Corals RTN for no reason?

Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
#1
Anyone having issues with sps rtn'ing for no reason? Nothing has changed on my system over the past 3 months except for the weekly 35g wc. All of a sudden i am starting to lose my birdsnest and hydnophora to rtn. Skimmer is working as normal, changing out carbon every 28-30 days. I feed NLS pellets to my watchman goby. All of my livestock is happy, healthy, and growing. I havent seen any fluctuations in anything other than the normal ph swings from day to night. All of my macros are growing fine, not going asexual. The only thing i can think of that has changed has been the weather. I run ro/di with dual ro membrane and use microbelift/fritz salt.

Alk 9.6
Calc 420
ph 7.8-8.0
amm 0
trite 0
trate 0
Mag 1550
Temp - 78.4 - 79.1
 
D

djkms

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
#2
You probably looked at them funny one day without realizing it.

I hate SPS.

Almost all my acros got burnt tips a week ago. Now, I am trying to save what I can but most my colonies are RTN'n. No rhyme or reason. Only thing I can figure is my alk creeped up over 9dkh when I normally keep it around 8.5.

Finicky little bastages.....
 
D

djkms

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
#4
Now that I look at your numbers what is your PO4 at?

If NO3 and PO4 are both reading 0 most would consider that ULNS. Typically when you run low nutrients you want to keep your dKH low (7-8max). With a reading of 9.6 that could be your issue however this typically causes burnt tips and not RTN.
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#5
#5
Hydnophora and birstnest are RTN'ing? I had no idea that they could even do that.

How big is your system? What kind of lights are you using?
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
#6
Only some SPS get burnt tips - austera (most torts) come to mind. Typically, the N and P have to be at 0 for this to even be a factor.
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
#8
In addition to tank size and lights, how important are the SPS to you? I can suggest things that will make SPS happier that most mixed tanks don't get, but they might not be worth it.

Also, do you use the Microbe sea salt or the reef salt? They say that their sea salt should not be used in a reef. They also appear to add carbon to the reef salt, so this might have unknowing driven your levels really low, especially if you dose carbon on your own. Regardless of which salt you use, do you use a bucket, or a bag? Do you blend the salt before you use it to avoid settling? This can be really important when making small batches.
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
#9
as it sits i have a 65 frag flat with coral rubble as substrate. It has a 6line, a mandarin, and 2 emerald crabs along with a bunch of trochus snails. All doing great. Lighting is a nova exrtreme slr with 4 coral plus and 2 reefbrite blue led strips. Leds are on for 8 hours, t5s are on for 5 hours with a 2 hour peak. I did change the bulbs with the group buy from GW but havent seen any bleaching due to new lighting. All corals are full of color and polyp extension. Cali and oregon tortes are both doing fabulous. all chalices are growing well with great color. I have no algae growth that i can see.

I have a 55g refugium with 2" sandbed, about 15lbs live rock, and a bunch of macro algae. It contains an algae blenny, a yellow watchman, a tiger pistol, a conch, a pom pom crab, a basket starfish, nassarius snails, and trochus snails. All doing great. Lighting is 2 par30 led and a coralife t5 strip light.

I have a 46g sump with a nac7 and 2 heaters, all working fine.

I am not running gfo or dosing anything yet.
 
K

kutcha

Anthias
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
#10
that might be the issue you havent bee ndosing and there is no nutrition in your salt so the birdsnest is super stressed and RTNing
 
Smiley

Smiley

Nurse Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#12
#12
heres one problem..... test kit fail! took a sample into work and my nitrates are 5.0. everything else is same. not sure how i have high nitrates as i dont feed a lot and i do weekly wc. Also unsure why all acros are fine but birdsnest are not....
 
S

subpotentjoe

Goby
#13
#13
1. I think sps can get bacterial infections that we cant see nor do we know much about. Random RTN is just like when chalice corals start to recede or palys close up and melt for no reason. I would frag them up and trash the rtn part before something bacterial potentially spreads. You could try more flow on those particular corals also to get some extra oxygen to them. I have had sps, lps and softies all rtn, recede, bleach, melt for no reason. All water params were normal. Other similar corals were not affected. IME if its sps and RTN frag it and toss the RTN'd portion. Dip the sps in a weaker than normal lugols or coral rx. Put them in high flow then dip them in the recomended potency like a week or two later. If its lps cut the dead skeleton away and dip like normal. I also put them in lower light but higher flow. Zoas/palys- once they start melting I can never bring them back no matter what I do.

2. I had a crazy hitchhiker once. They only came out at night from the sandbed. Their sting was absolute death to any coral they touched. I had to start the tank over because of them. They looked like this

http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&h...=211&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:0,i:106

They werent aiptasia though. It was some type of hydroid or jellyfish schyphostome. Check your tank out late at night when the lights are out and there may be something stinging those particular corals,
 
J

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#14
#14
Birdsnest and hydnophora are like weeds - 5 of N should not be a problem for them.

You might just have to chalk this up to just bad luck.
 
DyM

DyM

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#18
#18
If anyone needs birds nest, let me know, grows like a weed for me and need to thin it out.
 
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