SPS Burnt Tips and STN

[tbrown]

Sorry, no pictures - I can't get a photo that shows anything but I recently purchased a couple of Acro frags. I have a mixed reef but had never had any luck with Acros. Recently I realized my magnesium was low and brought it up, got my calcium into a good range.

Anyway, I lost one Mille in about 2 days once STN set in but in the meantime I found out that my alk had climber from 8.3 to 10.1. It didn't spike quickly so that wasn't the problem, my phosphates were at 0 - that's the problem.

Long story short, I started losing a second one but have been dosing NeoPhos for the past couple of days and it looks like the receding has stopped on my second acro. I have 4 other Acros all looking decent with good PE and color starting to come back on one of them. Is there any chance that the one that was receding comes back? It's a small frag but about half of it is skeleton - burnt tips and flesh receded from the base up. The base is showing some white polyps in some areas without flesh where there were no polyps previously.

Hopeful but not expecting a full recovery.

 

[Alex Cataldo]

STN typically happens from unstable params, namely unstable alk. your nutrients being at zero wouldn’t cause stn and bleaching but the alk rising like that would. If the alk won’t come down just try and keep the dose steady and they should recover.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

As long as there's living tissue, it can come back. I once had a piece of a dying acro that was smaller than a dime. I cut off the dead skeleton in a last ditch effor to save something. In two years, it's grown to cover two 3" frag tiles.

In order for it to come back though, the coral needs to have good water quality. If it's STNing, it doesn't like something. I'd keep looking into the nutrients. Do you test for phosphates/nitrates?

 

[tbrown]

STN typically happens from unstable params, namely unstable alk. your nutrients being at zero wouldn’t cause stn and bleaching but the alk rising like that would. If the alk won’t come down just try and keep the dose steady and they should recover.

I had both. My alk rose from 8.3 to 10.1. I've been slowly lowering it back. I think that's what caused the base up STN but the 0 phosphates and high all combined caused the burnt tips I'm thinking which started STN from the top down. I lost 1 completely and the second is holding on.

 

[tbrown]

As long as there's living tissue, it can come back. I once had a piece of a dying acro that was smaller than a dime. I cut off the dead skeleton in a last ditch effor to save something. In two years, it's grown to cover two 3" frag tiles.

In order for it to come back though, the coral needs to have good water quality. If it's STNing, it doesn't like something. I'd keep looking into the nutrients. Do you test for phosphates/nitrates?

I do. 0 phosphates and 30.6 nitrates. Bring the phosphates up slowly (my rock is eating it still I think) and trying to lower/maintain the nitrates. The STN most likely started when my ATO water somehow climbed to 12.6 alk and my tank water slowly rose to 10.1.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

You 're right, the rocks are probably binding a majority of the phosphate.

If I were in your shoes, I'd do two things. First, get alkalinity under tighter control. It's probably too high for your nutrient levels, so I'd stop dosing if you are.

Second, I'd start aggressively dosing PO4. I would dose twice a day and test every day or every other day until you have measurable PO4. My SPS really turned around when I started dosing and maintaining PO4. My PO4 is consistently between 0.15 and 0.2. I have some nuisance algae, but I also have healthy, colorful, growing SPS.

 

[Rams]

I do. 0 phosphates and 30.6 nitrates. Bring the phosphates up slowly (my rock is eating it still I think) and trying to lower/maintain the nitrates. The STN most likely started when my ATO water somehow climbed to 12.6 alk and my tank water slowly rose to

I think I already mentioned to you before..alk above 8.5 is troublemaker for lot of things.

 

[tbrown]

You 're right, the rocks are probably binding a majority of the phosphate.

If I were in your shoes, I'd do two things. First, get alkalinity under tighter control. It's probably too high for your nutrient levels, so I'd stop dosing if you are.

Second, I'd start aggressively dosing PO4. I would dose twice a day and test every day or every other day until you have measurable PO4. My SPS really turned around when I started dosing and maintaining PO4. My PO4 is consistently between 0.15 and 0.2. I have some nuisance algae, but I also have healthy, colorful, growing SPS.

1 and 2 done and done! Thanks! I'm not dosing alk and figured out what was happening. I am dosing phosphates and have been for about a week now. Still no detectable phosphates. Hanna ULR gets here this week.

 

[tbrown]

I think I already mentioned to you before..alk above 8.5 is troublemaker for lot of things.

Working on it. I'm currently at 8.6 and trying to bring it down back to 8.3.

 

[tbrown]

I'm hoping my corals start using it. I'm keeping an eye on the mag and calcium trying to keep them at around 440 and 1300. I'm also trying to bring my nitrates down some - 30.6 currently.