RTN?????? Acropora Death out of nowhere????

[JeezeReefs]

It’s been a sad night tonight... I went out for an hour and a half and came home to my teal shortcake acro with half of his flesh gone and skeleton exposed... I’m SO bummed, all of my sps have been looking great as of late and now i’m concerned that they’ll all die soon from RTN... This happened out of nowhere... All of my parameters are perfectly fine, nothing seems to be out of wack. What can i do to help prevent this and is there any chance of recovery????

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I feel your pain which I am dealing with the same thing. If your parameters are perfectly fine then there might be a sudden change such as temp or other aspects. Mine had a sudden change and I am dealing with it now.

as of how to save it, no clue. But I am just doing weekly water change and test.

 

[JeezeReefs]

I feel your pain which I am dealing with the same thing. If your parameters are perfectly fine then there might be a sudden change such as temp or other aspects. Mine had a sudden change and I am dealing with it now.

as of how to save it, no clue. But I am just doing weekly water change and test.

The most swing in temp i’ve had recently has been 2 degrees, but this is nothing new for my tank. I’ll have to look more into it. And i definitely plan on keeping up with weekly water changes as well. hopefully it does some good.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

What are your parameters and nutrient export methods? What all are you dosing?

 

[JeezeReefs]

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77 (waivers between 76-78)
pH: 8.2
Alk: 11dKH

I dose Kent Marine Calcium, Kent Marine Strontium & Molybdenum, Kent Marine Iodide, Kent Marine essential elements, Fluval Alkalinity (all once a week after a water change) and FUEL amino acid 2X a week

 

[BranchingHammer]

What are your nutrient levels? (Nitrate and phosphate)? Was there recently a swing in alkalinity? If your alkalinity consumption is high and you’re only replenishing alk once a week, there could be some pretty large swings... That’s really high alkalinity, which can be fine with a little higher nutrients, but if you’re nutrients are low this could be the cause. What test kits are you using to test? Are you using RODI water for water changes etc.? Have you recently checked the out coming tds of it if you do have it? Has there been a recent salinity swing? Sorry for all of the questions, I hope we get to the bottom of this!

 

[Albertan22]

RTN can also be the result of something that happened weeks ago.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77 (waivers between 76-78)
pH: 8.2
Alk: 11dKH

I dose Kent Marine Calcium, Kent Marine Strontium & Molybdenum, Kent Marine Iodide, Kent Marine essential elements, Fluval Alkalinity (all once a week after a water change) and FUEL amino acid 2X a week

Your alk is too high and you probably don’t need to be adding all of those additives if you’re doing weekly water changes. What is your no3/po4? Tank size and lighting? Nutrient export methods? Do you have an ro/di system or do you get your source water from a lfs?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Can we see some pics of the tank or other corals and some info on how long you have had this acro? I agree with the above and would not be dosing any of those elements if your tank is full of just new frags like the one that’s got necrosis. To me it looks like a new frag off a wild colony that shut down growth and something must have pushed it over the edge.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Can we see some pics of the tank or other corals and some info on how long you have had this acro? I agree with the above and would not be dosing any of those elements if your tank is full of just new frags like the one that’s got necrosis. To me it looks like a new frag off a wild colony that shut down growth and something must have pushed it over the edge.

I guess the OP figured it all out on their own

 

[JeezeReefs]

Can we see some pics of the tank or other corals and some info on how long you have had this acro? I agree with the above and would not be dosing any of those elements if your tank is full of just new frags like the one that’s got necrosis. To me it looks like a new frag off a wild colony that shut down growth and something must have pushed it over the edge.

Yeah, After reading all of these replies i realized i definitely didn’t need to be dosing calcium and alk. i think it was most likely an alkalinity swing which pushed it over the edge and i just started dosing a few weeks ago. I don’t think my corals were consuming it as fast as i thought they would. and it just wasn’t needed because i do weekly water changes. For now i’ll just stick to essential elements and aminos to help with coloration.

 

[JeezeReefs]

Can we see some pics of the tank or other corals and some info on how long you have had this acro? I agree with the above and would not be dosing any of those elements if your tank is full of just new frags like the one that’s got necrosis. To me it looks like a new frag off a wild colony that shut down growth and something must have pushed it over the edge.

Yeah, After reading all of these replies i realized i definitely didn’t need to be dosing calcium and alk. i think it was most likely an alkalinity swing which pushed it over the edge and i just started dosing a few weeks ago. I don’t think my corals were consuming it as fast as i thought they would. and it just wasn’t needed because i do weekly water changes. For now i’ll just stick to essential elements and aminos to help with coloration.

Some pics of the tank with my Acropora removed:

 

[Daddy-o]

How old is your reef?

 

[JeezeReefs]

Your alk is too high and you probably don’t need to be adding all of those additives if you’re doing weekly water changes. What is your no3/po4? Tank size and lighting? Nutrient export methods? Do you have an ro/di system or do you get your source water from a lfs?

Agreed. Thank you for all your help! i have a 13.5 gal nano and my lighting is current orbit PRO. I buy my water from a local fish store and top off with RO as needed. I use Phosgaurd and Chemipure too keep those two in check. I’m planning on testing no3/po4 tomorrow along with all my other levels.

 

[JeezeReefs]

How old is your reef?

4 months

 

[JeezeReefs]

Also: After doing a 40% water change 3 days ago i was able to bring alk down to around 9. I’ve been keeping an eye on my monti, and it’s showing no signs of RTN right now, i’m hoping this will help.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Yeah, After reading all of these replies i realized i definitely didn’t need to be dosing calcium and alk. i think it was most likely an alkalinity swing which pushed it over the edge and i just started dosing a few weeks ago. I don’t think my corals were consuming it as fast as i thought they would. and it just wasn’t needed because i do weekly water changes. For now i’ll just stick to essential elements and aminos to help with coloration.

You don’t need the essential elements either. I would ditch the phosguard as well, I lost many Acroporas the one time I tried it a couple years ago. You should consider investing in your 5 stage r/o system as lfs quality is not very reliable. I’m not familiar with the orbit light but I have doubts it will provide enough energy to keep Acropora alive.

 

[JeezeReefs]

You don’t need the essential elements either. I would ditch the phosguard as well, I lost many Acroporas the one time I tried it a couple years ago. You should consider investing in your 5 stage r/o system as lfs quality is not very reliable. I’m not familiar with the orbit light but I have doubts it will provide enough energy to keep Acropora alive.

Okay thanks for the advice, it’s much appreciated. I’ll make sure to do that. as for RO systems, are there any that you would recommend? I’ve heard many success stories of people keeping some hardy sps varieties under this light, but i agree to a certain extent, i’m looking to upgrade to an AI prime by the end of the month to make sure i’m getting the best growth and coloration in my corals.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Any of the 4 or 5 stage brs systems should work well. I used a 4 stage for years. Is your orbit the 4100 model or 4101?

 

[JeezeReefs]

Okay thanks, 4100