several questions about stn

[Troylee]

I disagree with that. It really depends on the cause. As I wrote I lost every sps in my tank due to rtn/stn. I suspect the rest would have been fine if I just removed the affected monti instead of blowing it clean.

Some parasites also seem to cause it.

Stn and rtn wasn’t the cause… when you figure out what caused the stn,rtn most likely a alk spike that’s the issue.. it is not contagious, I promise you! There’s very old sps tanks that just get a ghost every once in while and everything else is just fine.. I’ve played that game many times over 20 years of keeping sps.. I just lost my asd rainbow Millie to stn while 60 other acros are flourishing and growing at record pace! Never changed a thing and the tank never skipped a beat. I’ve been scraping my montis lately to cause rtn cause they’re over running prime real estate and no issues at all!

 

[Tavero]

Stn and rtn wasn’t the cause… when you figure out what caused the stn,rtn most likely a alk spike that’s the issue.. it is not contagious, I promise you! There’s very old sps tanks that just get a ghost every once in while and everything else is just fine.. I’ve played that game many times over 20 years of keeping sps.. I just lost my asd rainbow Millie to stn while 60 other acros are flourishing and growing at record pace! Never changed a thing and the tank never skipped a beat. I’ve been scraping my montis lately to cause rtn cause they’re over running prime real estate and no issues at all!

How can you promise me something if you don't know my system?
I don't dose alkalinity manually but have a doser and do weekly test.

The first coral that died was the part of the plated montipora under the collected detrius. A few days after I have blown the detrius away the rest of my sps started to show sighs of necrosis. The plated monti was dead by then.

I can promise you, they got infected by the dying montipora fragments. No alkalinity, temperature or density spike.

Not all rtn/stn have the same reasons

 

[Troylee]

How can you promise me something if you don't know my system?
I don't dose alkalinity manually but have a doser and do weekly test.

The first coral that died was the part of the plated montipora under the collected detrius. A few days after I have blown the detrius away the rest of my sps started to show sighs of necrosis. The plated monti was dead by then.

I can promise you, they got infected by the dying montipora fragments. No alkalinity, temperature or density spike.

Not all rtn/stn have the same reasons

Your case must be super rare if that really happened for that reason.. people have been killing montis by scraping or kalk paste for years and no ill effects on other sps.

 

[dadnjesse]

Your case must be super rare if that really happened for that reason.. people have been killing montis by scraping or kalk paste for years and no ill effects on other sps.

I wish scraping Monti's would work for me. Mine just grow back and often spread from the scraping.

 

[Pod_01]

Not all rtn/stn have the same reasons

Out of curiosity how were your other parameters?
I be curious to know how was your NO3 and PO4 tracking before the event ? What was the level of these when it happened?
Did you use any NO3/PO4 methods like GFO to control them.

If the information is available…

 

[Liam's tank]

My NO3 has been consistent @ 8.6 PO4 I have struggled with, it was as high as .25 and has leveled off to around .18 I used chemi pure elite to bring it down to the .18 but have not identified the source of the high number. I have only 4 fish that I feed every other day a very small amount of LRS frozen, alternating with a frozen "green" food that contains plankton, krill, spinach, spirulina and lots more. So I feed the LRS 3 times a week & the green once per week. I feed the corals AB+ 4mml every other day and dose All For Reef 4mml every other day.

 

[Pod_01]

I used chemi pure elite to bring it down to the .18 but have not identified the source of the high number.

I am sure your source of PO4 is from frozen foods. Nothing wrong with frozen foods but it will elevate PO4 and from my experience using GFO (chemi pure contains GFO) doesn’t agree well with corals. I suspect GFO binds other things that eventually leads to coral death.

I don’t believe PO4 in the 0.15-0.25 range is bad or that it will kill corals but nothing wrong with managing the level.

Just a long suggestion.
I would use the frozen once a week, just to use up the supplies. At the same time I would transition to Fauna Marin soft Multi Mix pellets (or other high quality pellets). I use FM pellets and I feed my fish 4 times a day and my PO4 has been going down from 0.2ppm to 0.14ppm. Nice and slow. For filtration I only use skimmer and little bit of GAC.

The fish will create the right food for your corals and I would also stop dosing AB+. If your NO3 drops to 1ppm or less you can dose some AB+ at that time. If your NO3 is above 1ppm you are likely over fertilizing your corals. Corals tend to grow better with some limitations vs. excess.

Some other things I would do, use GAC (Granular Activated Carbon 20ml per 50gal) and consider to use some carbon dosing, I use NP Bacto Ballance and just 0.3 ml /50gal daily to feed the tank bacteria and hopefully corals can feed on the bacteria. Another food source for the corals.

My tank NO3 and PO4 is as follows:

Some corals:

Alternative to carbon dosing is TM reef actif, I used it and I had great results with it but unfortunately I am unable to procure more.

Good luck,

 

[Liam's tank]

I am sure your source of PO4 is from frozen foods. Nothing wrong with frozen foods but it will elevate PO4 and from my experience using GFO (chemi pure contains GFO) doesn’t agree well with corals. I suspect GFO binds other things that eventually leads to coral death.

I don’t believe PO4 in the 0.15-0.25 range is bad or that it will kill corals but nothing wrong with managing the level.

Just a long suggestion.
I would use the frozen once a week, just to use up the supplies. At the same time I would transition to Fauna Marin soft Multi Mix pellets (or other high quality pellets). I use FM pellets and I feed my fish 4 times a day and my PO4 has been going down from 0.2ppm to 0.14ppm. Nice and slow. For filtration I only use skimmer and little bit of GAC.

The fish will create the right food for your corals and I would also stop dosing AB+. If your NO3 drops to 1ppm or less you can dose some AB+ at that time. If your NO3 is above 1ppm you are likely over fertilizing your corals. Corals tend to grow better with some limitations vs. excess.

Some other things I would do, use GAC (Granular Activated Carbon 20ml per 50gal) and consider to use some carbon dosing, I use NP Bacto Ballance and just 0.3 ml /50gal daily to feed the tank bacteria and hopefully corals can feed on the bacteria. Another food source for the corals.

My tank NO3 and PO4 is as follows:

Some corals:

Alternative to carbon dosing is TM reef actif, I used it and I had great results with it but unfortunately I am unable to procure more.

Good luck,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share all that knowledge & experience. I will definitely give your recommendations a try!