RTN- don't know what to do. Pics

S

shroutk3

New member
Hey everyone, I'm going to try to keep this short but detailed. I moved the tank 6 weeks ago, in the process basically going 80% new water.

alk- 2.6 meql
calc- 450
ph 7.8 (stable)
Ammonia, Nitrate- 0

Tank is 40 br with 20 sump. Octo 110 skimmer, brs carbon reactor, modded mj, k2, return, and mj1200 for flow. 4 bulb tek fixture, approximately 13 months on the bulbs (old I know).

For the past 3 weeks, my birdsnest, red planet, and 2 unknown acros have been bleaching and losing tissue. My alk was around 5 dkh, but I've had it up to 7-7.5 for about a week now (using baking soda). I have a pink lemonade and thompsons milli that are unafftected. Monti's don't seem happy though.

2 weeks ago I noticed red bugs, and treated with interceptor immediately (24 hours, then skimmer and carbon)- no red bugs or pods seen since.

So it seems like a lot of problems. I'm going to attach pics and hope someone can help me narrow it down and/or give suggestions.

DSC00937.jpg

DSC00938.jpg

DSC00939.jpg


Things that don't seem to mind whatever is happening: rics, rbta, gbta, all euphylias, zoas

any help is appreciated- On a side note, I'm extremely limited budget wise, So suggestions that don't involve a ton of money is what I'm hoping for lol


thanks

Tim
 
On a side note, the coraline on my glass has really slowed down/disappeared- maybe a mag issue??

Also, i just made small emergency frags of healthy branches. Key word being small.
 
I would say that the low alk/red bugs had something to do with it. Just keep alk stable and things should turn around. I run mine around 9. You can check the mag, but usually if your doing frequent w/c's with a salt know for high mag it won't be a problem. The best my tank ever looked was when i was using R/C mixed with Oceanic 50/50.
 
Im currently using straight oceanic. Do you think these corals can rebound then? I'm hoping they're not lost causes. Should I try to frag the bad tissue off? It just seems counter intuitive that more injury would fix unhealthy tissue.
 
Yeah I point at alk and the stress of red bugs and interceptor. Slowly bring alk up to 8-9 over a few days and keep stable. Corals will come back.
 
This isn't RTN. STN maybe, bleaching at the tips possibly due to systemic disruption. The sludge on the tips is cyano, probably resultant to the move and the extra nutrient surge associated with the die off from the treatment. If it were RTN you'd be asking for advice on what to do decoratively with all your freshly cleaned white coral curios by this point. Run GAC, poly filter, etc. Get your skimmer dialed in and water changes, while correcting your parameters with whatever supplements necessary.

DJ
 
Last edited:
please use a turkey baster and make sure you have no bugs aefw, i waited too long and played with the water and the flow and the lights like everyone suggested and finally a month later and damage done to my favorite purple milli i found the worms and the eggs now in the fight of a lifetime going to dip and qt this week basting has helped alot give it a try just to rule it out . hope it is something simple like alc or ph..something easily fixed..godbless
Roger
 
Not sure about your other corals, although I agree with Djreef, I noticed in the pic with the birdsnest that you have a BTA which seems to be really, really close to the frag. Is it possibly being stung a lot?

I once dropped a purple haze monti onto a dying sebae for under two seconds and those spots that touched turned white in 2 hours.
 
GhostCon1 said:
Not sure about your other corals, although I agree with Djreef, I noticed in the pic with the birdsnest that you have a BTA which seems to be really, really close to the frag. Is it possibly being stung a lot?

I once dropped a purple haze monti onto a dying sebae for under two seconds and those spots that touched turned white in 2 hours.
Click to expand...

Cripe! Talk about a panic moment.


I'm looking at the pic of the Seriatopora and thinking bleaching - you can still see the polyps if you look closely. I'd just work to get everything back to normal and patiently wait, and observe.

DJ
 
Yeah DJ, I was shocked. The monti came back around though and is doing good :)

On a side note, I completely bleached out a green birdsnest about 2 months ago and, while not all of the color has come back, it is doing amazing. Getting the green back in the polyps and tissue color is coming back.

You need to target feed your bleached corals if they have polyps out, since they have no, or very, very little, zooxanthellae to obtain energy from.
 
Stay on the track of raising alk etc. low mag can throw off soooo much... hang in there I have an Oregon Blue that has almost completely washed out twice and now is thriving!! Damn sticks can be touchy to spikes in chemistry and high nutrient/organic levels!!!
 
Disagree with chefz - polyps are visible...just some bad tips. Don't give up on them. Fully agree with DJREEF - likely the low alk is to blame...compounded by the interceptor treatment. I think if you keep the tank stable (with a good alk level), you'll be fine and everything will recover. Good luck and sorry for your losses.
 
No kidding - I brought my Sanddollar back from 3 polyps (it fell into an Acan). I mean, you still have color on your corals...they just have some bad tips. Cut the tips off...and with good tank parameters you should be back to where you were pretty quickly.
 
Dustin1300 said:
Disagree 100%. I've seen SPS come back from 1 polyp. This is just bad advice. Raise the alk up to 8-9 and I think you can help revive them....:sad1:
Click to expand...

Just my opinion I would cut the dead tips so that the coral would heal quicker and look nice in no time. I didn't mean to butcher it just cut the tips away.
edit: OOps I thought you were responding to me lol my bad
 
ya bro alk ia where its at, will be good to check 3 times a day until you get it around 8-9 then stick it there not too fast read the labels. Magnesium needs to stick on the higher side too. control these and calcium.
the brs stuff is good and its consistent. If you love your tank test 2 times a day for 2 weeks, log the stuff and keep it consistent set up a doser if you can in the future. Invest in alk,mag,and calcium test kits. I think you have them but if they arent good toss them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

K
Carbon Dosing causes STN/RTN?
Replies
13
Views
2K
Timfish
Timfish
K
Help: SPS peeling strangely.
Replies
5
Views
646
griss
griss
C
High Zinc in ICP Test & Switching to ATI Essentials – Need Advice
Replies
14
Views
2K
CalypZoo Reef
C
T Diddy
I’ve got a parasite problem
Replies
15
Views
1K
griss
griss
E
Long time Reefer looking to start anew.
Replies
12
Views
3K
FOX-FACE fanboy….
FOX-FACE fanboy….
Back
Top