Reason of STN or RTN for my acro.

[reefplayer]

Finally after all the trouble in fine tuning the dosage. I got some answer and i hope i can be 100% sure.

I have afew acro always stn from the base up. and some minor tissue recession on the side branches.

The reasons.

1. Acro hairy crabs that caused the tissue recession and there are many of them, managed to catch afew last week. Now only left 2 so far i can see.
The only problem is they migrate from acro to acro. Only those without resident crabs are affected.

2, I have been dosing too much zeostart2. I stop dosing everything from last week, and the colours of some of my sps are back. Heard from some that if PO4 and NO3 is super low, start is no longer needed, just add bac and food will do. Just measured my PO4 last week with hanna colorimeter, reads at 0.04. NO3 is 0.2ppm

Just going to dose 3 drops of bac and food for twice every week should be enough i think. Any1 can advise?

[fkadir]

Stop dosing of start and monitor if PO4 increases after a week or so. If it still increases, then you need to tackle it either by doing more water changes or dosing start2 which will help to reduce PO4 effectively.

[CurvBall]

I have afew acro always stn from the base up. and some minor tissue recession on the side branches.

Maybe you're not getting enough water flow around your acro's? Could also be that these area's of your coral or quite shaded and are getting less light than they need. Just an idea...

[losmandy]

You only stop dosing start when your tank is in stage 3 where all pooled PO4 are exhausted. 0.04ppm is still pretty high to stop dosing zeostart, like what Farish said stop dosing for a few days and monitor the PO4 reading.

Breaking the dosage into multiple times/day will help on the overdose compare to dosing once every 2 days.

Now even at 0.01 to 0.02ppm I still continue dosing zeostart but without tissue recession or funny stuffs growing :P

[Aged Salt]

Hi all, good posts & very good advice. Most zeo-users who wish to have low nutrients & "clean" LR will find it near impossible w/o the use of ZS2. This stuff is dyanamite, & does not result in TN, & eventually with it's continuous use, will starve out that red-turf algae so often a hitchhiker in our reefsBob

[reefplayer]

Hi all, good posts & very good advice. Most zeo-users who wish to have low nutrients & "clean" LR will find it near impossible w/o the use of ZS2. This stuff is dyanamite, & does not result in TN, & eventually with it's continuous use, will starve out that red-turf algae so often a hitchhiker in our reefsBob

Thanks all,
But when i start to dose zeostart, i begin to see some brown algae on the glass. After i stop about 1 week without dosing any, slowly the brown algae recided.
So what is your advise Bob?

Currently dosage every other day:
3ml of zeostart2
5 drops each for food and bak

[Aged Salt]

Hi Stanley, do you use AAHC, or other zeo-supplements? Bob

[KLBJR]

reefplayer, i would not trust these hanna meters to much i have one and it does not give me the the same reading twice! if you check the specs you will see that they have an error % of .04 +/- at 68 degrees so you may have .08 on the high side or .00 on the low side JMO!!

[reefplayer]

Hi Stanley, do you use AAHC, or other zeo-supplements? Bob

For the last week without dosing anything. no other zeo supplements are added.

The problem with this system is so difficult to gauge the dosing. To see the reaction of the corals? Well some is very good, some not so. Worst is some stn on the base. They already stn quite long ago. But it stop after i stop dosing. When i started dosing 2 days ago, i saw it came back and increase the white patch (stn) afew mm upward from the base.

[reefplayer]

reefplayer, i would not trust these hanna meters to much i have one and it does not give me the the same reading twice! if you check the specs you will see that they have an error % of .04 +/- at 68 degrees so you may have .08 on the high side or .00 on the low side JMO!!

Yes, i am aware of the error. Hence i measured 4 times.

1. 0.04
2. 0.01
3. 0.05
4. 0.04

Hence i took the 0.04 reading.

[losmandy]

Stanley,

How abt your tank parameters? Do you dose Calcium Chloride or kH supplements? Those might be causing tissue recession problems too.

Perhaps you like to post your husbandry, all parameters and every other things you did to your tank for better understanding.

[G.Alexander]

If I really clean the water sample glass and store it in RO water until I use it I get absolute constant readings with the same water sample. It is also important to shake the glass until all the chemical is dissolved. Also air bubbles inside the glass adulterates the result.

G.Alexander

[losmandy]

Stanley, have you solved your STN problem?

[reefplayer]

Stanley, have you solved your STN problem?

Still trying to solve. Hopefully what agesalt given me can help.
Will be dosing start2 - 2 drops/day, AAHC - 2 drops/day
zeobak - 2drops every other day

Will try out for 1 - 2weeks and see how it goes. But i can see one of my encrusting monti has very beautiful light pale colours that i never see before, even better than when i first bought.

[Aged Salt]

Stanley, on Start2 the dosage should be 2 drops twice a day daily, otherwise the above is correct, Bob