lighting and rtn?

[jjoos99]

do you think reducing the lighting would cause a coral to rtn? I had a fairly large piece of orange passion that has been loosing its blue coloration lately after I upgraded my leds. The other day I broke the coral loose and placed the coral lower in the tank. I think the par might have dropped from 400 to about 250. The only other difference might be alittle lower flow. I came home today to half of the coral gone. The weird part is there was a small section at the base that was unharmed. It wasnt connected to the main piece but was on the same plug just mm away. I was able to cut off maybe 10 small frags of it that I believe might make it. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas? Coral was fine, other then the blue coloration was fading.
thanks
Jeff

 

[NaturalReef]

Whenever a coral that was acclimated to a spot with certain light and flow is moved, it can def. cause stn/rtn. More so with a larger frag/colony versus a smaller frag. The longer it was accustomed to that spot, the more stressed it will become being moved. Also if it was kept happy/healthy/fed aka had more reserves, the more likely it will survive and adapt to the new spot.

When i upgraded to a larger tank, i kept the same flow and light schedule that was on my smaller tank and i had a lot of stn/rtn. My sps had a lot of stress the last few months due to alk swings, so their reserves were low and once i upgraded it was the final straw and lost some prized sps. I purchased a maxspect xf130 and bumped up the lighting intensity and within one week everything was coloring up and a week later growing again. Learned some valuable costly lessons with this last upgrade. Hth's

 

[jjoos99]

My skimmer also went nuts last night, the same day as the rtn. It overflowed all night and is still foaming bad this mourning. Not sure what that has to do with anything but nothing was introduced into the tank. Very frustrating.
Jeff

 

[NaturalReef]

Skimmer shouldnt be overflowing from stn/rtn......any other coral possibly releasing toxins? Any equipment leaching? Air fresheners?

 

[NaturalReef]

Just a side note jj, what would it cost me for a frag of your op? That way i always have a backup for you

 

[markalot]

My skimmer also went nuts last night, the same day as the rtn. It overflowed all night and is still foaming bad this mourning. Not sure what that has to do with anything but nothing was introduced into the tank. Very frustrating.
Jeff

My skimmer become erratic when my corals started to suffer as well. I had my air intake connected outside so I removed that piece and it seemed to help settle the skimmer down, but like anything it could have been a coincidence.

 

[jjoos99]

Just a side note jj, what would it cost me for a frag of your op? That way i always have a backup for you

Cant help you out with that. I am going to be lucky to have one or two small frags that survive this. Looking today all the pieces I cut yesterday are dead or almost dead but one. I also looked at the dead colony and quite a bit of the lower area of the skeleton was green in color as if it has been bleached out for some time. Keeping my fingers crossed on the frag cuts or I will be having to look for another frag of it myself.
The skimmer has calmed down and is back to normal. I cant think of any reason why the skimmer would have gone nuts. All of my other corals are doing great which is why this has been so discouraging. Especially being my most priced piece.
Jeff

 

[NaturalReef]

I know the feeling! I lost a $1000 of high end frags recently. Just try to minimize the stress and keep everything as normal as possible and let the coral work it out. I had a beautiful millepora colony the size of my hand all encrusted on the rock. All i have left is a 1/4 inch 2 polyp tip that is s hanging on. I almost quit the hobby after this loss....