Red Dragon RTN

pluikens · Jun 27, 2018

Good evening,

I woke up this morning to find my Red Dragon Acro frag in the condition shown below. I've had the frag for a week. I am successfully keeping other acropora and other SPS corals. I'm wondering if I could get some assistance getting to the bottom of why I'm losing this frag.

The frag rack is about halfway up the side of a 40 breeder which has two AI Prime HD lights on it.

Parameters-
Alk: 8.4 all week, went to 8.5 on the 24th, then down to 8.3 on the 25th, and 8.2 on the 26th. I've decided to keep my alk at 9 as I had in the past since my nutrients aren't ultra low. Alk brought back up to 8.3 today and will be slowly raising it to 9 dKH.
Calc: 450 ppm
Mag: 1400 ppm
Nitrate: 6.14 ppm
Phos: 0.04 ppm
Temp: 78-78.1 F, spiked to 80.2 the morning of the 24th but back down to 78 by the afternoon
pH: 7.68-7.9, an average of 7.79
Photoperiod is 11 am to 7pm, 2hr ramp in the morning and 90-minute ramp in the evening

Anything I'm missing? Other corals look really good except for a 4-5 inch fungia on the sand bed that's had its mouth agape the past couple of weeks. I introduced a tomini tang from QT on the 24th.

Thanks in advance!

jda · Jun 28, 2018

Red Dragon is a hard coral - they need the most stable tanks to thrive. Do not take it personally. All of the deepwater (smooth skinned) acropora are harder than the rest. If this is the only coral that has issues, then just let it go... if this is a trend, then let us know.

Do not read too much into this or chase any parameters because one coral RTNs. You might get all kinds of advice on your alk, since you mentioned it, but IMO it is/was not a factor here at all unless you are running organic carbon in which case it needs to be closer to 7 (NSW level).

Jlentz · Jun 28, 2018

What JDA said.

Plus, the two times I’ve lost red dragon both were RTN that I think was brought on by low salinity.

pluikens · Jun 28, 2018

Thanks guys. I usually try to give all my parameters in my first post post, I can't believe I left out salinity. Salinity is a constant 1.025 sg.

I won't take it too personally; I've only been keeping acros for a few months and saw these bright colored fresh cuts in the $20, 2/$35 section at my LFS. I thought I was even getting some PE! Now the gold acro behind it just became $35.

Thanks again!

pluikens · Jun 28, 2018

Is there a chance of me cutting the top off and saving it? I'm certainly willing to try.

ctpeasy · Jun 28, 2018

pluikens said:
Is there a chance of me cutting the top off and saving it? I'm certainly willing to try.

Yes. Use lots of super glue.

Taby · Jun 28, 2018

May be be a swing in alk, gravity, ... levels from the lfs tor your tank.

Scorpius · Jun 28, 2018

Red dragon always rtn's on me. I have one called moonshine from wwc that's been doing great in my tank here lately though.

topjimmy · Jun 28, 2018

Scorpius said:
Red dragon always rtn's on me. I have one called moonshine from wwc that's been doing great in my tank here lately though.

Same here, well actually almost all sps do. Sigh. They hold out for a couple of weeks and then stn.

Sierra_Bravo · Jun 28, 2018

What was your dip routine? Smooth skin acros aren't as tolerant of some dips as other acros are, at least from what I've seen.

pluikens · Jun 28, 2018

Sierra_Bravo said:
What was your dip routine? Smooth skin acros aren't as tolerant of some dips as other acros are, at least from what I've seen.

I visually inspect them before adding to my tank. Once on the rack for about a week I'll decide where I want to put it and dip it in CoralRX after breaking it off the frag plug.

Reef_Junkies · Jun 28, 2018

Red Dragon is one that I can't seem to keep alive either. Stable parameters and everything and it still RTN. They DO love lots of flow, which was probably what mine wasn't getting enough of. I had it placed at the lower end of the tank for acclimation.

pluikens · Jun 29, 2018

I had four or five other frags to mount to rock so I cut off the top third of the Red Dragon and mounted it in the upper part of the tank, right in the middle where my two Prime HDs overlap. It should also be getting high flow in this position. I make doughnuts out of epoxy and glue on both sides to mount to the rockwork so the cut side is covered in glue. The lights we're ramping down by the time I finished but I can post a picture of it in its new position tonight.

erky · Jun 29, 2018

i lost a pretty bit colony a few months ago and I am blaming it on alk fluctuations! I have an alk monitor now and i can see my trends WAY better than testing once every few days.