@#^%& - RTN attack

[RockyHeap]

Okay, I'm under assault, the enemy RTN is showing himself, and I'm having to whack and frag to save sloughing colonies of misc SPS.

So what to do now? Put yourself in my shoes. What would you do?

Tank is a 5 year old long term establish 135 gallon reef, full of 250 pounds of live rock and a 3" sand bed.

Salinity 1.027, Temp 78-80 average, Still need to test for Calc/Alc but I dose ESV Bi-ionic and the calc has always been rock stable.

Haven't changed anything and tank otherwise is doing great (haven't measured yet but I may a bit high phosphorus due to a 3 year old sand bed)

and then one SPS ( 2 month old purple tipped frag from the recent PSAS frag party) starts sloughing off, and BAM suddenly 2 more 3-4" SPS go full white over night from RTN.

I'm now seeing white patches showing up on a few other SPS, and am having to break off the infected branches in order to save the main colonies.

So something is out of whack, what to do?

Just as a shot of hope, (and its about the only safe reef treatment I've used before for cyano or other problems), is an anti-bacterial pill dosing of Maracyn.

I've got something sweeping through my tank, and I feel my other 20+ SPS may be next.

So what to do other than fresh water changes? I don't like to do major water changes as I feel this can even stress out a coral that is already weak. I do about 12 gallon water changes most of the time.

Raise or lower salinity? Temp? Keep up the water flow and full skimming? Blast 'em with more light or less?

or just leave my bloomin' hands out of the tank and not horse the water chemistry around.

RTN, it ain't nobody's friend. Makes my Antipasta anemones seem like a blessing!!!

 

[zeltar]

Sorry for my ignorance but what is RTN?

 

[esmith]

Rapid tissue necrosys. This is when corals get an infection and begin slowly dieing off in certain areas, these areas become bleached white. If left uncontrolled, the coral will continue to die off until the whole piece/colony is dead. The worst part about this is that it can spread to other corals around it.

HTH,

Eliyah

 

[SueT]

Rocky, I think I'd leave all the water params. the same. Including lighting, flow etc. The more you change the more this may stress what these acropora are used to. I have not heard of the maracyn used before but if you know it has worked in others sps tanks then I sure would try it. Sounds like this is moving too fast to try to super glue over the affected spots.

Sorry to not be of more help. I hate the helpless feeling crap like this leaves you feeling. I think I'd try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as you can. Realistically, of course you want to try to save as much as you can and so I'd do what I could.

 

[MtnDewMan]

Dave

As you know my tank has been through that big time ... Your tank is 5 years with a 3" bed? Do you know if your bed is saturated? Mikey had me do some phosphate tests just below the surface of the bed to see if the bed is leaching out phosphates. If it is, then there are likely issues arising from your bed to the water column that you are having a very difficult time detecting.

Maybe Mike will jump in and give you a clue to what I am talking about ... :lol:

I hope things slow down for you and the RTN stops soon. Good Luck

 

[mojoreef]

Damm Rocky not a good thing. Right now you dont need to worry about the the tank, just concentrate on the RTN. as mentioned above it will go from one colony to another. Keep hacking of the braches that are showing signs, dont be stingy either, take some good tissue with the bad. Do you have a UV by chance?? or use of one??, that may help the spread. Cranks the skimmer up and go wet with it, a little carbon will help with the bacteria migration.
I would do a series of tests on what you can to find what the original source is came from. with that frag being ok for a couple of weeks I wouldnt think it came in that route, must be some kind of paraameter swing or an abnormal event.


Mike

 

[Salsaking]

RTN Sucks

Carbon, Carbon, and more Carbon. The good stuff. Seams to work everytime. It definetely helps. Had RTN Recently on a couple of frags. Threw in a couple of bags of quality carbon and bam RTN stopped in its tracks. I did nothing else. Try it! It wont hurt anything.

Salsaking

 

[RockyHeap]

THANKS guys.

I'll get some carbon at lunchtime and run it all weekend along with some PhosGuard maybe.

Sigh.......

Really this sucks. This tank is rock stable being a larger size and fully loaded crammed full of SPS / LPS / Softies. All the other corals are fully extended and thriving, but this RTN is nasty.

Yup, one coral will blow out, then several close by colonies will be gone in 24-48 hours if you don't snip off the infected branch.


I need to get a phosphate test, but I'm still a believer in a DSB, and 250#'s of live rock helps keep my Ammonia/Nitrates/Nitrates at 0/0/0 for over several years, I've got lots of crabs/snails, and several brittle stars, and sea cuc's that keep the sand bed stirred up.

It may be time to pull the sandbed, but I'm not ready to jump on that bandwagon "yet".

Rainy Seattle Weekends are great times for quality reefing care.

I'll go for more current, I've got some fresh 10K bulbs to slowly brighten them up and give them a treat of new sunshine, add some carbon, and do slow and moderate water changes.

I find most often we're our own worse enemy when it comes to trying magic cures and yanking our water chemistry around. I go slow, and try to ride out the dips and valleys of reef keeping.

 

[ggarner]

i would slowly lower your salinity to 1.025 over the next week... 1.027 is a little high for a reef in my opinion

 

[G~]

what is your alk? i have heard that low alk can cause RTN. i mean low alk compared to the Ca levels.

not good to have alk at 2.0 when the Ca is near 550. the corals use these in equal amounts when building skeletons.

G~

 

[Elmo18]

I'd follow Salsaking's advice and put some carbon in. Had a RTN even this past summer with a couple frags, dumped in Kent carbon, and yeah it stopped. However, I did do a 10 gallon water change in my 75 gal, but not sure if that helped at all.

- Elmo

 

[cubera]

Uh Oh

I can feel your pain.....Sucks when this happens. All suggestions listed seem very good IMHO, especially immediate and generous amputations of affected parts. Might consider checking top off water quality if you have not done so already. Agree 027 is a bit high but probably not the source of what sounds more like STN than RTN....Carbon and judicious water changes are always a good plan. If you have access to Ozone or good UV try it. Somtimes decreasing photoperiods and tank temp will slow down whatever is going on but could make it worse.....Last event I had like this was caused by a lighting change and too much Ozone...they got 02 toxic and this caused a real RTN....lost 70% of all Acropora in the system. Could watch a colony white out in a an hour or less. Of course, I panicked and did a bunch of stupid things. Made matters worse. Figured out what I did to cause the problem weeks later. I admire your patience!!! Many lessons learned from that expensive catastrophy. Had another similar problem that seemed to get one colony at a time one branch at a time. This was caused by a bad RO membrane. Had another problem like yours I caused by squirting too much lemon juice in the Aptasias Please share how everything works out for you and what you think may have caused it. Out of curiosity, what kind of substrate is your DSB?