Losing SPS to STN possible causes

[bowen1022]

Hey all, I have been losing my SPS corals slowly due to STN over the past month and cannot figure out why. My parameters are:
Ca: 440ppm
Alk: 7.7dkH
Mg: 1400ppm
NO3: 2.5-3ppm
PO4: 0.02ppm
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: 78.6ish

I have kept these parameters throughout the entire time I have been losing the corals. I'm running this on an IM Fusion 10 (I know it's small but I was successful with it last time it was set up), Carbon/GFO (Chemipure Elite), a skimmer, Marine pure spheres, AI Prime non HD (Max 85%), MP10 for flow, was dosing NOPOX but stopped, I feed my fish pellets and frozen daily.

I've checked for pests and haven't found any, I've tested each parameter about a trillion times, The only thing I have not yet tested for is stray voltage but I will tonight.

All other corals seem to be doing fine it's just SPS. Any input? Thanks in advance!!

 

[Sherman]

How is yr PH? Keep it above 7.7.and as stable as possible.
I experience if PH is below 7.7 for long period of time SPS start to STN.

 

[TUSI]

Sps need stable paremeters especially alkalinity. Has all paremeters been stable?

 

[Tahoe61]

Have you double checked your reagents? I know I have had Hanna Alk reagent go bad before expiration date.

 

[bowen1022]

pH: 8.2

 

[bowen1022]

The parameters have been fairly stable. Alk floats from 7.5 to 8 but I don't know if that's much of a swing? I could also be dumb lol

As for the test kits I just bought my Alk one less than a month ago. That's not to say it's not bad and I am ordering another soon (I spilt reagent all over lol) The Calcium and Mg are about 10 months old but not over expiration, and the NO3 and PO4 were both purchased this year

 

[TUSI]

Rtn and stn are very hard to figure out why it happens. Haven't had any for a long time and out of no were lost couple of pcs recently. In my experience it had always been on some fluctuation of alkalinity or a sharp drop of phosphates. By the way no question is dumb, we all learn from each other so don't hesitate to ask or say what you do. Try to also keep your temp steady. Don't know what lights you are running but mine gets hot when my halides come on so my chiller work like a dog to maintain temp steady.

 

[Flippers4pups]

How high is your light above the water line? Is the STN starting from the base or at the tips?

 

[bowen1022]

Rtn and stn are very hard to figure out why it happens. Haven't had any for a long time and out of no were lost couple of pcs recently. In my experience it had always been on some fluctuation of alkalinity or a sharp drop of phosphates. By the way no question is dumb, we all learn from each other so don't hesitate to ask or say what you do. Try to also keep your temp steady. Don't know what lights you are running but mine gets hot when my halides come on so my chiller work like a dog to maintain temp steady.

Thanks for the input! I am running an AquaIllumination Prime

How high is your light above the water line? Is the STN starting from the base or at the tips?

The light is about 11" above the water. It is at the highest it can be with the tank mount.
STN is starting at the tips on every piece

 

[Flippers4pups]

Like others have said, STN and RTN have so many things that contribute to this happening. Try lowing your light intensity a little to see if it helps. If this doesn't, you should frag as much good tissue off and discard the dead parts. Try to save as much as you can.

 

[bowen1022]

I adjusted the light to 70% max intensity so hopefully that will help a bit.

 

[ashr]

I am having the same issues as you.. Some SPS are fine while others burn at the tips. My levels have been stable for a few months but my PH still drops to 7.5/7.6 in the mornings.. I also reduced my light... see what happens

 

[smh254]

I've been having the same problem for the past year. It comes and goes but I can't figure it out. At first I thought it was ALK swing. I've been testing ALK every day with no swing. Maybe a nutrients issue so I dose NO3 and PO4 to keep at no3=3 PO4=.02. Now I'm starting to think it's my ph swing from 7.95-8.45 daily. Now this happens every time I feed or do a water change.

 

[silvernblackr35]

Double check your source water with a handheld tds meter, 2 different brands works best they are cheap. Every issue i've had with mass dieoff of sps has been caused by my rodi pumping 1-5tds water into my tank without my knowledge until it was too late. Depending on where you live you might have to change your filters and membranes out more frequently compared to what some people can get out of them especially if you have chloramines.

 

[pirate2876]

Double check your source water with a handheld tds meter, 2 different brands works best they are cheap. Every issue i've had with mass dieoff of sps has been caused by my rodi pumping 1-5tds water into my tank without my knowledge until it was too late. Depending on where you live you might have to change your filters and membranes out more frequently compared to what some people can get out of them especially if you have chloramines.

If you brew your own RODI make sure you have a chloramine block in there.

 

[BoomCorals]

I've been having the same problem for the past year. It comes and goes but I can't figure it out. At first I thought it was ALK swing. I've been testing ALK every day with no swing. Maybe a nutrients issue so I dose NO3 and PO4 to keep at no3=3 PO4=.02. Now I'm starting to think it's my ph swing from 7.95-8.45 daily. Now this happens every time I feed or do a water change.

Are you on city water? Does it have chloramines in it? You'd have to check with the city and if so you need a specific RODI system for chloramines. That PH swing is pretty large and could cause issues, but hard to say for sure. It's a .5 change per day up and down. How big of a % are you changing when you do your WC?

 

[smh254]

I do use city water that is 120 TDS out of the tap and is 1 out of the RO and 0 after DI. I was doing about 10% water change every 2 weeks. I now do a 10% once a month due to the problems it causes. I will check to see if the water has chloramines in it but I don't think is the problem. I went a few months with no water change and the problem still happens.

 

[silvernblackr35]

Even if you stopped changing water you still were topping off with that same water.

Just a suggestion since the success we have in our tanks all start with our rodi water quality, I scratched my head as the issue eluded me for months as I searched and searched... bought every test kit possible and still couldn't figure it out until I bought a 15 dollar tds meter and checked my rodi product water and found tds even when my inline said 0.

 

[bowen1022]

I'm going to buy a TDS meter and see if that is the cause

 

[smh254]

Even if you stopped changing water you still were topping off with that same water.

Just a suggestion since the success we have in our tanks all start with our rodi water quality, I scratched my head as the issue eluded me for months as I searched and searched... bought every test kit possible and still couldn't figure it out until I bought a 15 dollar tds meter and checked my rodi product water and found tds even when my inline said 0.

Wasn't even thinking about the top off water. I'm gonna go by my water supplier today and see what's in my water. I have multiple tds meters. I'm still thinking it's the pH swing. I noticed this problem more on Sunday and Monday after the weekend when more people are in my Condo. I'm not trying to hijack this tread so I going start a new one.