STN from low Alk - experiences on recovery?

[outdrsyguy1]

I went on vacation and my alk dropped too low. I fixed it over the course of 3 days never upping by more than .3 dkh a day and it's been in the acceptable range for about 11 days now. My STN on about 4 acro's just doesn't seem to be halting it's advance, anyone have any experience with this? Will i have to frag them (really hope not) or how long will it take to stop the STN?

any experiences would be much appreciated!

thanks!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

oh, and all my lps and easy sps (birdsnest, digi, monte, a couple red plant/rose milli, and red dragon) are all doing fine and didn't stn

 

[snowmansnow]

what acros are they? are they smooth or bumpy ? smooth like a hawkins.. bumpy like a digita...

weird enough.... the smooth ones have a harder time recovering

 

[tonymission]

You might have to frag it and make sure all the bare skeleton is removed.
I've heard of people putting frag glue on the rtn'd area and I guess they say the tissue has grown back over the glue. Haven't tried that myself.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

the hawkins and red dragon are still good (smooth ones). The ones affected is a green stag w/ blue tips, pearlberry acro, some sort of green tort, and a green slimer (the slimer I've nearly killed 4 times over so that one doesn't count).

I'll try and post a couple pics tomorrow

 

[outdrsyguy1]

well, it's just about done, lost 95% of my acro's
I couldn't stop the stn. I tried fragging, I tried super glueing the STN line but nothing stemmed the tide of slow death.
Really hurts to see something you've grown for such a long time slowly die over the course of a few weeks. Only sps that lived is the setosa, birdsnest, digi's, and the stylo. Lps and softies are all fine of course.

My hats off to you guys that can grow acro's, I continue to beat my head against the wall with nothing but one step forward two steps back.

I'll probably try a few more frags in a month or so. Shame too, I actually had some staghorn that seemed to be doing decent. And the red dragon had a few branches that were really doing well.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

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Current pic


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[tonymission]

I'm really sorry to hear this man I know how frustrating these darn sticks are. I've had some luck with cutting off the absolute nubs off the end and getting growth from that as long as there is a polyp.
Lost 99% of a RR yellow mamba within 48 hours of getting it and it's little nubber I saved has turned into two little nubbers.
Don't give up though!

 

[seth the wine guy]

I've dealt with this a few times. Increase flow in the tank. And I mean by A LOT. Add extra power heads if possible for the short-term, even if it's an eye sore. Seems the increased oxygen to the stressed areas of the coral helps them recover.

 

[maelstrom79]

That's good advice. I will try that myself!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

STILL having stn issues . I feel like just giving up. I've tried to grow acros for over a year now and everything just freaking dies. Parameters have been pretty good except probably too low nutrients for a while in the beginning.

Here's what i've checked
salinity= confirmed against 2 other tanks and pinpoint 1.026 solution (fresh out of the bag)
Stray voltage - tested and i have like 8 volts stray current which is supposed to be pretty low
heavy metals ect - dropped in poly filter for about 4 days with no real affect, just got a little dirty
Alkalinity - tested against fellow reefers red sea kit and his salifert (his were about 1.1 to 1.4 dkh higher than mine), bought a new red sea refill (about .1 dkh higher than my older one), and have a hanna checker arriving in a day or 2. I slowly upped the alkalinity to mid 7.5 but didn't seem to affect STN, if anything it's a hair faster.
Changed RO/DI filters and resin to all new, still 0 TDS out (same as my old kit but had to try everything)
Increased flow in tank - only got a little more polyp extension out of some corals in lower flow spots but didn't slow stn
lowered tank temperature setpoints on chiller from 80.4-79.4 to 79.4-78.4. It never leaves that range

I'm just at a total loss of what to do here, everything seems in order but I can't stop the death toll. Sucks to feel lost as to what to do and nothing to do but watch the acros slowly die.

Other corals are starting to look better with the increased feeding dosings. Birds nests have started coloring up nicely, some lps is looking more "meaty".

any other suggestions would be much appreciated. I've been to several reefer's houses that do next to nothing and everything's beautiful and grows like gang busters yet I can't seem to get anything to work.

current parameters:
salinity 1.026
ph 8.04
temp 78.4-79.4 (never leaves that range)
calcium 435
alk 7.8 dkh
Phosphates <.03 (elost test, somewhere a hair above 0 but decently below the first color)
nitrate .5
magnesium 1300
potassium 425


i'll post a current pic in a second

 

[outdrsyguy1]

fixing current pic, accidentally put in an old one


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[outdrsyguy1]

Here's a before and after of green slimer. Sorry for flash in second pic. Lights are very blue now. Color on new frags are still very close to color they arrived in.

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[outdrsyguy1]

Here's pic now

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[seth the wine guy]

FLOW!
Don't take my word for it, your acro's are doing all the talking already.

 

[camellia]

I've got 2 RW 25's from the group buy I'm going to sell if interested send me a PM.
Selling for group price.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Okay. I JACKED up my flow. Turned up both tunze 6105 to max and installed the 24v pin in one that had a 12v. Also added a korellia I had laying around.
I also removed a leather coral that had gsp growing all over the trunk hoping that if it was putting out a chemical defense I would take that out of the equation. Here's a pic of it. I do run zeovit carbon so not sure if that couldn't handle it or what.



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[outdrsyguy1]

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