If it is not one problem it is another!

[Dilan Patel]

So I fixed a lot of problems pertaining to growth,color and PE. I enjoyed the tank! Now it is STN/RTN problems. I recieved a shipment of corals about a week ago and some of them RTN?STN overnight. IDK what is going on in the tank all parameters are in acceptable ranges for a reef tank and corals are not starving due to the fact I keep nitartes around 5 and Phosphate above .03. I turn the lights to the lowest intensity and place them on the frag rack on the very bottom of the tank. They get dipped in a bayer solution for 5min to get rid of pests. The are dripped acclimated for 1hr. flow is strong and I know Acros love strong flow. All other acros and stuff seem to be doing good. Just this order seemed to take a hit. Could it be a shipping stress and the corals just couldn't make it through? Ive lost 3 out of the 8 . I know this guy has awesome corals since I picked up a 12 pack from him about a month ago and 11-12 have made and are growing now. So i have no idea what I should look at. I know you all will want to see standard chemical analysis which I will post soon. The only thing that has changed I guess would be me moving all my corals from my 55 into the 180, but I drip acclimate them all and then dip them in bayer just as I would do any new frag.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

Personally I don't drip acclimate any corals but drop the still tied up bag & let it stay afloat for at least 20 - 30 minutes in my tank ...

 

[Dilan Patel]

I forgot to say I float them too for about 10min. i thought drip acclimating would help in the change of alk,calc,mag and other chemical differences?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

There is no need to drip aclimate sps. Temperature is the only thing you should be worried about. Can't help you with the deaths though, it could be a wide range of things or just simply didn't ship well or got cold.

 

[Potatohead]

How old is the tank?

 

[drawman]

Couple questions what are your big 3 params at Ca, Alk, Mg? Were these wild colonies?

 

[Dilan Patel]

Tank is around 2 years old(cant remember due to the fact i restarted it to make it for corals). IDK what mag is but calc:420 and Alk at 9.46

These were aquacutured pieces from a vendor on this forum. I am currently speaking with him about this. I just wanted to see what some ideas of what could be going wrong would be.

 

[Scorpius]

How old is the tank?

Agreed. Young tanks take awhile to grow Acropora.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

2 years should be good.

Dilan, do you know your par on the bottom where you put the frags ?

Was there good med to high flow there ?

I assume there was no strong smell from the bags when you opened them?

Yes I drip too. It's the same as adding water to the bag. I don't worry about temp here , save on extremes , it's always 77 here anyway.

 

[Dilan Patel]

I just bought a Seneye from brs sale! so i will check. High flow. I didn't smell the water so I have no idea. We decided it was due to shipping stress.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I just bought a Seneye from brs sale! so i will check. High flow. I didn't smell the water so I have no idea. We decided it was due to shipping stress.

Cool. Yep. Sniff the water when you open them.
You got them from battle coral? His is 200- 350 I think but he runs long too. My guess is yours is much lower , but you may have a different color in there. (A lot more blue etc at same par number)

Dang man. It's a bummer. But, more learning opportunities.

 

[Flippers4pups]

There's just theory on what causes RTN/STN and what is the course of action when it happens.

Truth is that when the coral is stressed it releases slime to protect it's self. If the stressor continues, it may expell zooxanthellae and tissue may start to die. It's theory what happens forward. Corals have bacteria associated with them, good and bad. When the coral looses it ability to slime, is when the bad bacteria can attack. Causing bleaching (expelling zooxanthellae) and tissue loss.

Why not the whole coral? Sometimes all, but in the case of RTN/STN, only the weakest tissue can't hold off the bacteria.

Treatment to stop it? There are many stories of attempts to use antibiotics, unfortunately some of these bacteria are gram negative and don't respond to antibiotics well or not at all. Metronidazole, as well as others have been used and may slow it down, but can comeback. Theory is that it adapts and becomes resistant. Attempts to freshwater dip, dips in iodine, dips in H202.....etc all met with hit or miss results.

Overall accepted approach is to isolate the coral if possible and frag above the dieing tissue. RTN/STN has been reported to even start in healthy corals that were healthy prior to the event, by neighboring corals.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Rtn/STN was is a bacterial infection
The sudden loss of of polyps and skin is not exactly that. It's a sudden die off. I do wonder if , like brown jelly , an iodine dip or antibiotic would work , but.
I did just have an acro "rtn" this week was likely due to a coral sting.

Had been the tank over a month.

 

[Mattrg02]

I wonder if lousy flow could be the cause of bacterial infection?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I wonder if lousy flow could be the cause of bacterial infection?

IMO. It can be. Nothing is blowing crud off the coral.

 

[Bps619]

Where are you getting your water? We have a chloramine problem here and San Diego and it was killing sps left and right. Purchased a couple of chloramine filters and everything bounced back. Hoped that helps. Good luck!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Personally I don't drip acclimate any corals but drop the still tied up bag & let it stay afloat for at least 20 - 30 minutes in my tank ...

Same. Temp acclimate, then I will let them be in the air for a few seconds to slime up, and in they go. Sometime stress can be tough on corals, whether they were stressed before being removed from the source tank, during shipping or when you put them into your tank.

 

[Mattrg02]

I keep seeing these threads, which I have also created, about this same problem. Parameters are always stable and spot on and these deaths never get explained. Something HAS to be common here.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I sometimes think STN can be caused by extremely low nutrients followed by alk swings or low/high alk. I feel low nutrients are like being too skinny... when stuff hits the fan, the coral doesn't have enough storage or food to sustain good health. RTN... your guess is as good as mine.

 

[Dilan Patel]

So I get water from my rodi unit which is 0tds. Maybe we are thinking about what STN/RTN all wrong. Instead of it being an unknown reason for it to happen. their is a common thing reefers do that we just have to figure out. Whether that be from the store purchased or in our reefs themselves.