So I had to hack up my 3 y.o. Red Dragon today save it

WayneL333

WayneL333

New member
Well, it wasn't quite 3 years yet, but would have been coming March. This is the original Red Dragon and I got it once removed from Tony from another local reefer. To give you an idea how long ago I got it, I paid i think $250 for a frag about half inch in size. Anyway, I grew it out to this:



Then about a week ago, I started to see a white STN spot near the base that slowly starting to creep up. I was hoping it would stop since I've seen this before a couple of times on my other colonies, but nope. The STN turned into RTN and I hacked it up today to save most of colony.

So this is actually the 2nd time this has happened to me in the last couple of months. The first time was with my original Tyree/SniperSPS Pink dragontails. Same story. It started out as STN, then went full blown RTN. I had to hack that colony up too. I saved most of that colony but now I have like 50 mini colonies of both corals.

I know it wasn't pests that caused the TN. I haven't added a coral in my tank in over 6 months and I have a separate shallow reef system that I use as a QT for all my corals. I'm pretty sure it's most likely caused by the chemistry of my system right now. I'm not too happy with the way my tank's chemistry right now. My system has been up and running for about 3 years so my sps colonies are pretty big and demand a lot. I used to struggle to maintain my Alk, Ca, and Mg at normal levels. But recently, it's very weird but my tank to seem to have hit a saturation point and now my Alk is abnormal high without me adding anything.

This hobby of ours can be so frustrating and challenging sometimes. I still love it, but man! So I've decided that once the million of frags I made today heal up for a bit, I'm going to go and repopulate the world's oceans with Red Dragon and Pink Dragontail acros! ;)
 
Or you could populate my tank! Sorry to hear of your loss. I know it can be frustating to work so hard on something for so long and have it almost wiped out in a blink of an eye. Hope you can get the issue solved.
 
i know the frustration! out of curiosity, did you do a water change or gfo change the week before?
 
Yes, I do weekly 10% water changes and bimonthly gfo changes but this is nothing new. I've been doing this from day one.
 
One thing I find strange is that the colonies started to rtn on me were the 'deepwater' think branched acros. I haven't had any issues with my stags or any other type of acros.
 
That sux. It happened to me, though my was a fraction of the size, The same way. It continued to STN even the frags until I evacuated it to another system. Hopefully you have a separate system to save the remaining chunks.

Good luck
 
tdb320reef said:
That sux. It happened to me, though my was a fraction of the size, The same way. It continued to STN even the frags until I evacuated it to another system. Hopefully you have a separate system to save the remaining chunks.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Thanks and yes I do. I split the frags between my two systems.
 
I feel like a broken record asking this but have you checked your SG lately and have you also checked the calibration on your refractometer?
 
I think it is a Red Dragon thing. I also bought mine from CITR back in the $250 an inch days. My colony was huge and did the same thing as yours a year ago. The first time, it might have been a delayed reaction from an alk drop, but it still happens once in a while for no apparent reason. Usually in an area of the coral that the flow may be impaired after the coral grows larger. My friend also had the same thing happen after his got larger, he fragged it up, but lost the whole thing. Good thing we've passed it around the area.
 
Very sorry that RTN hit your piece like that. I had the same problem and after reading back on my note I had added GFO to the sump 4 days prior to my RTN. I don't know if this was the direct result as I have other issues going on in my tank as well. The only reason I am sharing this with you is it may have some value to your problem. I am sure with the size of the piece your an advanced reef keep and keep your levels in check.
I hope this helps
 
I agree that the rd is sensitive to alk swings. In my case it was a sudden jump that caused it to rtn from the base outwards. Good thing it grows well once it's happy.

Anybody else notice RD can be stung by almost every other sps? It just seems to be a weaker sps in that regard. My thicker sps can take a licking and keep on ticking.
 
I think its the flow issue, if you do 10% wc weekly then your system pretty stable. I had the same problem years ago with my purtple monster colonie, once it reach this big size they need tons of flow..
 
best time to send some water samples to a lab, to see what is lacking, could be a revolutionary find and end to Random RTN/STN ....

I think this happens to all SPS keepers at some time ... the random STN ...
 
Allmost said:
best time to send some water samples to a lab, to see what is lacking, could be a revolutionary find and end to Random RTN/STN ....

I think this happens to all SPS keepers at some time ... the random STN ...
Click to expand...

What lab and what test? Full water and complete water test? Sounds very interesting and I did see a company willing to do that but it was like $289 bucks.
 
Been hearing about the Thrive water testing machines that are supposed to hit some of the LFS around the Southern California region but have not seen one in person yet.

http://thriveaquatics.com/products/thrive-water-lab.html

Sorry to hear about your RTN. My Red Dragon RTN and stopped at the tip the size of a pinky finger nail. Now it's coming back from the dead. Funny thing is that the wife actually looked at the tank a couple days after that happened and asked, "what is that? It's so nice and white. When did you buy that?"...told her it was called "white dragon" and I got it for free :)
 
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