guri

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Recently I had RTN on my Acropa staghorn coral almost lost the colony thanks my friend send me from Europe Chloramphenicol antibiotic I did two times bath with it and now my coral is ok
I just wanna ask you guys what u know about these issue and how u deal with it.As far as I know this is major problem for us reef keepers
 

DCG1286

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yes i know to increase flaw change water but its not helping frequently eventually you have to frag the colony thats the solution??? share your experience how you are fixing it

Fragging the colony ... is not a solution ... you hopefully will be able to salvage as much of the colony as you can ... but what's left may continue to RTN until you have nothing left. If anything ever RTN's ... I try to cut just above the infected area ... but like I said there are no guarantees. :)
 

tosiek

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have you checked your Po4 and mag levels along with alk/calcium? Just doing a water change because something is wrong in your tank won't automatically fix things. You check for bugs or flatworms? They can cause the coral to stress out and RTN as well. Most times RTN is caused by flow, but any of your water parameters can cause it. As well as other things.

Corals don't just RTN randomly. There is a reason the coral is RTNing. Find that out and your coral will stop RTN. And the antibiotic treatment might not have worked as it might not have been bacterial.

As far as stopping that already RTNing coral from RTNing, you need to first fix the problem thats causing it, then either frag whats healthy ABOVE the dead tissue, or glue the area thats peeling away. It will buy you some time before you lose the whole colony.
 

Bob 1000

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Also rapid drops in phosphate like adding bnew granular ferric oxide will cause this to happen also.. If you do a water change right after the phosphate media change or a couple hours later I was told by Jim but I might have screwed up the water change process he described to me... Check with him..
 

tosiek

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Gluing does work on acro's. Its not too porous. Glue from the dead white acro skeleton up past the dying tissue and it will stop the necrosis for a while.

If you fix the problem causing the RTN and try to save whats RTNing your going to cure the coral, and it will grow back in time. RTN tissue will stop from dying most times but your clean up crew will destroy the rest of the coral usually.

There is no magic product as so many things can cause it. Your treatment with the antibiotic dip was pure luck as you had no idea that it was actually bacterial. If something else caused the RTN you might have sped up the process putting it through that dip, maybe further stressing the coral. The antibiotic dip you put the coral in doesn't "cure" every RTN that happens, just bacterial based ones, which you took a shot in the dark and it worked.

I can guarantee you that if you don't find what RTN'ed that coral your "cured" with the antibiotic, something will RTN again soon. And you will try the dip again and it might not work.
 
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jackson6745

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Also rapid drops in phosphate like adding bnew granular ferric oxide will cause this to happen also.. If you do a water change right after the phosphate media change or a couple hours later I was told by Jim but I might have screwed up the water change process he described to me... Check with him..

Tobin GFO also causes a rapid drop in your alkalinity which is more likely the culprit......although I have never experienced RTN from ALK swings over the past 10 years when so many other guys say they have.

In my experience RTN was almost always caused by a build up of nutrients, specifically phosphates. I found SPS to be quite tolerable of swings in temp, alk, cal, mg, and salinity. Of course extreme parameters will cause RTN and IME shocking a coral with too much light will also cause RTN.


I am not sure how to stop RTN. I usually just frag the coral and hope some pieces survive. I also like to give out frags to other reefers to improve the chances of the coral surviving.
 
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Let's be carefully here. RTN implies RAPID tissue necrosis, not gradual slow decline. classic RTN events can wipe out entire colonies and entire tanks in a matter of hours. As noted above any number of stressors can weaken a coral making it vulnerable to bacterial or viral infections. Many years ago Craig Bingman sent tissue samples from RTNing corals off for analysis and the pathogen was found to be Vibrio vulnificus and the treatment he devised was in fact a chloremphenicol bath.

Here is an old article that discusses this and other possible causes.

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0498/0498_2.html
 

emmanuel

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I had a colony of aqua delight years ago that was RTNing and after watching a huge colony turn to almost nothing I cut what was left and like magic the cut part did great .I changed nothing in the tank to this day I dont know what happened but I know fragging it saved it
 

guri

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in the book (The reef aquarium volume two )I found small article about RTN and I fallowed Dr. Bingman’s recommendation how to use Chloramphenicol bath.
The affected colony I put in an isolated tank ( actually it was 5g bucket) use a power head for water circulation and gas exchange also added heater and didn’t use air stone in order to avoid producing an aerosol of bacteria and antibiotic. Before placing the coral I did full-strength Lugol’s solution dip for 30 min .After I did 25 mg of Chloramphenicol per liter I kept 3 days changing 100% of water every day and after 4 days did same but used only 10 mg and for two days.
My colony is safe now I don’t know what was a cause, I checked water the condition is good I can say even perfect after using red turf algae in my sump.
PRATTREEF thanks for your article.
 
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guri

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im getting emails from guy who are asking where to get Chloramphenicol it is sold online stores like petfooddirect.com and some other stores but if you get it from Europe ( liquid or ointment forms ) you have to distill and remove other ingredients by yourself (have to use chemical apparatus ) or do it some other way.
unfortunately response for my thread was from amateurs not from experienced reef keepers i was expecting so i came to this site very rear sorry for late response
 

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