RTN

jgarcia08 · Dec 6, 2019

Like the title says, came in this afternoon to clean my glass and to my surprise my red planet was losing tissue from the base up, I frag the coral and left the healthy part. Wish I took a picture for reference. Anyways tested my water and everything seems to fall in place.
Alk:9.6
Cal: 430
Mag:1600
The mag seems a little higher then normal and the wierd thing is that I have not dose any mag lately. Everything comes from only water changes. The last water change was about 2 weeks. Using reef crystal for salt.
Also the coral seem happy full polyp extension even when it was losing the tissue. The rest of my sps seem fine for now. I will be doing a water change tomorrow first thing. Anyways posting this here to share my experience and hoping some of you can give me some insight of your experiences on this topic. Happy reefing.

Flippers4pups · Dec 6, 2019

Age of tank? Pictures would have been helpful, but that's okay.

Rtn usually starts as a stress event. Sometimes fragging away the dieing tissue saves them, sometimes it's too late. Numerous causes, temp, lighting, water parameters....

Starting at the bottom could be shadowing , lack of light, bacterial....

How big of a piece of planet are we talking about?

Backreefing · Dec 6, 2019

Nutrients are suspect number one . ReefCrystals makes high alkalinity. I’m surprised it’s only 9.6 . That stuff mixes up to 13 DKH. Test for phosphate and nitrates. 0= troubles.
it sucks you lost a red Planet.

jgarcia08 · Dec 6, 2019

Here is a photo of the red planet. It was a mini colony not big by any means. It did started at the bottom and it did have lots of shadowing. That could of been the reason for this issue. I know it was rtn because the previous day was not like this. I will be testing my phosphates and nitrates tomorrow. The tank is fairly new less then 6 months old. But I did stated with some mature lr from a local reefer. I had this mini colony for the past 3 months and been thriving like the rest of my sps. However I did notice color change turn greenish after it started encrusting and recently it was getting the pinkish color back. I could blame it at light maybe temp fluctuation. Everything else seems fine tho. Hoping everything stays that way.

Backreefing · Dec 7, 2019

I personally have had to ditch deathcrystals salt mix for Red Sea blue bucket. The alkalinity was to high with ReefCrystals. For a small water change or lps and or fish only it’s fine . But SPS need stable alkalinity, can’t be dropping in 13-15 DKH in the aquarium. Sheesh.
but forRTN I would look at nutrients. Also you aren’t useing GFO ? A well known coral killer . Good luck

DMG Reef · Dec 7, 2019

Do you dip your corals? When I was battling AEFW, the affected acros would start STN at the base but would still have great polyp extension. Having the red planet for 3 months is about the expected time frame for flatworms to start showing damage. Just a thought. Good luck.

jgarcia08 · Dec 9, 2019

Backreefing said:
I personally have had to ditch deathcrystals salt mix for Red Sea blue bucket. The alkalinity was to high with ReefCrystals. For a small water change or lps and or fish only it’s fine . But SPS need stable alkalinity, can’t be dropping in 13-15 DKH in the aquarium. Sheesh.
but forRTN I would look at nutrients. Also you aren’t useing GFO ? A well known coral killer . Good luck

I did added GFO about two weeks ago since I had a problem with red slime at my same bed.

Kattkrazie said:
Do you dip your corals? When I was battling AEFW, the affected acros would start STN at the base but would still have great polyp extension. Having the red planet for 3 months is about the expected time frame for flatworms to start showing damage. Just a thought. Good luck.

Thanks for the tip, I will more vigilant and on the lookout for these critters, I do dip all my coral but you never know. I wish I had a quarantine tank.

jgarcia08 · Dec 9, 2019

Backreefing said:
I personally have had to ditch deathcrystals salt mix for Red Sea blue bucket. The alkalinity was to high with ReefCrystals. For a small water change or lps and or fish only it’s fine . But SPS need stable alkalinity, can’t be dropping in 13-15 DKH in the aquarium. Sheesh.
but forRTN I would look at nutrients. Also you aren’t useing GFO ? A well known coral killer . Good luck

Good to know since I haven't tested the alk when I make my fresh saltwater. I will make the switch since I use red sea trace elements either way. I did add GFO since I had issues with a little red slime on the sand bed and the GFO seem to fix the issue. I will probably just take it offline either way.