RTN in established corals?

[Mihai]

I had a nice encrusting Madracis coral - my only hitchhicker coral. It survived a tough curing process and 6 months of NO lights, the transition to MH lights and it more than tripled in size (about 3" diameter) since I got it. Yesterday, without any warrning it RTN-ed. Completely in one day - I was busy during the day, and when I fed the tank in the evening I noticed that he was all a brown gelo mass floating 1mm above the all white skeleton.

He wasn't my most beautiful coral, but it was my first and only hitchhicker and I was sort of attached to it. The only other time I had a coral RTN was with a frag of Montipora Capricornis. I thought that only new corals can RTN as they may be shocked by the change in the systems's lightning, pH, salinity, etc... but this guy was around for more than 1.5 years...

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Any SPS can RTN. One of the scary things about investing so much money in them.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, the M cap in my avatar was huge, I had it for several years, then rising phosphates caused it to loose all of it's tissue one day. Just like that, it was all gone, just a skeleton.

 

[Ben1]

It has more do do with stability then anything else. It must be from some slight switch in one or more parameters. Maybe the alk just got a bit low, or a slight swing in pH. It can be caused by stinging from other corals, something falling on them, tempature swings, or just general stress. Maybe the flow changed recently, who knows.

Thats why I am trying my best to fool proof my SPS system where parameters are very stable.

 

[Mihai]

Ben it is a combination of small things: one polyp did was under a branch of digitata for about 1-2 days and didn't like it, and my Alk did get slightly lower (as I didn't supplement during the last two weeks). And my temperature went from 82 to 84. None of those were firsts, it's either the combination, or one polyp got sick and all of them went. All other corals and the BTA are looking good so far.

M.

 

[K9coral]

Could you post a pic or maybe tell me where to get one?

 

[Mihai]

A pic of the RTN-ed coral? I sucked out the jello, now it's just the white skeleton, like any other dead SPS.

M.[/img]

 

[Anonymous]

Happened to me with a reasonably well established millepora. I put it down to the fact I'd got it as a largish colony, so maybe the flow wasn't sufficient to completely eliminate dead spots.

Next time I set up a tank I intend to do it entirely with frags, so they grow to fit the flow.

Not that this seems to have been your problem, mind... :?