STN - come have a look!

[m0jjen]

Hi guys and gals!

Having some STN recently and cant really put my finger on why.
The coral in the picture started a little over a week ago. Triton test showed some areas to improve.

Ive dosed strontium. Reduced my gfo by 2/3 kalium and iodine dosage started. Copper is pretty consistant between my test aswell as alu due to my use of triton al99 every second reactor reload.

Affected corals have been dipped to exclude pests. The corals are growing rather fast along with the dying. They get plenty with light and flow so i doubt thats an issue.

I use the full aquaforest probiotic line.

Probiotic salt
Pro Bio S
NP-Pro
Coral A,B,E,V (dont do E atm due to copper)
Coral food.

I feed the fish 3 times a day, forumla one and two pellets by feeder, 1 cube frozen when i get home from work and Easy reef mass sticks in the evening.

My live stock is quite high. 13 fish in 90g and 3 of them bigger fish (tangs). I have no fish or invertebrate that might be eating / irritating the corals.

some quick stats:

Ammonia: 0
No2: 0
No3: 2.5 ppm
Po4: 0 (hanna) 0.007 (triton)
Ca: 430
Mg: 1320
Kh: 7.7 (stable last 4 weeks, messure daily. had a swing 3 months ago from 7.0 to 8.5 dkh).

Idéas?

 

[BigKid4788]

Where is the copper coming from?

 

[favites]

can you tell us about lighting and flow and tank parameters as well as how long the tank has been established etc.?

 

[bios]

What temperature in your tank
And lights and fotoperiod ?

 

[m0jjen]

What temperature in your tank
And lights and fotoperiod ?

26c (78F~) Have an controller running my heater and fans so its pretty stable. Getting an apex to do it for me next week

can you tell us about lighting and flow and tank parameters as well as how long the tank has been established etc.?

Tank is based on livestock i've had for about 2.5 years. This tank in particular turns 1 year in december. The light consists of 2 radion xr30w pro running ab+ at 70% with a 15k "peak" in the middle at the same led wattage at the rest of the program. Flow is done by 2 MP40QD running differencet programs though out the day. all programs are about 70%.

The tank is 50x20x20

Which parameters are you refering to besides the once listed in the triton and first post?

Where is the copper coming from?

No idea really. Changed out a rusty hinge in my cabinet. doubt it would reach the water tho. Apart from the i've been dosing coral E from aquaforest which contains some copper. I've stopped dosing it for the moment.

All my equipment have been checked so its not a faulty magnet. Cant seem to find anything. Alla equipment is less than a year old and all of quality brands (deltec, ecotech)

 

[bios]

Cu at that conc. Is not toxic
You feed enough your tank as you describe
My opininion si that your tank is running too fast ie methabolism of your tank is too high
And acro valida tricolor bisides confirm it to me (colors of it)
I will low down it lowering temp and light feeding at same way since no3 grow up a little

 

[m0jjen]

Mighe be. Just raised my temp from 25c afew weeks ago actually. Will lower it and see

 

[m0jjen]

Cu at that conc. Is not toxic
You feed enough your tank as you describe
My opininion si that your tank is running too fast ie methabolism of your tank is too high
And acro valida tricolor bisides confirm it to me (colors of it)
I will low down it lowering temp and light feeding at same way since no3 grow up a little

So reducing light feeding and temp would help juding on the pale colors of the valida?

 

[bios]

Hi mojjen
Dont say this
I know Well that acro normally its brown on base and violet on tips where it grow
It assume that color completely violet when its under much light and si in a tank with High oxidation potenti al
Say you to low down it by reducing light or photoperiod or reducing temp or both
But dont reduce feeding
Since no3 are 4-5 after adjust feeding to mantein it at 4-5

 

[m0jjen]

Ill start by reducing temperature and see where it lands i guess

 

[reefwiser]

The piece you show in the image is having issues with shading. Is is common especially as a colony grows larger it will start shading the base of the coral. One of the reasons people with a ton of SPS use T5's and MH as these types of light do not cause shading issues like a completely LED lit tank.

 

[m0jjen]

Better lit pieces are also showing signs or STN, and on the upper side aswell. I have 2x T5 as compliment to my radions.

 

[reefwiser]

The corals with STN at the tips how long in the tank? Where they in the tank at the alk swing 3 months ago?
Are they high in the aquarium? Are they near high flow area?
All these can cause tip issues and infections that cause bacteria infections to start in areas of the coral.
Are the corals right under the radions more than the T5's.

 

[m0jjen]

The corals with STN at the tips how long in the tank? Where they in the tank at the alk swing 3 months ago?
Are they high in the aquarium? Are they near high flow area?
All these can cause tip issues and infections that cause bacteria infections to start in areas of the coral.
Are the corals right under the radions more than the T5's.

No STN at the tips on any corals. Only base up its on the edge of the radion and under the T5. placed half way down (25 cm under the surface). No direct flow on any coral.

 

[markalot]

When my Valida started to recede it was the start of a lot of tank issues. Make sure your PO4 is stable and not bouncing up and down. If you are running any PO4 reducing media remove it. Sahin always has the best advice when this stuff starts: Take media offline, do as many water changes as you can to reset the tank, keeping KH as stable as possible. Make sure your Alk kit is accurate as well.

 

[m0jjen]

When my Valida started to recede it was the start of a lot of tank issues. Make sure your PO4 is stable and not bouncing up and down. If you are running any PO4 reducing media remove it. Sahin always has the best advice when this stuff starts: Take media offline, do as many water changes as you can to reset the tank, keeping KH as stable as possible. Make sure your Alk kit is accurate as well.

Reactor is already taken offline since i messured 0 po4 today again. So this might be a case of 0 po4 causing stn

 

[reefwiser]

STN is a bacteria infection that starts by poor coral health then a small nip in the skin can get infection and off it goes. In new corals it can show up in the first day or up to a month after placing in the tank. Corals that have been in a tank for a while that have poor health can start to STN after their health deteriorates to a point they can not fight off infection.
Fragging a coral that show STN and treating the frag with a lugol's bath is a way of saving the coral. I started treating STN back in the early 90's once we started seeing it show up.

 

[Ezeke1]

STN is a bacteria infection that starts by poor coral health then a small nip in the skin can get infection and off it goes. In new corals it can show up in the first day or up to a month after placing in the tank. Corals that have been in a tank for a while that have poor health can start to STN after their health deteriorates to a point they can not fight off infection.
Fragging a coral that show STN and treating the frag with a lugol's bath is a way of saving the coral. I started treating STN back in the early 90's once we started seeing it show up.

From my experience STN also spreads through the water column and it will eventually affect other corals. Dipping has not appeared to help but if you catch STN early enough there's a chance it helps.

One more thing as well, STN may last months and I haven't read much that tells how one can stop it.

 

[bios]

What sayed above si correct
But must be considered that the only defense that a coral sps ha ve to all external attack ie stn or turbellarie or... Is mucus
My question is have you se e a coral sps in a high methabolic tank ie low nutrients High oxidation pot. And ...
Produce mucus??
So how it defense itself?

 

[m0jjen]

Okay. From observations this seems correct. The spreading part and that it might be bacterial. Guess I can give you some tank background.

During the summer i had both dino and cyano. Something i managed to defeat. The corals turned brown due to alot of changes and an alk swing happened. Today 3 months later everything seems to be coloring up nicely and doing well, establishing encrusts and what not and growing really well.

I cant really determen what is speeding up the metabolism other then temperature. im currently doing alot of the component 123+ from aquaforest (balling classic). 120 ml into ~100 gal system. I also have really low nutrient levels, eventho i dont rinse my frozen food and feed 3 times a day + aminos and vitamins etc.

I have shut down my reactor containing triton AL99 (had 150 ml before and was running 50 ml now) and carbon 200 ml for the time beeing. Since i stopped the reactor my NO3 (was 2.5 ppm steady) has dropped to about 1 ppmish. So this tells me my tank lacked phosphates to process nitrates. Correct me if im wrong, but phosphates needs nitrates to be processed and wise verse?

This leads me to belive i was overdoing GFO/Phosphate absorber which also is a common cause for STN from the bottom? (based on broscience from forums). I am running a triton detox atm to get rid of some copper from the water. Once this is done ill only run carbon in the reactor and see where this leads.