Red dragon stn

[bonomo53]

For some reason I can't seem to keep this acro alive. Every time i manage to grow a nice size colony it to starts to stn from the base up. I have about 30 different acros in the same tank including purple dragon eyes and pink dragon tales and they are all doing good. Has anybody had the same issues with this piece? Is it just extra sensitive?

 

[Rob&Gab]

gab lost half her purple dragon eyes , and my red Dragon i got From MACH5 in jersey just decides to STN after 2 months :/... it was a nice colony so i chopped it only have a few (frags) so P/O right now. dont no why this happened to us/..... got over 40differnt acros and montis and chalice and softies no toad stools or anytihng nothing changed. all was doing good and growing nicely for a a while and just started about 2 weeks ago


loosing my marbles well our marbles..

funnny that we are in the same area and it happens to us. lol

 

[-Logzor]

One thing you have to be careful with is any nearby corals that send out stinging tentacles. Lost nearly half my red dragon colony because a favia nearby stung a couple areas. All nearby branches RTN'd.

 

[Rob&Gab]

no lps near them all sps is up top away form anything that will sting them , STN from base up just like bonomo.

all lps towards middle and softies are scattered musrooms (recorida) on the floor.

 

[bustayanky]

I noticed when I have a lil all swing. My red dragon would stn. Once I get that back in line. Then it slows the stn and eventually stops.

 

[bonomo53]

yup rob its driving me crazy to i just through out all my test kits and ordered new ones because i don't know what else it can be.. Do you dose special blend or seachem fuel by any chance?

 

[phillrodrigo]

Do you have any euphyllia in the tank. I had a few go to brown jelly. For what ever reason when they were dying my meleranus wrasse would rip them apart. Well I had a few floating polyps get stuck to a few of my acros and they were white and dead the next day evens though I took the piece off. It took out my Hawkins a yellow tenius and another acro

 

[lakeviewink]

IME acropora sometimes stn for seemingly no reason. But, there is usually always a reason though you probably will never know it. I have over 50 Acropora colonies and usually there are one or two that just aren't happy. And it changes all the time. As I'm sure you have heard before, stability in your parameters is most important, along with adequate lighting, flow and nutrition. Still it seems there will always be some stubborn Acro trying to die. I have a Hiller Aquamarine Jewel that starts to stn every 9 months or so in the three years I've had it. I've had to chop it up once or twice to keep a survivor or two. Good luck.…

 

[-Logzor]

Do you see tiny starfish bothering the base of your acros at night?

 

[bonomo53]

Thanks for the response, it seems like its always the red dragon throughout the past two years I've been growing it then losing it. Meanwhile frags from the same colony are doing fine on my rack. Deff not stars i have a Harley in there.

 

[TJ's Reef]

Yes, one of my more unstable SPS I keep. My current colony has gone through a few short term STN events and just now recovering from a near disastrous one where I lost over half and still a bit of STN going on. All the events were in reaction to low Alk or rapid Alk drops. The heartbreak of this past one is that the colony was around 8" x 12" and finally had that perfect turquoise base with the red and pink polyps. Now......... 5" x 6" and back to pinkish... oh well I'm sure in another 6 months will be a fine colony again.... if I don't try and kill it again. My Garf Bonsai's are the other sensitive in nature ones I have. In addition to 2-part dosing of 180ml of Alk and 160ml of Calcuim daily plus 2-3 gallons of super saturated Kalk ( 1g RO/DI +4 heaping teaspoons C. Hydroxide and 1/3 cup white vinegar) a week. In testing today numbers showed only 2.4 meq/7.6dkh , 380 Cal and 1380 Mg. so one more saturated gallon of Kalk and upped Alk on Doser to 210ml daily.


Cheers, Todd

P.S. My bad, even though I read the whole thread got Red Planet STUCK in my head. Waiting to receive some Red Dragon from JoeKool so better get my perams stable or I'll have two Red Problems.... lol

 

[bonomo53]

Thanks for the reply i believe my issue was my alk was a little low in the high 7s. I also noticed in the past few days that my bonsai didn't like the low alk either. Everything else seems fine with it.

 

[Piranhapat]

You believe ALK is low in the high 7. I would consider that pretty ideal. Did your Red Dragon have a good encrusted at bottom. Alk swing with a low nutrients can be a trigger for RTN.

 

[hybridazn]

The RD is a very crazy piece. I've heard of ppl having successful colonies for a very long time and just out of the blue it goes. It seems like any type of change really stresses it out. Mine for instance has been doing great for over a year, but last night I noticed that a few tips have bleached. I cut them off and inspected and the only thing I could think of was those few tips grew into the direct current of one of my mp40s. Such a touchy piece

 

[DFW]

I have a small piece of the red dragon acro. It recently stn'd when nothing else did. But it stopped before affecting the main part of the colony.

 

[afamousjohnson]

Crazy how everyone has that piece that just wont do it in their tank.

 

[joekool]

Yes, one of my more unstable SPS I keep. My current colony has gone through a few short term STN events and just now recovering from a near disastrous one where I lost over half and still a bit of STN going on. All the events were in reaction to low Alk or rapid Alk drops. The heartbreak of this past one is that the colony was around 8" x 12" and finally had that perfect turquoise base with the red and pink polyps. Now......... 5" x 6" and back to pinkish... oh well I'm sure in another 6 months will be a fine colony again.... if I don't try and kill it again. My Garf Bonsai's are the other sensitive in nature ones I have. In addition to 2-part dosing of 180ml of Alk and 160ml of Calcuim daily plus 2-3 gallons of super saturated Kalk ( 1g RO/DI +4 heaping teaspoons C. Hydroxide and 1/3 cup white vinegar) a week. In testing today numbers showed only 2.4 meq/7.6dkh , 380 Cal and 1380 Mg. so one more saturated gallon of Kalk and upped Alk on Doser to 210ml daily.


Cheers, Todd

P.S. My bad, even though I read the whole thread got Red Planet STUCK in my head. Waiting to receive some Red Dragon from JoeKool so better get my perams stable or I'll have two Red Problems.... lol

Hey it's growing nice too. Hope you don't make a mess of it. The few of them I have are beautiful. I think it's an alk thing that keeps them nice.

 

[jeremy]

Same here grew to a nice 5 inch colony and stn right in middle of colony. Then alot of frags I cut stn also. Now it's in higher flow and so far so good. I think stuff got caught up in tight branches and caused it. Hopefully the extra flow helps. I have it about a foot away from an mp40.

 

[Battlecorals Verified Sponsor]

IME acropora sometimes stn for seemingly no reason. But, there is usually always a reason though you probably will never know it. I have over 50 Acropora colonies and usually there are one or two that just aren't happy. And it changes all the time. As I'm sure you have heard before, stability in your parameters is most important, along with adequate lighting, flow and nutrition. Still it seems there will always be some stubborn Acro trying to die. I have a Hiller Aquamarine Jewel that starts to stn every 9 months or so in the three years I've had it. I've had to chop it up once or twice to keep a survivor or two. Good luck.…

Agree 100%. The unfortunate part is even when the other 50 or 100 or 500 acros are thriving we will focus solely on the one that's not happy.

As for the dragon. This seems to be pretty consistent behavior. I have had and lost numerous colonies all grown out from my first original frag over the years. No idea as to why other then my two word default answer

That's sps!

 

[Bpb]

I'm seeing a tend. I'll throw my name in the hat as well. Haven't had mine for long, so it is still a frag but it is the touchiest sps I've attempted by far. Mine was doing fine and actually growing quickly for a couple months. One day. My canopy fan finally went kaput. Noticed the temp got up to 80.5 (79.0 is usually as high as it ever gets), and when I replaced the fan and did a water change that evening, temp dropped down to 77 degrees. Next day red dragon STN about 1" up the base. Fragged it. Recovered. Back to it's original size.

Last night, got knocked loose off the rocks, fell to the sand. Picked it back up and reglue it the next morning, STN again about 1". I'm to the point that this coral is too irritating for me to worry about. I expect it to kick the bucket then if they're that sensitive. No other acro issues. And I keep echinata and Hyacinthus in the tank as well and they do fine. The red dragon is just so fragile, physically and temperamentally.