Extreme slow STN in all corals

[-Logzor]

I had asterina's once that i attributed to STN issues I was having in my tank...got a harlequin, reduced the asterina population, haven't had STN issues since. Haven't changed anything in my routine before, during or since. I know that isn't very scientific but it was my experience. I couldn't figure out what was happening until late at night with flashlight, noticed A LOT of asterinas in the tank and some on my SPS...those corals started having issues almost immediately...I eliminate them on site now...(have since relocated the Harlequin)

One nibble from these things seems to cause the STN. In my experience it seems only acros are affected, while all of my LPS, Softies, and Montipora are perfectly healthy and never have issues with Necrosis.

 

[Chameleon]

+1 to asterinas being a possible cause. I had similar issues a few months back and couldn't for the life of me figure it out. Started thinking copper and all that shenanigans. Finally I realized that maybe my GFO was stripping the water a little too clean and asterinas were feeding on or around acros bases instead of algae. For me it was acros specific. I think they agrivated the tissue enough for infection to set in. Then it would be usually very slow STN with an occasional burst in speed that would lead to large colonies STNing almost completely in a couple weeks. Fragging didnt seem to save them either. I came to the conclusion of asterina star fish and to test the hypothesis I hung frags from fishing line suspended in the water column. These frags didnt get the STN so I came to the conclusion it was asterinas or some other parasite that cant travel through the water column. Well now I have a harlequin that has been keeping the asterinas in check and I cut back on my GFO quite a bit. Since thing have been doing much better until one of my LED drivers went out a few weeks ago and I had to wait some time for a replacement through warranty. No I have a backup in case but the low light caused some acros to start STNing. The montis and birdsnest did seem to take off a bit more in the lower light situation though. So while its not proven it was the asterinas, getting rid of them coincided with my problem going away.
BTW the asterinas weren't your normal white ones. They had scary black speckles and looked mean ;-)

 

[duke62]

Im going to pick up a harley on friday and give it a shot. cant hurt ive tried everything else

 

[ssdawood]

Bumping up an old thread. Duke did you ever find a solution to this problem?