So I've been battle some STN for a few months now. Been trying hard not to overreact and make any knee jerk changed to make things worse, but things havnt been getting any better.
Tank is still young, will be 1 year old in October this year. Was set up with KPaquatics liverock and had corals within a month of setup. Everything thrived and grew like crazy for the first 5 months. Ran with just corals, no fish, and daily feedings of reef roids/brs chili. Around March I added fish that had been previously QT by me, decreased coral food feeding, and started feeding the whole tank with Larry's reef frenzy. At that time some of the corals started acting up with closed polyps and shriveled lps. The lemonpeel angel took 3 days to catch and and corals slowly recovered from his damage.
Fast forward a few months and all of a sudden my encrusting Monti slowly died off over a few weeks that had been in the tank for 6 months and grew like a weed. Next to show STN was a birdnest coral. Then it went to another bird, a stylo, 2 other montis, and 1 acro. This whole time my candycanes look terrible after being super puffy for a long time.
I'm stumped, my chemistry remains stable, the fish are healthy, I have algae on the glass that I need to clean every few days, I have algae on the rocks but not enough to be considered a problem, and a small amount of cyano on the sandbed. I have lots of acros and they all do great with awesome PE except for the 1, I have a frog and a hammer along with an elegance that look great, and zoas that spread like wildfire.
SG 1.026
Alk 8.6
Ca 430
Mag 1440
Nitrate 10
Phos .07
I don't believe it's lighting as I made no changes, provided by 4 bulbs and 2 kessils. Everything grew with the same bulbs and settings.
Flow is the return, a gyre, and 2 vortechs also unchanged since setup besides cleaning.
Sump is run with a cryptic fuge with sponge growth, a carbon reactor, and a skimmer that has all been unchanged since setup.
I don't believe it's starvation as I have algae and my zoas and most lps look good along with acros.
I sent an ICP 3 months ago showed low iodine, otherwise nothing worth mentioning.
I'm thinking it's either heat of summer stress as my tank went from 78/79 to averaging 80/81 the last few months. I did have a few days where temp soared to 84 but then slowly went back to 81 over a day or 2.
I ordered another icp to send. Am thinking maybe a potassium or other mineral defiency as I only do small WC based on my phos and nitrate levels being controlled. Maybe I need to start dosing an overall trace element supplement to account for this?
Some sort of infection and maybe I need to add a UV sterilizer?
Tank is still young, will be 1 year old in October this year. Was set up with KPaquatics liverock and had corals within a month of setup. Everything thrived and grew like crazy for the first 5 months. Ran with just corals, no fish, and daily feedings of reef roids/brs chili. Around March I added fish that had been previously QT by me, decreased coral food feeding, and started feeding the whole tank with Larry's reef frenzy. At that time some of the corals started acting up with closed polyps and shriveled lps. The lemonpeel angel took 3 days to catch and and corals slowly recovered from his damage.
Fast forward a few months and all of a sudden my encrusting Monti slowly died off over a few weeks that had been in the tank for 6 months and grew like a weed. Next to show STN was a birdnest coral. Then it went to another bird, a stylo, 2 other montis, and 1 acro. This whole time my candycanes look terrible after being super puffy for a long time.
I'm stumped, my chemistry remains stable, the fish are healthy, I have algae on the glass that I need to clean every few days, I have algae on the rocks but not enough to be considered a problem, and a small amount of cyano on the sandbed. I have lots of acros and they all do great with awesome PE except for the 1, I have a frog and a hammer along with an elegance that look great, and zoas that spread like wildfire.
SG 1.026
Alk 8.6
Ca 430
Mag 1440
Nitrate 10
Phos .07
I don't believe it's lighting as I made no changes, provided by 4 bulbs and 2 kessils. Everything grew with the same bulbs and settings.
Flow is the return, a gyre, and 2 vortechs also unchanged since setup besides cleaning.
Sump is run with a cryptic fuge with sponge growth, a carbon reactor, and a skimmer that has all been unchanged since setup.
I don't believe it's starvation as I have algae and my zoas and most lps look good along with acros.
I sent an ICP 3 months ago showed low iodine, otherwise nothing worth mentioning.
I'm thinking it's either heat of summer stress as my tank went from 78/79 to averaging 80/81 the last few months. I did have a few days where temp soared to 84 but then slowly went back to 81 over a day or 2.
I ordered another icp to send. Am thinking maybe a potassium or other mineral defiency as I only do small WC based on my phos and nitrate levels being controlled. Maybe I need to start dosing an overall trace element supplement to account for this?
Some sort of infection and maybe I need to add a UV sterilizer?
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