how to avoid rapid tissue necrosis.

[joaovieira]

I would like to know what can i do to avoid rapid tissue necrosis. Is it effective quarentining corals ? for how long?. Is RTN an infeccious disease ??
Please give me more insight how to avoid this catastrophic event.
Best regards

 

[Ron Reefman]

Where are all the experts? I'd like to hear some answers to joaovieira's questions too.
Thanks.

 

[stingythingy45]

My suggestion would be to stay out of the hobby.lol
RTN happens mostly from wild parameter swings,especially alk.

 

[Reef Bass]

Just keep your water, lighting and feeding perfect all the time and you won't have a problem.

RTN is a condition which generally occurs when a coral is struggling and stressed. It is no longer able to either support its own tissues or fight off everything else that wants a piece of it. The stress can be a long term one, like persistently low alk, insufficiently flow or lighting, numerous pests, or an acute stress, like a sudden change in water chemistry, such as when it changes tanks without acclimation, or is subjected to alk swings, as stingythingy45 pointed out.

It behaves like an infection, in that it can start on a branch and eventually overtake the entire colony. I've seen a wave of white death creep across a softball size birdsnest in 24 hours. I've seen 4" undata turn to brown jelly overnight.

Once the RTN has begun, it can be very difficult to stop. The best results I've had have been fragging off the dying area along with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of healthy tissue. Or in extreme cases, frag off as many healthy branches as possible and let the colony go. Iodine based dips after fragging are usually a good idea.

 

[sullyfish]

many factors can cause RTN, rapid swings in water parameter mostly the cause. When it has happened to me I was able to find the source of the problem quickly and once that was fixed the corals regenerated w/o having to frag anything.

Once I did a water change and the salinity was way off on my new water. another time I had a heater flake out and cause high temp. Best defense is good husbandry and regular water testing to catch any fluctuations.

 

[campos]

I would like to know what can i do to avoid rapid tissue necrosis. Is it effective quarentining corals ? for how long?. Is RTN an infeccious disease ??
Please give me more insight how to avoid this catastrophic event.
Best regards

are you running biopellets? I too am going through this same thing. All my parameters are dialed in and have been for years I also have a chiller so i know its not my temp. I have also been running ecobak pellets for about 7 - 8 months and have read elsewhere that these caused some issues for some people. I am slowly taking mine offline as of last week and we'll see what happens.

 

[joaovieira]

So, RTN is viewed as a common end process caused by many different possible causes (infecious; chemestry imbalance; no specific cause related...).

So, Whats the most frequent cause of RTN ?
Please give some insight about quarentine as a prevention of RTN.
Waiting for the experts...

 

[sporto0]

So, RTN is viewed as a common end process caused by many different possible causes (infecious; chemestry imbalance; no specific cause related...).

So, Whats the most frequent cause of RTN ?
Please give some insight about quarentine as a prevention of RTN.
Waiting for the experts...

While I can understand the reasoning for your questions, unfortunately there are no exacting answers for you, it is easier to answer how to keep proper water parameters in check then it is to give specific reasons for RTN or STN, fact is we don't know why sometimes, it's mostly conjecture, unless you can isolate a single factor that is known to be off, such as low alk or bad hitchhikers or coral parasites, it's almost impossible to know for sure. I will add this, whenever aquacultured SPS are available, purchase them, the odds of survival are doubled at least. It is a good practice to dip your corals in a formula such as Coral RX, but quarantine is not necessary nor practical for corals, especially SPS. Now maybe one of our reef chemists could break down how some missing ion would affect tissue necrosis, but I doubt that would help us understand what went wrong.

 

[psteeleb]

RTN is a result of something going wrong with the coral. Kind of like when you die you decompose.

The key to preventing RTN is overall coral husbandry. The real cause could be from any number of things. IME it happens more often with maricultured (or wild corals) then with aquacultured.

 

[neoalchemist74]

I'd say alk issues are most frequent.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks guys, now I know why I haven't seen the problem except in a couple of friend's tanks! LOL.

 

[joaovieira]

Thanks everyone. Best regards