165g Zoanthid Dominated Reef- Upgrade fast approaching. PHOTOS

[Zoaelite]

Sometimes this hobby drives me crazy, pinpointing the problem causer in a tank full of variables has left me exhausted and little worn down . Any extra insight to what's causing my RTS/ STN and how to fix it would be greatly appreciated!

About 2 weeks before I started feeding my new food I had the tips of around 4 different SPS bleach on me, all my levels seemed to be in check so I did a water change and purchased some new carbon. A few days later I discovered that my skimmer air intake had plugged, my Phosban reactor intake had plugged and my biopellets had conjoined into one mass in the reactor (Talk about things compounding fast). I fixed all of those problems but I was a little too late and my giant green monti cap bleached in patches and then pretty much RTN'd. I did a few more water changes and let the tank sit for a few days.

After about 4 days of not touching anything I re-tested my water to find the following parameters:

Salinity- 1.025
pH- 8.0
Temp- 81 degrees
Ca- 440ppm
Alk- 5 DKH
Nitrate- 20ppm
Phosphate-??? (API need's to get a better kit because trying to tell the different between Light clear green and lighter clear green is a waste of my time...)

In trying to correct the 5 DKH I totally miscalculated how much baking soda to add and somehow spiked my ALK to 14 (Yes keep reading to see how I pretty much destroy my tank ). Around the same time I also started dosing the Prodibio Reef booster supplement along with Sponge power and Pohs coral vitalizer. So now I have been doing diluted water changes to bring it back down to an acceptable level but have practically screwed my water parameters. Surprisingly most of the SPS seemed to get a color boost but now I'm battling STN/ RTN from the base of my corals (On 4 new acros).

To compound my confusion my brother was nice enough to come over today and test my water with his kits. Between our 4 different ALK test kits I have a reading of 7,9,10 and 11...

My zoas which I use as an ALK barometer have not been phased by any of this (Actually 2 colonies that were on the melt have since stopped).

My Chalice collection is all doing very well with the exception of 2, 1 because of strings from a neighboring coral and the other had lost a very small amount of tissue.

The fish are plump and fat as always, even more confusing is that the initial 4 SPS that had tip burn have stopped burning and are making a slow recovery.

Here are some photos of the colonies bleaching from the base up, should I be fragging these up? Would a dip help them out? I have the option of bringing them over to my brothers tank, anyone have experience with moving an SPS that has STN?

[fishytime]

whats your mg at man.....and do you dose potassium?.......frag off a few nubs(cut well into the living coral) before the stn progresses any further.....sometimes you can stop the stn-ing by crazy glueing the edge of the living and dead tissue......

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by fishytime

whats your mg at man.....and do you dose potassium?.......frag off a few nubs(cut well into the living coral) before the stn progresses any further.....sometimes you can stop the stn-ing by crazy glueing the edge of the living and dead tissue......

Last time I tested Mag (About a week ago) it was at 1350ppm (Elos test kit), I picked up some of the tailored aquatics Pot 80 but really haven't dosed it religiously. Thanks for the tips Doug, I will try that tonight on a few of them see If I can't reverse the damage.

I can't even imagine having my whole tank crash this is driving me a little crazy with just a few of my SPS! How's the tank running for you man? Have you transferred any of the livestock back from Xtreams tank?

[Zoaelite]

Couple Updates:

Well my parameters are finally where they should be (At least with the big 3), I have purchased the Prodibio Reef kit of Oceanic corals and will see how this works to lower my nitrate level (Currently resting at 20ppm). I re-aquascaped the tank after the crash and I'm very happy with how it's looking.

I will grab some photos when I get my camera back but I decided to go with 2 giant islands, one containing all my chalices and the other the fragments of my SPS. On the good side I have a whack load of room for some coral, I think I will be placing a bunch of frags in place to see what sort of growth I can get out of the system.

Coral is forgiving but only to a certain stress point .

[Zoaelite]

Added my prodiBio to the tank today and snapped a couple photos after the lights were off. The zoas are with there night light and I quickly turned the actinics on for the main tank.

Its a little early to see but after 3 weeks of dosing Reef Booster my zoas seem to be a fair bit plumper and healthier looking. Really excited to see what the rest of the line will do, hopefully I can drop my Nitrates down to zero.

[lorenz0]

dear god. chalice central

looking good dude

[Zoaelite]

Thanks man! I hope your new condo is coming along well, excited to see your multiple 60g system . Chalices are always so much fun to watch color up, they walked out of the crash pretty unscathed but they did loose a bunch of color from it.