SPS are STN-ning from the base up

[Nht]

SPS are STN-ning from the base up
Gentlemen. I am in desperate need for all your help. It's quite a frustrating ordeal and I'm practicing my due diligence in erradicating this continuing problem but am clueless to what the problem may be. So please put on your thinking caps and assist a fellow reefer in dire need of advice.

It all started about 3 months ago with a frag of granulosa. It started to STN from the base and perished after about a week. I was passive about it as I thought shipping stress played a role. Then 2 weeks later a blue Austera mini colony began to do the same thing. I fragged more than half of it to no evail. Shortly after the fragged part met the same demise as the Granulosa. I continued to think that it was just random stressed out corals until my prized pieces like favorite mini colony of Hawkins echinita and Lokani are slowly STN from the base up. Its affirmative action time. It's been a regular biweekly event that would happen to random pieces in my tank. I've checked for AEFW but the affected pieces don't have them. I also suspected alkalinity test kits so I went out and bought 3 more test kits just to be positive that it's not alkalinity as I know it sometimes plays a role in this kind of symptom but dkh seems to be within range. I will try to list my husbandry to as much detail as I can without being too verbose. If I'm leaving any vital information out please lmk and I will include it.

•Salinity 1.026
•Run Rox .08 carbon 24/7
•amm, trites and trates=0 Api
•Mag-1300 elos
•Using calcium reactor
•Ph-8.1-8.3
•temperature-79-81
•Dkh- 10 elos, 9 Api, 9 tropic marin
•Phosphate-no test kit but no algae issues
•dosed vodka for 1 month with prodibio and 1.5 month brightwells Biofuel with prodibio
•Tank is grounded using grounding probe
•2x250 radiums with Vho superactinics and T5 blue+
•Dual Vortechs at max reef crest mode
•Dosing Zeo supplements every other day
•Weekly 10-15 gallon waterchanges with Seachem reef salt. Was using Red Sea Coral Pro for the last year until the switch 2 months ago


If there's anything I'm leaving please let me know. Thank you all in advance for any advice that you can give me to eradicate this very frustrating and disheartening problem that is occurring in my tank

I forgot to add that all Lps and zoas are doing fine in the tank. I also have a medium size tyree green toadstool leather and a colony of pom pom xenia.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
What size tank do you have? Do you run kalkwasser? What is you calcium ppm? Can you post a picture of your tank? I would let the alkalinity fall to about 8 dKH

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Nht]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not running kalk, tank is a 120 and calcium is at 460 ppm using Api test kit. I just took a reading for dkh last night and it read at 8 so I achieved my target dkh.

 

[kevinpo]

Hello,
I don't see anything that sticks out. You might move a coral that is showing symptoms into an area of high flow and see if it stops. Also I would try dripping kalkwasser. If you own another tank or have a friend with one, you could move one of the corals there for a few weeks. A 50% water change would be another thing I would try to reduce the possibility of accumulation of toxic compounds.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[pwoller]

I would be looking for something eating the corals after the lights go out. If you can pull a coral out that is being effected and dip it in revive and see what comes off.

 

[PCFishman]

If a majority of your water is mixed with Seachem reefsalt your dkh is at about 8 right now. Reef salt contains borate which artificially boosts dkh test results by at least 1 dkh. BTW, I didn't see your calcium level posted. Might it be an issue with your calcium reactor?