SPS RTN and STN at bases/tips

[mikereefing]

No
Your tiny alk change did not cause a mass stress event.

How did your sps look before you turned on the gfo?

My corals were doing just fine with the 1 tbsp of gfo. This was approx 10 days before the water change event, and 2 days after the water change I had my first casualty with the strawberry shortcake RTN. That day I did panic and thought the elevated phosphates killed the acro, so I added a 2nd tablespoon of gfo into the system.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

My corals were doing just fine with the 1 tbsp of gfo. This was approx 10 days before the water change event, and 2 days after the water change I had my first casualty with the strawberry shortcake RTN. That day I did panic and thought the elevated phosphates killed the acro, so I added a 2nd tablespoon of gfo into the system.

What all are you doing for nutrient export?

 

[schuby]

Just curious, is your GFO in a reactor or a bag?

It seems we don't have enough recent history about your tank to try to help you figure out what's going on. How long and what did you do to battle the dinos? What was phosphate level when you decided to add GFO?

 

[mikereefing]

I currently have chaeto and a skimmer running for nutrient export. At the current settings, it's pulling out approx 0.01-0.03 phos on days I don't feed my corals with reef roids. I feed corals approx every 3 days. I first started the 1 tbsp gfo when the phos was elevated at 0.50 after the conclusion of my dino battle. This gfo is just in a small bag that I threw in the return pump chamber of my sump where there is some flow. No reactor. I defeated dinos with a combination of waste away, elevated nutrients, and a UV in the display.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I currently have chaeto and a skimmer running for nutrient export. At the current settings, it's pulling out approx 0.01-0.03 phos on days I don't feed my corals with reef roids. I feed corals approx every 3 days. I first started the 1 tbsp gfo when the phos was elevated at 0.50 after the conclusion of my dino battle. This gfo is just in a small bag that I threw in the return pump chamber of my sump where there is some flow. No reactor. I defeated dinos with a combination of waste away, elevated nutrients, and a UV in the display.

How long have you had these frags? Do you have any pics of when the corals looked good before all of this happened?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

And what lights are you running

 

[mikereefing]

How long have you had these frags? Do you have any pics of when the corals looked good before all of this happened?

I don't have any pics prior to this incident..I've had these frags from 3 weeks to 2 months prior. All had shown significant growth before this issue. I run AI prime HD16 x 2. Not sure why one of frags has stn at the tips but only facing the light...as the PAR in this area is 270 and was doing great prior to this incident. I have a hunch that maybe something was wrong with the saltwater during that water change. It was stored for a week before being used so the parameters may have been off before I used it. But the odd thing was that post water change, the alk only dropped 0.1 and other parameters were stable except Mg that dropped by 20 and phos.

 

[mikereefing]

I just got my ICP test in from ATI. My acros are continuing to STN at the bases and I don't know why. More acros are being affected.

Phosphate: 0.15 mg/l (this was purposely elevated, although this is showing a bit lower than my hanna)
Nitrate: 12.12 mg/l (purposely elevated)
Alk 9.37 dKH (higher than the 8.7 dkH on my hanna)

These are the values with a red marker so I'm assuming these affect corals:

Tin: 8.07 µg/l (reference range: 0.50 µg/l )
MANganese: zero (RR 0.99 µg/l )
Iodine: 41.70 µg/l (RR 64.38 µg/l )

I also noticed these as well but there are no warning markers:

Aluminum: 2.72 µg/l (RR 0.1µg/l)
Zinc: 9.37 µg/l (RR 1.98 µg/l)


Does anyone know what the main issue is here that's causing the STN at bases/tips and RTN? I have some brightwell lugols to help with the iodine, but what else could be hurting my corals?

 

[driftin]

This might be a long shot, but how is your RODI water - is your DI resin or RO cartridge old?
Have you done any additional water changes since the RTN/STN started?

 

[mikereefing]

My RO water sample is completely fine per the ATI result. Nothing in it except a little bit of silicone to feed the diatoms. I use 1 TDS RO water (no DI) in all my tanks.

The day I sent out my ICP test, I also put a bag of cuprisorb in there in hopes that it'll remove potential metals in there. The STN is still happening..

 

[driftin]

Just my experience, and maybe me with some confirmation bias, but I wouldn't rule out source water as an issue and possible culprit in the metals and STN/RTN. I had an RTN/STN event that I believe was triggered by old DI resin. When I replaced my old resin and did a large (50%) water change, tissue necrosis stopped on a number of the affected acros. Some were too far gone, but many stopped, literally, immediately.

For me, acros are much more sensitive than other corals. When I had the issue above, none of my other tank inhabitants were visibly impacted - LPS, anemones, softies all looked as normal as ever.

 

[Acroalan]

Just my experience, and maybe me with some confirmation bias, but I wouldn't rule out source water as an issue and possible culprit in the metals and STN/RTN. I had an RTN/STN event that I believe was triggered by old DI resin. When I replaced my old resin and did a large (50%) water change, tissue necrosis stopped on a number of the affected acros. Some were too far gone, but many stopped, literally, immediately.

For me, acros are much more sensitive than other corals. When I had the issue above, none of my other tank inhabitants were visibly impacted - LPS, anemones, softies all looked as normal as ever.

I recently had a similar experience in that all my tank parameters were acceptable per Triton ICP, but my RO/DI water for top-offs and water changes was reading 1-2 ppm TDS. I had figured that was good enough, but having run out of ideas about what might be wrong I upgraded my RO/DI with two additional cartridges (second DI and additional carbon pre-filter). I then made all fresh water and did two large water changes (40% each) a week apart. My remaining acros have stopped receding and are looking happy again with some flesh showing signs of growing back. I don't know what was in that 1 ppm or whether whatever it was caused the problem. But the correlation with improved observable health after the change was clear.

 

[mikereefing]

I appreciate the responses so far. As for my RO water, the ICP test shows nothing in it except for silicone.

At this point I'm not sure what else to do at this point as my acros are continually dying. I know stability is important, but I wonder if a large WC will help..

 

[uhupong]

What happen after this last post?

 

[subxero]

It has been a while. Did the SPS recover?