STN despite perfect parameters...

I am total beginner with SPS myself (and in general) with huge gaps and misconceptions in my knowledge/experience so don't put much stock in anything i say.
My tank isn't much older than yours and we used live sand and bottled bacteria to cycle it. I also have good programmable spectrum LED's but way less par than most other people because they barely penetrate at all (barely into the high range at the top of the tank).

Just to understand all 10 sps frags are experiencing this? If not all which specific species and which order did they start dying off?
I would logically rule out a light issue by the fact that they are probably mounted at different levels, and have different light requirements and also the specific way in which they are being effected, especially after doing good for so long.

If they were doing good at first and now took a crap I would think that they:
A. Used up all of, or are finally suffering the effects of a lack of, something critical in the tank that they all need to live which I would think unlikely unless its something you can't test for or have a bad test. Some of your numbers are a bit high or low but I'm not sure its so wildly off as to have everything crash at once after a few weeks of good growth.
B. Some sort of disease or infection or pest that effects all types equally (well beyond my knowledge) though I would expect that to have started somewhere and progressed and not hit everywhere at once.
C. Some sort of toxin introduced to the tank either from the air or from direct contact like some idiot dunking an arm covered in toxic sun block or lotion in or something.

A massive water change (as large as possible in several sessions) with the water being dosed to exactly match the tank ahead of time might be a good start to eliminate potential contaminates but it would also make the lack of nitrates worse.
EDIT: refugiums and skimmers might need some replanning on yours.
I normally do 20% every 2 weeks.
My tank matches the center of the ranges on this chart exactly except I can't get my PH over 8.1 with my current dosing (whats yours BTW?).
My nitrates were 15 (down from 20 due to several food incidents and dirty filters though they used to be 5-10) and the phosphates hover in low measurable levels above zero with the hanna. I also have no refugium and have both brown diatom and green (not hair) algae growing on the glass and rocks though the blenny works the glass and the hermit crabs work the sand and rocks.
So far everything is looking healthier after a few weeks than when it was at the LFS but who knows what next week will bring.
tank specs.JPG
 
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Thats not something I would freely admit. I watch my corals grow, not die. After 20 years growing SPS, currently supplying thousands of home grown corals to my local store, and several hundred dives on real reefs and I have still to this day yet to witness a brown skeleton. Brown DEAD TISSUE, yes. Different thing. Cool your jets my man. It’s a relaxing hobby for some..

There isn’t a soul alive that has yet to see a coral die...

I don’t give a crap how long you’ve been doing it...You haven’t seen it all.

Cool your own jets. Your observations, and comment, only apply to your own business, no one else.
 
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I'm going to join the camp that says younger tanks can have a certain amount of instability that can't be tested for.

My first acropora STN'd pretty bad and barely survived even though I was on top of my parameters. The only thing that has really changed since then is the age of my tank, and now I grow acropora no problem. It sounds like you're on the right track; maybe you could try again with some hardier SPS like a montipora cap and work your way up from there.

Also, I'm sure this has already been covered, but make sure your refractometer is properly calibrated with a calibration solution.
 
I'm going to join the camp that says younger tanks can have a certain amount of instability that can't be tested for.

My first acropora STN'd pretty bad and barely survived even though I was on top of my parameters. The only thing that has really changed since then is the age of my tank, and now I grow acropora no problem. It sounds like you're on the right track; maybe you could try again with some hardier SPS like a montipora cap and work your way up from there.

Also, I'm sure this has already been covered, but make sure your refractometer is properly calibrated with a calibration solution.
Im with you on the tank maturity issue, but id add that in fact this can be tested. Young tanks started with dry rock have measurably, abnormally low bacterial diversity. (Bottled products have no effect on this)

Agreed on the salinity too, sps are sensitive to it and I think it is often measured with inaccurately calibrated instruments
 
Well since we are all piling in and the OP is still reading I will share this thread. In short, the theme is that in the good old days we started with live rock from Indo and now we don't. So while we keep "perfect numbers" the whole time, it seems to take forever before SPS thrive.


As a bonus, I will throw in a coral nutrition video that I think unintentionally supplements the theorem. Lou Ekus does a great job (Courtesy of ReefDudes) describing the bacterial role of PO4 uptake in corals. Lou does research for Tropic marin that sells bacteria and PO4 supplements that I don't buy, but I still think he makes valid points that even I can understand.


So back to the OP. You are doing the right stuff. (OK, more nutrient IMO, but trying to be supportive here so and the other numbers look good so...)

If you can keep doing it smoothly, constantly and without bouncing conditions you will be a solid SPS keeper. You don't have the advantage of old live rock that allows you to jump the queue, but in time your biome will allow it to happen.
 
Tank is too young. For whatever reasons tanks started with fake/dry liverock (even if its spent a month "cycling" in a tub at your LFS) have issues with sps. There are many theories as to why this problem exists but dosing bottled bacteria does not seem to fix it.

Take some time off from SPS and work on getting your rock to be "live" and finding ways to keep your parameters stable. I'm as impatient as the next person but this seems to be the reality of the hobby right now.

If you want to speed things up try and find a piece of rock (even if it's small) from a hobbyist with an established tank. If it has sponges and pods and other goodies on it - even better.
 
It seems like I forgot the most important piece of information...I am sorry.
3 weeks ago, the city where I live has experienced an earthquake. Fortunately, noone was harmed and there is no damage to the house, but it did displace a lot of water from the tank, which droped my salinity to 1.023. Also, there was a power outage that lasted for 2-3 hours.

Days after the event, my corals looked normal. PE was good. I raised the salinity slowly over a week.

Do you think that I may be seeing the effects of that event?


Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.

As of today, I have lost 3 frags of Seriatopora (pink, green, and BOP birdsnest), 1 plating Montipora and 2 different M.digitatas. M.confusa is fading in color, but is growing. Purple stylophora is doing great, with good PE and growth. Another 2 variatns of plating Montiporas are fading and losing tissue.




My plan of action is to raise my nutrients and KEEP them stable for at least a month. I will shoot for 5-10 NO3 and 0.08-0.15 PO4 as suggested. Also, I will probably try some bacteria in the bottle as a part of my regular dosing (I guess it can't hurt anything, right?)... Then try another easy SPS frag and see how it does.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given their insight. I truly appreciate it.
 
It seems like I forgot the most important piece of information...I am sorry.
3 weeks ago, the city where I live has experienced an earthquake. Fortunately, noone was harmed and there is no damage to the house, but it did displace a lot of water from the tank, which droped my salinity to 1.023. Also, there was a power outage that lasted for 2-3 hours.

Days after the event, my corals looked normal. PE was good. I raised the salinity slowly over a week.

Do you think that I may be seeing the effects of that event?


Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.

As of today, I have lost 3 frags of Seriatopora (pink, green, and BOP birdsnest), 1 plating Montipora and 2 different M.digitatas. M.confusa is fading in color, but is growing. Purple stylophora is doing great, with good PE and growth. Another 2 variatns of plating Montiporas are fading and losing tissue.




My plan of action is to raise my nutrients and KEEP them stable for at least a month. I will shoot for 5-10 NO3 and 0.08-0.15 PO4 as suggested. Also, I will probably try some bacteria in the bottle as a part of my regular dosing (I guess it can't hurt anything, right?)... Then try another easy SPS frag and see how it does.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given their insight. I truly appreciate it.

That is not a huge salinity drop, but could be part of the equation.

You could try some bacterias, but be aware that most of what is sold are nitrifying types and often include carbon so they will reduce nutrients.

You could also supplement your fish food with raw seafood that will come with bacteria. Clams, oysters, raw shrimp, mussels. Raw foods that include the GUTS.

As far as parasite prevention I wish you luck. That requires fishless QT of everything: corals, inverts, anything that is wet.
 
Well if you don't have any fish yet - add the real live rock and let the tank sit fallow before you introduce QT'ed fish. That's really the only way to increase biodiversity. But you could add some copepods/amphipods too.

The bottled bacteria couldn't hurt but it's not going to replicate nature entirely. You can measure a lot of parameters but not biodiversity. Which is why most people seem to wait a year until adding SPS nowadays.

A 3 hour power outage and small salinity drop probably didn't contribute to their demise.
 
There is no reason for an organism to die provided it has a clean non toxic environment and food.
 
The one thing you mentioned that jumped out at me was that you did not drip acclimate the corals and only temp acclimated them. The other is that you don't know your par with any certainty.

It doesn't seem like they'd look great for two weeks if it was a hard transition and then suddenly start dying, but who can say. Most people will drip acclimate, dip, and rinse before introducing.

Bleaching out and dying (if light related) probably means too much, not too little light. They'd probably still die, or at least not grow well in too low of a light setting, but it would probly take a lot longer.

Agree N and P are on the lower side as well... tank is a little young, sure. Don't feel bad. You're keeping good parameters and making responsible, informed decisions.

If they're not dead, I'd lower them in the tank, or lower the light intensity. Whether that was the initial issue or not, a lot of corals recover better in less light.
 
It seems like I forgot the most important piece of information...I am sorry.
3 weeks ago, the city where I live has experienced an earthquake. Fortunately, noone was harmed and there is no damage to the house, but it did displace a lot of water from the tank, which droped my salinity to 1.023. Also, there was a power outage that lasted for 2-3 hours.

Days after the event, my corals looked normal. PE was good. I raised the salinity slowly over a week.

Do you think that I may be seeing the effects of that event?


Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.

As of today, I have lost 3 frags of Seriatopora (pink, green, and BOP birdsnest), 1 plating Montipora and 2 different M.digitatas. M.confusa is fading in color, but is growing. Purple stylophora is doing great, with good PE and growth. Another 2 variatns of plating Montiporas are fading and losing tissue.




My plan of action is to raise my nutrients and KEEP them stable for at least a month. I will shoot for 5-10 NO3 and 0.08-0.15 PO4 as suggested. Also, I will probably try some bacteria in the bottle as a part of my regular dosing (I guess it can't hurt anything, right?)... Then try another easy SPS frag and see how it does.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given their insight. I truly appreciate it.
Sometime acros will take 2-3 weeks to show the effects of the stress the encountered. I don't know if your outage caused stress or not.
As far as increasing biodiversity, someone created a good thread here:
It seems like I forgot the most important piece of information...I am sorry.
3 weeks ago, the city where I live has experienced an earthquake. Fortunately, noone was harmed and there is no damage to the house, but it did displace a lot of water from the tank, which droped my salinity to 1.023. Also, there was a power outage that lasted for 2-3 hours.

Days after the event, my corals looked normal. PE was good. I raised the salinity slowly over a week.

Do you think that I may be seeing the effects of that event?


Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.

As of today, I have lost 3 frags of Seriatopora (pink, green, and BOP birdsnest), 1 plating Montipora and 2 different M.digitatas. M.confusa is fading in color, but is growing. Purple stylophora is doing great, with good PE and growth. Another 2 variatns of plating Montiporas are fading and losing tissue.




My plan of action is to raise my nutrients and KEEP them stable for at least a month. I will shoot for 5-10 NO3 and 0.08-0.15 PO4 as suggested. Also, I will probably try some bacteria in the bottle as a part of my regular dosing (I guess it can't hurt anything, right?)... Then try another easy SPS frag and see how it does.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given their insight. I truly appreciate it.
Sometimes acros will take 2-3 weeks to show the effects of the stress they encountered. I don't know if your outage caused stress or not.
As far as ways to improve your biodiversity, someone created a good thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sources-of-biodiversity.673184/
 
It seems like I forgot the most important piece of information...I am sorry.
3 weeks ago, the city where I live has experienced an earthquake. Fortunately, noone was harmed and there is no damage to the house, but it did displace a lot of water from the tank, which droped my salinity to 1.023. Also, there was a power outage that lasted for 2-3 hours.

Days after the event, my corals looked normal. PE was good. I raised the salinity slowly over a week.

Do you think that I may be seeing the effects of that event?


Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.

As of today, I have lost 3 frags of Seriatopora (pink, green, and BOP birdsnest), 1 plating Montipora and 2 different M.digitatas. M.confusa is fading in color, but is growing. Purple stylophora is doing great, with good PE and growth. Another 2 variatns of plating Montiporas are fading and losing tissue.




My plan of action is to raise my nutrients and KEEP them stable for at least a month. I will shoot for 5-10 NO3 and 0.08-0.15 PO4 as suggested. Also, I will probably try some bacteria in the bottle as a part of my regular dosing (I guess it can't hurt anything, right?)... Then try another easy SPS frag and see how it does.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given their insight. I truly appreciate it.
If you are worried about fish parasites you could throw the rock in a brute can with a pump for 80 days and you'll be good to go.
 
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Surviving frags are still getting worse by the day. It starts by their tissue getting thinner, color fades and algae starts growing on them. Shortly afterwards the bare skeleton is showing. All of this happens over ~2 weeks.

I’ve tried to take some pictures with my iPhone, so excuse the quality.

307F3759-29B1-4E4D-A08A-5363E4B5710A.jpeg
494D9C5C-55C2-4F9A-8A25-69287C37DA15.jpeg
A41487FB-07D9-4D2F-A50A-C738098B3068.jpeg


Few pics to show corraline growth.

43DFA1D4-B51B-4A35-9537-3B33A07B3A2B.jpeg
8030E24D-F8A8-465E-9656-7A373F2BEE38.jpeg


The only frag that is doing well is purple Stylophora.

14F5AD85-7609-49D0-95C8-F817B5954100.jpeg


I’ve noticed that coralline had started growing on the rocks a lot faster than few weeks ago. Not sure if that is a sign of anything, but until now most of corraline was growing on the bottom and on powerheads.

Parameters are still the same, except that NO3 and PO4 are raising due to me intentionally overfeeding.

I am getting some Prodibio biodigest bacteria in my mail next week, and will try them for a few months.

Thank you for help :)
 
Speaking about tank maturity, is there anything I could do to improve my biodiversity? I am reluctant to add old rock from someones tank, due to fear of introducing fish parasites. I was thinking of trying some bottled bacteria.
Is there a good 'guess' on how long I will have to wait before biome is ready to support SPS growth? This is my first tank started with dry rock.
You might try live and or live mud. It had a huge impact on the diversity and composition of microbial communities in my home tanks.

As to your question about the time scale for live rock - my experimental tanks started with live rock showed diversity comparable to mature reefs within 2-3 weeks.

My experimental tanks started with dry rock have still not produced normal communities.
 
You might try live and or live mud. It had a huge impact on the diversity and composition of microbial communities in my home tanks.

As to your question about the time scale for live rock - my experimental tanks started with live rock showed diversity comparable to mature reefs within 2-3 weeks.

My experimental tanks started with dry rock have still not produced normal communities.

How long have the experimental tanks with dry rock been running?
 
I ordered some live sand and mud and buried it in my sumps sand bed. Now is this an answer? I dont know but I do believe in all this hoopla about bacterium diversity. I ordered from florida pets. I was goin to include the same link that podoconfuego did.
 
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