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SaltwaterTeen

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2004
Messages
379
Location
SE Idaho
I can see that my pocilliporas tissue is falling off the skeleton... the others are doing great, and my green stylo is recovering from when it had alittle glue on it. I dont know whats wrong with my pocillipora, maybe too much light? Its like 2 in from the waters surface, should I move it down?
 
Did you acclimate it to the new conditions in your tank (salinity, light, flow, etc.)?

Is it close to any corals that send out sweeper tenticles at night?

Is there any chemical warfare going on in your tank (softies mixed with SPS)? If yes, are you running carbon?

Was the poccilipora healthy when you got it?

In my experience, these are one of the hardiest of SPS. I have had them directly under a 250W MH bulb and at the bottom of the tank. Did well in both places, but I acclimated it to each place over time.

Find the cause, then solve that problem. You need to identify what is causing the problem before you start guessing at cures.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
its not close to any corals, and yes there is softies, no I dont run carbon,I did acclimate it also. THe green stylo is doing great as with the cap...
 
I posted pics on reefs.org and they said that the pocillipora has developed RTN they said that I need to frag off all the pieces that dont have the white developing and they will be saved.
 
SaltwaterTeen said:
I posted pics on reefs.org and they said that the pocillipora has developed RTN they said that I need to frag off all the pieces that dont have the white developing and they will be saved.

Maybe, you never know its worth a shot. I'd move them down a little after your done. The lower light may help them recover. RTN is caused by a broad range of problems. You still need to figure out what is going on or if it was just stressed from the acclimation.
How old are your bulbs. What skimmer do you have? What are your water params? How did you acclimate this coral? What lighting was it under before you got it?
Frag it and move on hopefully we can help you keep the others alive.

Don
 
I did an iodine dip. I did acclimate them. Skimmer is a seaclone Cal:450 Alk:4.5 Trite:0 Am:0 Trate:5 I currently have VHO's I think his name was paul or doug that sold it to me at the thai dinner. I dont know what lights they were under befor.
 
They were under MHs. How did you acclimate it??

Start fragging, RTN usually doesnt go away on its own


Mike
 
I already fragged them. The green stylo is doing good, its actually recovering from when I accidently got a spot of glue on it. I dripped aclimated them ;)
 
I suspect part of it is the light. Paul has very bright light in very clean water which equals high intensity. You have less intensity and the coral was a bit shocked.

Ironically, I have had much better luck with not drip acclimating and just putting the corals in the tank and just acclimating light levels. I have had a few corals that sloughed tissue when I tried to acclimated then water temp and salinity instead of just plunking them into the tank. Just my experience though.
 
Ive also nociced white tips on my green stylo, but it still has its polyps on it, is it just growing or do I have to worry? It looks the same as when I bought it ;)
 
You really need to take a close look at your tank and what you have done since adding that coral. If you haven't changed anything and it just went south, then maybe it is not as strong a specimen as the others that you received and they are also struggling, but are strong enough to survive. On the other hand, you could have something wrong in your tank (parameter out of whack, predator, irritant, etc.) that got that coral alone.

Like Mike said, frag that one and try to save what you can. Look for anything that has changed (salt mix, water change, addative change, temperature change, lighting, flow, anything that changed...this is why we all keep logs of our tanks...to track what caused good and bad things to happen). Pay careful attention to the other corals to make sure nothing else is happening with them. Look closely both with the lights on, as well as after they go out. Some things happen after the lights go out that you don't normally observe.

I'd double check your water parameters and run some carbon. Keep us posted if you find something that we can look into. Hope this is the only coral that this happens to for you. It's very upsetting...I know from experience.
 
I got two beautiful healthy corals once and after about three days in my tank one began to RTN. I was so new to fragging that I didn't know how to do it and the RTN got it killed in 24 hours. The other coral a Green Bali Slimer also started to RTN shorthly there after. This time I was ready after some reading on here and GARF.org. I fragged that puppy and did Iodine dips. I glued them to a rock and trashed the RTN pieces. My frags have doubled in size and I have not had anymore issues with RTN. I would frag yours and iodine dip. Move it away from any corals or if you have a quarantine tank move it to there. If it came from bright MHs to VHOs it may have stressed out. Kinda like you would freak out if you walked into a room that only had of half the oxygen you need to breath and then got locked in! :eek:

Do you have any power heads aimed directly at it? May have tissue blow off if you do.
 
I'm pretty sure it was just stressed from the road trip and tank changes. Before you invest in more coral, make sure the others are ok and growing. I would make a few changes in your system before getting more SPS.
Lighting, Calcium and alk to start with. Without actually seeing your system everyone can speculate all day long. It doesnt sound as if you truely understand your system and sps care. Do some more research, read books and articles!

Don
 
Ok, could I get a little hammer in my system though? They arent as much light demanders and cal demanders either
 
Hammers are pretty easy going corals in my experience. They do need calcium to build their skeletons, but to the same extent as SPS. A note on hammers though, is that they do send out sweeper tenticles, so keep your other corals away from its proximity to reduce the chances of the hammer stinging something to death or serious injury.

I would definitely start a log book if you haven't already to monitor your primary water parameters over time (i.e. salinity, ca, alk, temp...at the least). Also note things in the book like light bulb changes, water changes, supplement additions, etc. I try to track everything that I put into the tank so I know if there is a good/bad reaction I can see what I did. Just a suggestion for you.

If you really want to roll the dice and put the hammer in, go ahead. Personally, I would watch the tank for a couple weeks and make sure everything is stable and the rest of your corals are still healthy and happy. But you have to do what is right for you.

Good luck and be patient. It will all come together in time.
 

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