Can a .5 Degree Temperature Swing Cause STN?!

[Ike]

Can you keep your tank too stable?

First of all, there is a ton of misinformation and hyperbole in that video; some of it borders on comical. Corals are well adapted to sudden and rapid changes and well as gradual changes in temperature in the ocean. There is nothing stable about the temperature on an actual coral reef with temps often being very dynamic. If anything, maintaining exactly the same temp all the time might lower the thermal resistance and cause problems when there is a shift because of a problem. For years I've encouraged swings of a 2-3 degrees from day to night in all my reefs.

The incessantly preaching some do about stability in this hobby has little basis in reality. An alkalinity swing won't cause any real harm to corals if they're healthy and nutrients aren't dangerously low. I used to do water changes that would raise my alkalinty 1-2 dKH in my system with regularity. If my dKH gets low or high I make instant adjustments to get it back to where I want it. Quite frankly, telling everyone they need to make adjustments slowly and over the course of several days can also be dangerous. If a major parameter is in a zone where it could cause harm it's typically best to get it adjusted quickly, because long-term exposure to bad parameters is often far worse than any stress caused by getting the parameter back in line.

I'd bet money that the person in the video does carbon dosing in some form and bottomed out a nutrient and that's what caused the damage. Zero chance that a temp (within 75-85f) or alkalinity fluctuation would cause that. Or, the lighting theory mentioned in this thread is also more likely than any of the things he thought might be the issue.

 

[Ike]

You read typical bad advice that plagues this industry. We can thank social media profit centers for that...

Anyone that thinks a .5 temp swing caused stn sucks at trouble shooting and takes the lazy approach to cause and effect analysis to ignore the deeper harder to find solution to the actual problem. They won’t last long in this hobby.

It started with misinformation in books for years, and the same bad info is now being spread around on the internet. However, at least here you can refute it.

 

[Ike]

This hurt my head.

Simply put, the "cause" of the STN could be the underlying bacterial disease while the slight parameter shift would be the "trigger" that initiates it visually. Have I summed that up correctly?

One other thing to keep in mind, STN and RTN aren't really what most in this hobby think them to be. Causation is so wide and varied, they're just acronyms used in the hobby to describe a slow death or a fast death in Acropora/SPS.

 

[Marlon C]

My tank got from 77 to 82.6 last weekend and all was fine. Temps in the ocean do not stay the same all day long. They fluctuate

 

[AngryOwl]

First of all, there is a ton of misinformation and hyperbole in that video; some of it borders on comical. Corals are well adapted to sudden and rapid changes and well as gradual changes in temperature in the ocean. There is nothing stable about the temperature on an actual coral reef with temps often being very dynamic. If anything, maintaining exactly the same temp all the time might lower the thermal resistance and cause problems when there is a shift because of a problem. For years I've encouraged swings of a 2-3 degrees from day to night in all my reefs.

The incessantly preaching some do about stability in this hobby has little basis in reality. An alkalinity swing won't cause any real harm to corals if they're healthy and nutrients aren't dangerously low. I used to do water changes that would raise my alkalinty 1-2 dKH in my system with regularity. If my dKH gets low or high I make instant adjustments to get it back to where I want it. Quite frankly, telling everyone they need to make adjustments slowly and over the course of several days can also be dangerous. If a major parameter is in a zone where it could cause harm it's typically best to get it adjusted quickly, because long-term exposure to bad parameters is often far worse than any stress caused by getting the parameter back in line.

I'd bet money that the person in the video does carbon dosing in some form and bottomed out a nutrient and that's what caused the damage. Zero chance that a temp (within 75-85f) or alkalinity fluctuation would cause that. Or, the lighting theory mentioned in this thread is also more likely than any of the things he thought might be the issue.

Couldn't agree more! Two things I thought of while reading your post 1) I recently added 24 SPS corals (coming from a very healthy tank) I subjected them to a complete full swing of parameter changes (light, nutrients, temp, alk, and so on). However, I haven't lost a single one in nearly 4 weeks now. 2) Most people say to swap out sand slowly, however, a few months back I swapped out 100% of my sand bed in one day (12 month old sand) and saw absolutely no negative effects. Vs what you read is people doing in slowly and having issues.

Now I don't bring those two things up to say they are 'fact'... these are just specific situations I have experienced. Both could be coincidence... but who knows right?

 

[2Wheelsonly]

On the topic of spikes...

Last year while out of town my Apex had an issue and kept the outlet of my Calc regulator on; it was not as dialed in as I thought and in less than 24 hours my alk went from 7.5 to 14 and stayed around that until I got home 2 days later. In a panic I took it offline to let it balance out and did a water change with lowered alk salt (hydrochloride acid treated). The next few days it dropped to 5.5. Total panic move disaster on my part and not a single sps stick out of about 60 had a single issue.

I still do my best to avoid alk spikes but my daily trident logs show a variance of 1-1.5 daily with my reactor. I no longer panic about them; low nutrients and pests have been my biggest cause of loss thus far in 12 years of sps growing.

 

[MPS]

I'd have to say keeping a tank at a 0.5 deg f swing daily is next to impossible. Not to mention the swing of a heater is 1 or more for the most part... BRS did a good video on heaters a while back. Just saying

I don’t know how someone could realistically keep the temp that stable. My heater and chiller both have a 2degree hysteresis. According to my Apex, the temp fluctuates +\- .75 degree throughout the day.

 

[Deezill]

What do you expect from igits on YouTube?

LOLOLOL true statement

 

[AngryOwl]

I don’t know how someone could realistically keep the temp that stable. My heater and chiller both have a 2degree hysteresis. According to my Apex, the temp fluctuates +\- .75 degree throughout the day.

Yea he probably doesn't understand that and clearly is grasping at straws when it comes to STN causes. A 1 degree swing seems more realistic - but what do I know?