Stylophora STN

[Coulter Schmidt]

I got a stylophora 3 months ago (Feb 27th) and it seemed very happy in my aquarium with polyps fully extended. My parameters have been stable with only a small dip in alkalinity about a month from introducing it. I saw it gradually go from an average dkh of 10.0 down to 9.0 over two weeks. I raised the daily dose of alk until it started to stabilize around 9.7-10 which took a little over a week, I tested twice within this period. Calcium was decreasing alongside alk so I assume the coral was growing but I do have a decent amount of coralline growth around my aquarium and continue to. I have not noticed any die-back regarding the coraline. Calcium dropped about .10 ppm within the same period as alk. I increased dosing of this slightly as well getting it from 415 to 425 ppm. The aquarium has been set up for about two years and the rest of my corals are lps, the parameters stay pretty stable. I don't have many corals.
My nitrates were hovering around 10ppm and I was struggling to get them down. I know this isn't high to be a concern but I just wanted it a few ppm lower as I was having some hair algae growth in the display. I have a Reef glass skimmer running which helps. I siphoned out some detritus in the refugium and noticed the nitrates actually lowered to .08 ppm and over a couple weeks settled around .04 ppm. I was able to pull some hair algae out and it wasn't growing back as fast. In this same time alk started to rise above 10 ppm and I also noticed the stylo not looking so happy, the polyps were not as extended and the shaded regions under the coral looked white and there were a few missing polyps and some not extended. I spot feed all my corals twice a week with reefroids and whatever else is mixed into the small cup that I thaw frozen food in for my fish. I also have a purple ribbon gorgonian which I’ve had for about 8 months now and it’s doing great but honestly has not grown much and the purple has faded some but I have steady nitrates and spot feed it so I don’t understand why that is. I got some rhodactis mushrooms and a couple flower anemones at the time I got the stylo and they look just as happy and colorful as ever. The anemones have not moved from the spots I placed them when I first introduced them.

Specs:
20g long display
5g aquarium partitioned into sump with refugium

Average parameter readings past 4 months:
Alk: 9.5-10
Calc: 420-430
Mag: 1240-1260
Nitrate: .05-.10
Phosphate: 0-.1
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 79

First picture was around april 15th and the last 3 were taken April 27th. This is around the time I started noticing it looking strange and tissue loss began showing on the back/underside.

It started not looking so happy about a week after syphoning the refugium of detritus and that too is when alk began to rise. I understand less nitrate production leads to higher alk overall so I think this may have been what initially upset it. But I was able to keep my nitrates around .04 ppm and stabilize my alk to 10-10.4 while still spot-feeding it twice a week. There may have been a time or two where I only fed the fish but I don’t see why this missed feeding would upset it so much. The next day after I took those pictures I took it out and dipped it in Coral RX for 10 minutes to rule out any pests or bacterial infections. After stirring the water in the treatment container for some time, carefully looking with a flashlight I saw nothing other than some copepods. I’ve also been running a UV sterilizer for about 2 weeks now and always run carbon in a small filter I keep in the return section of the sump. It was only twice this last month that I missed a weekly 2g water change. First time was purposeful to allow nutrients to build in the water hoping particulates would build and feed the stylo, maybe buffer the alk too. The second time I missed was because I've been busy with school but I ALWAYS test for nitrate and alk at least once weekly before I do a water change and have not noticed anything out of the ordinary. All my corals look the same and the parameters are consistent other than alk now settling around 10.4 ppm. Around this time my gorgonian was looking off and lost even more coloration with a few polyps retracted, it shed a couple of days after but still looked dull. It’s been coloring back up since then and seems fine. The pictures I took today show the Gorgonnian closed up which is odd but its polyps were fully extended this morning and the days before.


Last week I checked my ATO and noticed the pump was slightly slimmy and the container had a mildew smell so I cleaned with hot water and citric acid and rinsed it out very well. I checked my RO/DI system and the di was pretty depleted as it had been over a year since it was last replaced. I consistently flush my membrane everytime I use it (before and after for about 10 seconds). After letting the water run through the unit for a few minutes, the TDS meter for the water in reads around 10 ppm and the water out reads 0 ppm. I just replaced all 3 filters and will replace the membrane tomorrow. I cleaned out the canisters for the filters with water and citric acid - rinsed well - and replaced the tubing that runs from the unit to the reservoir.

My lighting is an AI prime with all channels peaking around 40% with red/green peaking 15% at the highest point in the day. Picture of schedule attached. Reason I include this is because I wonder if the stylo was gradually starving under a lot of light. Its centered under the light about 17 inches. I have not changed the lighting in over a year. I'm afraid to tune the percent down slightly as I don’t want to stress anything out but maybe I should try? Also, there isn't very much algae growth in the refugium (pic attached) wondering if I should half the light intensity down there to encourage more nutrient availability for the corals in the display.

These past few days the stylo has looked way worse and at this point I think it’s a goner. Almost all the tissue has shed and the white skeleton is showing. I’ve tried to keep one of these once before but had the same outcome. I assume it’s my care but I’m not sure what exactly I’m doing wrong, it’s very disheartening. I plan to do a ICP test but just don’t want to spend the money at the moment as I’ve already bought a new nitrate test kit (NYOS) and new filters/membrane for my RO/DI unit.
I'm extremely careful when it comes to any contaminants around my aquarium and always wear a food-safe rubber glove when sticking my hand in.

 

[Coulter Schmidt]

Yes but that's not the reason I posted this.

High alk puts the coral in hyper feeding mode in simple terms. High alk=eat more=less nutrients=depleted nutrients=starving coral=burning tips and/or dinos.

High alk means grow more. Can't grow without the nutrients.

I have had a small dino bloom in my return tubing which I plan to clean out next week and a few other odd spots that are cleaned regularly enough to allow them to grow. Good point.

 

[Spare time]

I have an app that roughly tells me what the par is. I literally stuck my phone in a plastic baggy with a strip of wax paper over the camera on my phone and get a reading of about 350 par at the level of the stylo. I know it's not super accurate, I've heard varying opinions on accuracy. The app I'm using is called photon and obviously I cannot know the accuracy unless I had an actual par meter to compare it to! I get great coraline growth all along the back of the aquarium and overflow but oddly almost none at all in the center of the tank, like on the glass bottom and surrounding rock. I assume this strain of Coraline prefers lower light.

I'll try raising magnesium to around 1350 and then maybe onto 1400. I'd like to keep my alk 9.5-10 ideally. I'll raise my light percentages (blue channels) by 20% and use the acclimation mode to do so. Do you think raising 20% within a months time would be good?

I can't see that as being accurate at all from my experience with the lights. 24 inches away with all channels at max is claimed to be at 100 micromoles of par by AI, so I wouldn't imagine your light to be giving 350 at that depth and percentage.

I don't think magnesium is an issue at all. As long as you are above the minemum, magnesium seems like it can vary drastically.

 

[Borat]

I never have. Do you think it's worth looking into getting a test kit?

I don't know.. there are people who are of the opinion that potassium is normally not depleted.. My tank consumes potassium at alarming rates (I always knew that), last time I overlooked testing (I would normally test infrequently and add some chunk of potassium chloride every now on), the level dropped to ~150ppm vs 400 expected and all my montipora looked terrible. The tank is looking great now that I adjusted the level to ~250 and over the next couple of weeks I will bring it to ~400ppm.

I think potassium consumption could sometimes be very high (as high as 50ppm per month) if you have plating montipora and/or refugium, in my case I have both.

 

[Spare time]

I don't know.. there are people who are of the opinion that potassium is normally not depleted.. My tank consumes potassium at alarming rates (I always knew that), last time I overlooked testing (I would normally test infrequently and add some chunk of potassium chloride every now on), the level dropped to ~150ppm vs 400 expected and all my montipora looked terrible. The tank is looking great now that I adjusted the level to ~250 and over the next couple of weeks I will bring it to ~400ppm.

I think potassium consumption could sometimes be very high (as high as 50ppm per month) if you have plating montipora and/or refugium, in my case I have both.

+1 for refugiums sucking up potassium. I think that is what drains most of mine.

 

[Coulter Schmidt]

+1 for refugiums sucking up potassium. I think that is what drains most of mine.

What about a refugium would consume potassium? I have quite a few little bundles of bubble algae growing down there. The reason I set up the ref originally was to help nutrients stabilize which it was helpful at one point but now nothing really goes on down there. I love it just to have it ha, I wanted it to become a little section to grow some cool microalgae. I'm growing some red razor algae but I think it is stunted now because of the low nutrients. I will start feeding a little more, I honestly do not feed very much. A small pinch of pellets 1-2/day and a quarter of frozen food 2x/weekly along with spot feeding of reef-riods. I'm scared of hair algae I had a couple of tuffs around my rock but now it's mostly gone. Probably should just get more coral to take up extra nutrients!