SPS issues and question about dead skeletons

[Smite]

I've been battling some sps STN and RTN for some time now. I had a bit of an alk swing 6-7 months ago, where it drop a few points on me. I raised it slowly but the tank got a bit stressed.

Since then I've gotten my calcium reactor locked in with a great regulator/kameor combo. I'm still seeing issues with some random RTN and STN. Sometimes it seems to stat with the tips and othe pieces the stn start with the new encrustment.

My nutrients have ben creeping up on me and I'm working on getting that back down to what I would consider normal, phosphates around .03 and nitrates 5-10. Currently phopshates are .1 and nitrates are 15-20ppm via salifert and ATI ICP.

Other parameters are
salinity 1.025
alk 8.4
cal 500
mag 1500
temperature stays within 1 degree at 78-79.
pH 7.9 night to 8.3 day


I was suspecting a tang that keeps checking pieces, thinking maybe he was keeping them from recovering at the least. But I've noticed my coraline algae growth has died WAY down. I do have 2 urchins, but even on some of my pumps it seems to be turning very light in color. It has been that way for a few weeks now.

Another thing I don't recall noticing in past systems, when a piece dies, like my mini colony of JF Flame, it seem the actual skeleton is dissolving/brittle? Maybe this is normal I'm not sure. I don't normally leave dead pieces in the tank but the JF flame has some encrusted area still alive. I've noticed it on a dead stag as well.


My tank is sps dominant so this is very frustrating for me. I changed my salt to Tropic Marine Pro and did small water changes weekly. After 2 buckets no real change for me. I'm not tracking my trace elements and adjusting those based off ICP test and the Moonshiner's handbook. Too early to tell if thats having a positive effect, I should have my corrected ICP test results soon to see if I'm on track in that aspect.

This happened 2 months after I added diffusers to my radions but also near the time I had a alk drop. I didn't want to change too many things at once so I started with change of salt and water changes. That made very little difference so I'm tempted to remove my diffusers and see if there is a positive change.

I've blasted pieces with a turkey baster/ jebao removed from back wall and saw no flat worms. I dont see any signs of eggs. The next pieces I see start to go STN I'm going to cut from rock and dip to eliminate pests, although I'm pretty dang careful and nuke EVERYTHING in bayers like a glass of milk.

Any help or other things I could check for would be greatly appreciated.

I've attached my latest ATI ICP test from October.

/share/6a9dc5ba0d6e2c117e51

Thanks,

Matt

 

[kapnkush608]

Did you turn you lights up when you added the diffusers? Maybe they are starving. Also check anything with metal or a magnet. Took me about a month to find out that my TLF magnet veggie clip was blowing neodymium rust into my tank.

 

[kapnkush608]

Also, I will say I noticed the brittle thing too. I didn't even have to use bone cutters to trim the dead tips they broke off into like little shards if you touched them. Prolly didn't even need to use bone cutters.

 

[Smite]

Did you turn you lights up when you added the diffusers? Maybe they are starving. Also check anything with metal or a magnet. Took me about a month to find out that my TLF magnet veggie clip was blowing neodymium rust into my tank.

I did turn them up fromt 75% to 85%. Blanking the name of the template but i remember it being based of what WWC uses with slightly more whites. G3 pros


Interesting, i'll pull my pumps apart and mag cleaner to search around. I didnt see any elevated tin levels in my ICP test though. Not sure if i shared that link correctly.