Rtn

[Gravesj1s]

What have you guys done in the past when dealing with this?Mostly birdsnests that are history ,within about 8 hrs ,and now starting on a bird of paradise.Im pretty sure I know why it happened ,but im wondeing what to do about it now,worried about it spreading.

[/IMG]

When it rains it pours ,guess thats how it goes.

 

[Gravesj1s]

I traded a bunch of frags lately,forgetting to turn off my ATO/limewater pump and replace with seawater..If I was to guess,counting daily evaporation,probably a few gals. Im pretty sure that caused it.

The only course of action I took so far, was a water change of 50% and hoped for the best.

 

[rjmayes34]

thats a bummer, looked like a nice big colony!!! I have no advice, just wanted to say good luck! Hope you can stop whatever caused it!

 

[oneradtek202]

dkh swings will wreak havoc on SPS. im sure thats what happened


do a large water change to reset things

 

[Capt_Cully]

I'm with Brandon all the way on this one. I know seriatoporas are supposed to be "easy" SPS, but I've found it to be a little temperamental. You can try fragging it, but that might cause further stress. Check your alkalinity for dips. That limewater SNAFU sure sounds like the culprit. Bummer.

 

[pascal32]

agree with possible KH swings. I got you covered to replace the ponepe

 

[Gravesj1s]

Yeah ,I did a 50% waterchange , but ,from past threads I think someone mentioned supergluing the tips or broken edges.Is that something I should do?

If you look closely at the first pic the birdsnest is entirely gone,but its spread to the green cap,now this morning thats half gone,too.Samething with the second pic white branches show this morning on the ones closest to the all white one.

Last pic,bird of paradise mostly burnt tips.Some others took a hit ,too, but not anything like the birdsnests.With the exception of a ric colony also, wiped out.

Is the superglue to keep algae from growing or does it help stop rtn?

 

[Capt_Cully]

I think its all desperate measure. I've seen and read everything from fragging to dips, water changes, supplements, etc. Sometimes you don't get an exact picture of what happened which leaves you chasing your tail. Personally, when it used to happen to me, I'd just let the coral be. If it recovered, great. If not, just figured it was all part of the process. I would check EVERYTHING I had a test kit for and try to make appropriate adjustments in a non-drastic time frame. Rapid corrections can be just as stressful depending on what you're discussing.

 

[oneradtek202]

yea i agree, sometimes if a stress is too high, such as the lime water issue that happened, it just is a cascading effect. one goes, releases toxins, next one, and so on. you running carbon? i would remove any dead or dying skeleton of the SPS. sometimes that can help. but id say thats a last ditch effort! never used super glue

 

[oneradtek202]

let me know if u need to get that loisette out and keep it safe, until this passes

 

[tmz]

Sorry for the troubles. I agree alk variation is likely an issue. A drop in sg might be part of it.
Often any significant disruption in the major parameters effecting calcifiction( alk, PO4, calcium, maybe even magnesium) precede these events.

Don't know if the super glue will do much. Never tried it. There have been some successes on natural reefs with epoxies to block bacterial infections(white band and black band disease) noted in the litterature. Maybe that's where the idea comes from.

I'd cut the burnt tips and other live tissue a quarter to half inch into good tissue all around and remove dying stuff which may spread any pathogen in play or toxins from dying tissue. A lugols dip for the frag might hep too but I don't usually do that.
No one knows what's going on in a rapid tissue degradation reaction as far as I can tell . It is hypothesized that once tissue degradation starts the coral generates a chemical signal which causes death throughout , known as autolysis; a from of self rejection with the coral digesting it's own tissue. There are others that note the presence of vibrio bacteria in sample water which held corals with rtn but that could be from the decay of the necrotic tissue.
Fragiing into good tissue may put you ahead of the death march. Removing dying stuff should cut the chances of it spreading any pathogens or toxins and should help keep excess nutrients at bay.

Good Luck.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Current parameters following the 50% waterchange I did 2 days ago.

Salinity 30ppt,1.023 s.g.
Ca. 380ppm -salifert
Alk 8.6dkh -salifert (1st test)
9.0dkh " " (2nd test)
8.6dkh " " (3rd test
Mg 1485ppm -salifert

I feel confident that the 2nd alk test was in error on my part.

So, normally I keep salinity @ 35ppt, Ive seen it stated to raise salinity at no more than .002 specific gravity per day ,..sound right? Im at 30ppt (1.023) now.Id like to get back to 35ppt (1.027) over the course of the next 2 days is what Im thinking.

Taking from the responses,I went ahead in fragging off receeding areas into healthy tissue. Sink full dead skeletons ,stuff travels quick.
Fresh carbon in as well.I dont see anything new affected,hopefully the worst is over.

-Steve

 

[Henry Colf]

I did the same thing over the weekend. Turned up my kalk resivor to top off the sump and got distracted with something else and emptied over half of the 5 gal. bucket into my sump. Within minutes my tank water was white and i couldn't see into the tank. I did a 25 gal. water change and did another one last night. I lost some frags and caused damage to a few others. Have some RTN on a few pieces. Has gotten any worse so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. All params are in normal ranges...

 

[tmz]

.002 per day sg increase is probably ok and I'd do it or maybe more if sg was very low to bring it near the range of tolerance certain organisms might have but at 1.023; .001 per day would be better,imo

 

[oneradtek202]

I did the same thing over the weekend. Turned up my kalk resivor to top off the sump and got distracted with something else and emptied over half of the 5 gal. bucket into my sump. Within minutes my tank water was white and i couldn't see into the tank. .

hence why i dont use kalk anymore....well one of the more serious reasons why.

 

[Henry Colf]

hence why i dont use kalk anymore....well one of the more serious reasons why.

I've used it for years with never any issues. This was caused by my own stupidity.:headwallblue:
I haven't seen anymore tissue recession since the third day except for a 30k leauges lokani frag which was completly gone this am. All of the corals have good pe and the colors are good. I'll still be keeping a real close eye for at least another week..

 

[tmz]

I've used kalk as the mainstay it for at least 6years; no issues. I dose from a still reservoir not an ato though since I'm likely to screw it up otherwise and like to rely less on controllers and float switches.
.An overdose of carbonate via two part would cause similar issues.
For that matter many report issues with CA CO3 reactors as media dissolves over time..

 

[Gravesj1s]

agree with possible KH swings. I got you covered to replace the ponepe

let me know if u need to get that loisette out and keep it safe, until this passes

Thanks a bunch for offering and the extra assistance here.I did have to frag both ,I caught a break and mananged to save a small frag of each.

 

[Gravesj1s]

Well, Ive let things just sorta stablize for a day or 2 without making changes in .I think Ive finally got a hold on it now.As of this morning nothing is showing any type of recession,so the smoke seems to be clearing.

Ill probably start to raise my salinity back up today,and given the amount of stress this has caused ,sticking with the .001 sg increases

Overall,its been a learning experience for sure.I've heard the horror stories,posts threads,read stuff ,but this was my first real experience in dealing with this.Once it started and got a foothold ,I couldn't believe how fast this can move.Scarry.

Anyhow, thanks for jumping in here guys,and goodluck to you henry ,sounds like you've got it back under control.
-Steve