checker. I would try and get a new calcium test kit or have another local reefer check your calcium with another test to compare to the hanna results

Yeah, I was planning on still taking my water to Aquarium One tomorrow to have someone test my levels for me as well to confirm. I am still not going to dose Calcium tonight.

 

[ddpham]

My Hanna was giving out erroneous results also. I had my check against a Hanna , salifert and Elos that my friends own n my was really off. Don't think is for sure just because is Hanna.

 

[MyNameIs]

My Hanna was giving out erroneous results also. I had my check against a Hanna , salifert and Elos that my friends own n my was really off. Don't think is for sure just because is Hanna.

I didn't, everything seems to be back to normal. It seems the ALK is pretty reliable comparing the red sea tests with the Hanna. The calcium is another story that thing gives me a different reading every time. I ended up finding out my Salinity dropped from .26 to .21 so I had raised that back up. Amputated the bad parts on the corals. Cut back my dosing on my Calcium for right now until my new red sea calcium test kit arrives tomorrow (this way I can compare the hanna with the red sea). Everything is looking like its back on track corals are all healthy, red planet seems to be recovering very well. I will keep everyone updated.