STN recovery

[iwantalltheham]

The story behind this Acro is one of my service clients won it at reefapalooza from TSA booth they brought it home and have had it for about a month It wasn’t looking the best and their parameters stay pretty stable 8.0 alk and 420 calcium but their phosphates are super high around 1.0-1.5. Went there yesterday and it was looking like this I offered to take it home to my personal tank to give it a shot at recovery my parameters are much more stable but I’m curious if it will actually have a chance or if it will just continue. I considered cutting the dead areas but wanted to give it time to settle in. I put it in yesterday night when these photos were taken and checked on it this morning and it hasn’t progressed so I am hopeful

 

[jonsreef2reef]

The overnight hold is the sign you want — when these go RTN they go fast, so a stall this early is genuinely encouraging. I'd hold off on cutting for now exactly like you're planning. If it's stopped receding, leave it be and let it settle; only reach for the saw if the line starts creeping again, and then cut a good half inch into clean tissue ahead of it (if you can, but looking at the pics it seems like that will be tough).

One thing worth watching: going from 1.0–1.5 phosphate into a much tighter tank is a real swing, and big fast phosphate drops can be their own RTN trigger. Your stability is the right environment for it, I just wouldn't be in a hurry to push anything else — light, dips, params — while it's deciding. Give it a week of boring before you read it as recovering or not. It's got a chance.