Acropora questions

zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
hey guys,
I have started trying some acro frags with my new 65...I'm wondering....some of them aren't looking so good, while some are looking far better than when i picked em up.
What does it mean when the color literally like peals off of them...and then it's just a clear/white skeleton where it used to be? I have seen this happen very quickly in some cases...as little as hours.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
that is RTN rapid tissue nerosis
basically the corals dies off in a rapid manner leaving its skeleton behind....
depends on the corals u have and tanks conditions
can u tell me what kind of acros they are or pics of them and then what kind of conditions u have in the tank.... such as flow, lighting, water parameters
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
i'll try to get the pics up as soon as i can....can't find batteries for the camera. lol, i've got pics of a couple of them before the RTN started killin them...i have 2x150 Mh and two sieo 1100's and a mag 7 for return
 
05xrunner

05xrunner

Active Member
I have had 2 frags do that to me. But my other 9 colonies are just fine. There was no reason to why it happened. They might have been going when I got them. I dont think they had them more then a day in the store. I think thats one of the reason Acro is tough. Things like this that happen where you just cant figure it out. You got good water, good flow, good light yet they still die.
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
yeah definitely, and with parameters, my trates are like 10. But havent been existent for even a week. Can they heal from this?
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
acros go through alot they get stressed very easily comapred to other corals
shipping is one major factor... other corals like softies and LPS ship alot better and are more tolerant of changes in temp and other things etc....
ive had pieces RTN b4 outta the blue....
all u can do is try to provide them a good house to live in research there needs first and try to meet them... look for healthy pieces dont buy anything with die off already in existance
as far as water goes u wanna try to get around the following....
lots of light metal halide is best
flow 25x's plus turnover
temp 78-82 stability being the key
alk 7-10 dkh once again stability is a major factor with alk
calcium 400-450
magnesium 1250-1500
nitrates nitrites ammonia and phosphates all undetectable would be ideal.... sps like prestine clean water
ph well around 8-8.3 is fine even lower like on my tank sicne i use a calcium reactor it holds down the Ph
anyways try to give them what they need and the rest is chance over time u will get to know what sps corals u have better luck with.... from my experience try to stay away from wild colnoies until u feel comfortable with what ur doing... keep clear of very compact and thick corals at first.... open thin branching corals seem to fair better and are easier to care for at first
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
Thanks for the expert information Murph, can the lost tissue grow back? or it is completely dead skeleton?
 
volcom69

volcom69

Member
Not many people know more or less its due to some kind of stress, but whats weird is i had a big sps colony in my tank forever and it just got rtn for some reason never could find out why though.
 
mopar9012

mopar9012

Active Member
I had one of my frags died, but all my others ones that i got around the same time are doing fine. But Im not buying anymore for a while so I know for sure. I dont think the LFS had it in good water conditon though, they had recieved the frags on accident.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
the main thing that causes RTN IMO starts back at collection and shipping.... they stress out so much and the tissue just peels off at a high rate of speed and the only thing u can do is frag off the good sections in hope of saving some of it....
there is no one known reason corals RTN but when it happens it happens fast so u have to be preparred to frag it...
when picking new corals at the LFS check them out thoroughly to make sure there is no die off and they look healthy with nice coloration and good polyp extension... lots of times people will buy unhealthy ones not knowing of there own and then if there tank is not 100% perfect in conditions these corals will perish within a week or two after placing into your tank
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
Well I have a job at my LFS, and I have just recently been given the priveledge to go down to the wholesalers and pick corals/fish myslef....and I'm noticing that they all look good (never buy any with dead tissue or polyps that arent fully extended)...so no visual signs at the time of the purchases...But its hard to knwo what you're really getting because they never have a coral in their facility for more than a couple days. Oh well...guess i just better find another wholesaler.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
yeah ive had pretty good luck from going to the wholesalers... id try sticking with aquacultured pieces for now
 
zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
Okay, sorry but just remembered one more question, lol. Say i see RTN on only one branch of a show size piece, can i just frag off the infected branch? I mean I know i can, but would that perhaps help to keep it from spreading to the rest of the acro?
 
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