Could it be alk swing caused RTN a big joke?

[DrewBrees713]

Do we have something cooking here folks? White band and RTN look pretty similar if you asked me.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/viruses-may-be-the-cause-of-white-plague-coral-disease

 

[franklypre]

It says it takes a few days to kill a small colony, perhaps STN could work. RTN will kill in a few hours IME.

 

[Ted_C]

Could be. I think alot of people that see RTN or STN just regurgitate "Alk stabilty issue", "Bugs" as the cause. Truth is any number of things - including the viruses quoted in the article can be the cause.

 

[DrewBrees713]

So many unknowns in this hobby. At least this article shed some light.

 

[Ted_C]

My whole tank (Acros, Monti's, Pociilipora, Stylos, torts, milli's) had this problem with both base recession and tip problems. I got all of the usual opinions from AEFW, Red Bugs, Alk stability issues, Mg inbalance, pH issues, internal parasites, cancer, lighting). I came up with a few of my own - including vermetid snail damage.

I saw this article when this was occuring in August and also considered it a possibilty.

What probably really happened was I started running filter socks and a UV that were clarifying the water more than what the SPS had acclimated to and the light was never reduced in total intensity (I did lower my white output and reduced my photoperiod from 14 hours to 9 hours). I've dropped the intensity of the LED down to 60% but have already lost around $1500 (around 30 of my 40 frags - averaging $50 per frag).

Here's my undata on 8/7

Again on 8/17:

 

[DrewBrees713]

Ted

How old is your system? If you have a system wide affliction then I suspect it's either water quality or viral/bacteria infection? I wonder if anyone has an oversized UV sterilizer perhaps that could minimize some of the problems cause by pathogenic organism?

 

[Ted_C]

My UV was vastly overrated. a 57 watt with 100% of a mag 18 running through it. The 57 watt was rated at 30,000 for 3200 GPH flow. In reality, I was probably to 180,000 or above for the final flow I had going through the UV (approx 750 GPH).

This damage all occured 10 months in (in august).

 

[eswgato]

I am interested in this writeup as well as I have had the same issues with my sps they do great th en they decline I'm leaning to the illness as well how do we get rid of it tho?

 

[DrewBrees713]

I am interested in this writeup as well as I have had the same issues with my sps they do great th en they decline I'm leaning to the illness as well how do we get rid of it tho?

Constant influx of fresh NSW but I doubt that's feasible for most of us. Just so bummed out with all the advances in technology/science yet we haven't definitively came up with an answer.

Ted

57 Watt is more than adequate. 10 months in is still somewhat new. Most of the folks that I know killed ton of frags until way later down the road where their system became stable then they were able to keep most sps. With that said, it's not written in stone. Just so many unknown variables with sps.

 

[Cytranic]

Dude you have a 150 Gallon tank with a UV light rated for 6500 gallons. You are nuking every last nutrient in your water, including the stuff SPS needs.

 

[dvanacker]

The only thing to really be concerned about is making the best, and most stable environment for the SPS. STN/RTN can be caused from lots of reasons....any stress. Similarly any animal or human is more likely to get sick and die under harsh conditions. The chances for anything from a cold to cancer go up when the environment we live in is poor.

So what came first the chicken or the egg.

 

[DrewBrees713]

Chicken came first. It was scientifically proven a few years back ;0)

But, yeah, stability or matured tank is conducive to a successful sps tank.