SPS RTN Overnight?

FraggledRock

New member
I purchased a beautiful Bushy Green acropora last week.

It was doing great in my tank (it is my second attempt at SPS from 4 months ago)

It was polyped out the entire week i have had it (not sure if it is a good or bad thing).

glowing brightly and beautifully day and night.

I was broadcast feeding phyto and zoo plankton (I usually do it anyway 2x a week).

All water parameters were perfect:

Ammonia - 0.0 - 0.5
Nitrite - 0
0 phosphate
0 nitrates
calcium 460
magnesium 1300
alk 11 (had a high ALK problem 3 weeks ago, roughly 14dKh but it got better)

I run reverse lighting in Fuge for PH stability, etc.

Last night I forgot to plug one of the power-heads back in during some maintenance and relocation of power-heads for better flow.

This morning the entire 5 inch frag with about 6 branches RTN'd out! Flesh hanging and no more glowing Zooanthellagae!!! ***...

Could 6 hours of low flow kill SPS that fast?

I am at a loss...
 
Last edited:
Could 6 hours of low flow kill SPS that fast?
unlikely

Ammonia - 0.0 - 0.5
Traceable amounts of ammonia is bad, could be a possible cause.

or

0 phosphate
0 nitrates
+
alk 11 (had a high ALK problem 3 weeks ago, roughly 14dKh but it got better)

Extremely low nutrient levels + high alk (11 is still high) could be a possible cause.


You didn't list salinity/SG... Assuming you use a refractometer, it needs to be properly calibrated with 1.026 solution.
 
unlikely


Traceable amounts of ammonia is bad, could be a possible cause.

or


+


Extremely low nutrient levels + high alk (11 is still high) could be a possible cause.


You didn't list salinity/SG... Assuming you use a refractometer, it needs to be properly calibrated with 1.026 solution.

I guess I have become too aggressive with nutrient extraction. Carbon & GFo & Phosban. I had some cyano bacteria pop up that I got rid of with that combo.

salinity is at 1.025. I use hydrometers for daily checking and get it tested weekly at LFS with their Refratometer to make sure the hydros arent lying and to compare results.. they usually are spot on.

I guess I will work on the Alkalinity more and get the ammonia down.
 
I guess I have become too aggressive with nutrient extraction. Carbon & GFo & Phosban. I had some cyano bacteria pop up that I got rid of with that combo.

salinity is at 1.025. I use hydrometers for daily checking and get it tested weekly at LFS with their Refratometer to make sure the hydros arent lying and to compare results.. they usually are spot on.

I guess I will work on the Alkalinity more and get the ammonia down.

Any ammonia is bad. How old is the tak? Has it fully cycled?
 
It is nearing the 6 month mark now. Yes Fully cycled.

I already have coralline algae growth. That's why i presumed it was ready for other calcium dependent creatures.

Once you get the ammonia to 0 try a piece of pocillipora. It is a very hardy sps. If it looks good after a month or two then you can try other sps.
 
going to echo what a few have said already....trace amounts of ammonia...not good, high alk low nutrients...not good. Do you know what the parameters of the water were from where you bought the frag? When I buy or sell sps frags I always find out what the parameters are of the water its coming from or going to. If it came from a tank that has higher levels of po4/no3 the drop to zero could stress it out enough to cause the rtn. Also, what kind of lights do you have and how did you acclimate it?
 
Disregarding anything said on this thread I read on another thread on here someone saying that sometimes they do just rtn or stn for no apparant reason in an otherwise healthy system. and he had given up knowing why.

I think I'd tend to agree, I've had a few totally random ones, including a couple of branches on a ssc this week. Totally random and I can't see why. I can only assume something like a sheet of nori has become wedged and irritated it, but likely not. I just hope it stops (it's somewhere between stn and rtn this one)
 
going to echo what a few have said already....trace amounts of ammonia...not good, high alk low nutrients...not good. Do you know what the parameters of the water were from where you bought the frag? When I buy or sell sps frags I always find out what the parameters are of the water its coming from or going to. If it came from a tank that has higher levels of po4/no3 the drop to zero could stress it out enough to cause the rtn. Also, what kind of lights do you have and how did you acclimate it?

I was thinking of testing the water the coral came in. If they have nutrients how doni get nutrients up? And what nutrients?

I temp acclimate the drip acclimate. Let it sit for a half hour then change 50% of that water. Then put it in lowest spot in tank and every two days move itva little higher. I may have moved it too high too fast..
 
Disregarding anything said on this thread I read on another thread on here someone saying that sometimes they do just rtn or stn for no apparant reason in an otherwise healthy system. and he had given up knowing why.

I think I'd tend to agree, I've had a few totally random ones, including a couple of branches on a ssc this week. Totally random and I can't see why. I can only assume something like a sheet of nori has become wedged and irritated it, but likely not. I just hope it stops (it's somewhere between stn and rtn this one)



It coukd have been wild caught n my system shocked it.. Who knows right...
 
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