Acro STN polyps out. Help

[EpicWin]

I removed the gfo. Left the carbon running. I well see :-)

 

[bobssecrtsn]

Lemme guess, you are running carbon. Take it out now.

Carbon has little affect on SPS. but not enough for them to start STNing. BUT if it were like KENT carbon (when they had a recall on them) then yes you SHOULD take it offline.

 

[EpicWin]

I kept the carbon and took gfo offline. Gfo was fine until I got a pump that was 200 gph or so.

 

[jackson6745]

Can you post a full tank photo?

 

[kuansreef]

I removed the gfo. Left the carbon running. I well see :-)

This happened to my acros. You are making a mistake. Carbon is the culprit. Take it out now and see it for myself. No Polyps is the first sign to Dead. I have run carbon for 6 months and couldn't keep acros alive. i thought there was no way carbon would cause this. My acros kelp peeling out flesh from base and eventually gone. I have no carbon in my tank for a month now and my acros grow like a jungle.

 

[kuansreef]

When acros are dying, the last thing you want is clean water deprived of trace elements.

 

[Ike]

This happened to my acros. You are making a mistake. Carbon is the culprit. Take it out now and see it for myself. No Polyps is the first sign to Dead. I have run carbon for 6 months and couldn't keep acros alive. i thought there was no way carbon would cause this. My acros kelp peeling out flesh from base and eventually gone. I have no carbon in my tank for a month now and my acros grow like a jungle.

That's quite the bold statement considering the countless people that run GAC regularly in SPS tanks. Also, to assume that GAC is depriving an aquarium of trace elements is a stretch at best. Do you have anything scientific to back up that claim?

 

[Rockhead]

Well let me tell my story, everything you are saying is what I went thought also, and what I'm running now is just bio pellets and a swc160 on my 150 gal and I have colors that I never seen in some of my SPS. I did have a BRS dual reactor with GFO/ carbon 1/2 a cup of each and from what I realized is that my water was just that clean, hard be believe but like some say SPS do like a little dirty in there water just not as much a LPS. how about this I also have a 29 bio cube with no skimmer on gfo and no carbon just a bag of seachem purigen and have 3 fish and 5 piece of lps and things are doing great. remember what i tell you docent mean the same will work in your tank.

-Tom

 

[EpicWin]

Here is a tank photo. I appreciate all of the input from everyone. Time will tell if it is the carbon as the gfo is now gone. I know he carbon isn't toxic because ive been using the same bucket for a few diff tanks and others have no issues. I'm thinking now about bio pellets. Does a normal reactor run them?

 

[kuansreef]

I have evidence as seen in my tank. I suggest take the carbon out for a week and see it for yourself.

 

[bobssecrtsn]

I have evidence as seen in my tank. I suggest take the carbon out for a week and see it for yourself.

can you please share a picture of your system! im curious

 

[jackson6745]

I'm going to go the other way on this. Kuan, most of us use carbon and gfo with no problems so you definitely had something else going on. Perhaps you were starved?
Looking at the full tank shot, you aquascape will make a detritus bomb under the huge rock wall. If it were my tank, I would reaquascape the rocks so the sandbed gets more flow, probably removing quite a bit of rock. I would also siphon all the detritus from the sanbed under rocks using one of those sand vacuums while doing a very large water change. I would also continue using gfo. I believe po4 is your problem (even if testkits read "0")

 

[watchguy123]

Here is a tank photo. I appreciate all of the input from everyone. Time will tell if it is the carbon as the gfo is now gone. I know he carbon isn't toxic because ive been using the same bucket for a few diff tanks and others have no issues. I'm thinking now about bio pellets. Does a normal reactor run them?

Adding bio pellets in an unhappy tank may not be the best direction to go. I suggest only consider new filtering techniques to a stable or happy tank. Otherwise you may experience a crash because of the multitude of changes in an already unstable environment

Slow and steady is always the most appropriate direction. If you added both carbon and gfo at the same time to a happy tank, I would consider pulling both and see if there is an improvement. Of course, all of this assumes your parameters were stable and known previously. All of us strive for excellent parameters but if your parameters are rock solid, the tank is flourishing , attempting multiple new improvement protocols sometimes leads to an unstable change. I have chased my tail in trying to improve an already happy environment so my motto now is if the tank is happy and my testing demonstrates appropriate parameters, I don't try chasing a better endpoint. Sometimes better isn't better at all. The ocean in a glass box is extremely fragile and it takes very little to tip the balance unfavorably