RTN Birdsnest Help

[Craigdillman]

Wondering what i can do to prevent or whats going on with this RTN of a birdsnest colony. Noticed last night some white on the tips and one branch of the coral it was at night so didn't think much of it. Today my wife sent me pictures of the colony and i told her to take it off and by the time i got home over half of it was gone.

Nothing else effected, no changes but normal 25G WC 2 days ago and GFO change. possibly the other colony stung it but should cause whole colony death. Haven't added any new corals in over a month,

Paramaters

Calcium -380 bit on the low side
Mag - 1175
Alk-7.5-8
Phos- 0.09 hanna checker
Nitrates - undetectable
Salinity 1.025
temp 81

Nothing else changed kinda sucks this colony was over a year old grew from frag size











All this happened in less than 24 hours? any idea what happened ?


Thanks
Craig

[spit.fire]

birdsnest can rtn? lol

tbh there isnt generally a know cause of rtn, it happens to the best of us,

[NIVLEM09]

I actually just fragged my colony of RR red dragon today.it STNd and was just left with three decent size frags.

[Craigdillman]

That sucks hate stuff in this hobby that just happens and can't be prevented, never really had a coral die like this that wasn't stung by the bubble tip or fell off or anything remotely preventable

[gregzz4]

Wow, sorry to see your colony bail out like that
Hopefully your clippings will create a new colony for you in short order

As for an answer to your RTN, I don't have any helpful input

[Craigdillman]

Well just before the lights went out I noticed my purple validia colony showings signs of the same thing the birdsnest did on the same side that was close to the other colony so I went to work chopped off two huge arms that were melting and super glued them,

My theory is they got to close and stung each other then both RTNed cause it started from the part that was almost touching (probably was ) so hopefully I can save this colony, checked my parameters and everything looks good no other colony's affected

Salinity 1.025
Phosphate 0.10
Calcium 420
Alk 7
Mag 1175 (still )
Nitrate 0ppm

Well hope this is the end of it, hate this hobby sometimes, hate when I can't control or didn't do anything to get this, I could see if I messed up a WC or didn't qt or screwed up dosing but random RTN is kinda sucky lol

Cheers pics tomorrow

[michaelis88]

looks like got stung to me, but could be somthing wrong with the water. make sure the test kit is still dicent within the exp date. If your using API could be way off too.the best thing u can do now is to frag them into pieces to stop the infection.
hope good luck with the rest of them

[denny_C]

Originally Posted by Craigdillman

Well just before the lights went out I noticed my purple validia colony showings signs of the same thing the birdsnest did on the same side that was close to the other colony so I went to work chopped off two huge arms that were melting and super glued them,

My theory is they got to close and stung each other then both RTNed cause it started from the part that was almost touching (probably was ) so hopefully I can save this colony, checked my parameters and everything looks good no other colony's affected

Salinity 1.025
Phosphate 0.10
Calcium 420
Alk 7
Mag 1175 (still )
Nitrate 0ppm

Well hope this is the end of it, hate this hobby sometimes, hate when I can't control or didn't do anything to get this, I could see if I messed up a WC or didn't qt or screwed up dosing but random RTN is kinda sucky lol

Cheers pics tomorrow

going by the numbers have you stopped dosing alk?

7 is getting a bit on the low side doesnt leave alot of room for error

[Craigdillman]

Yea after the last WC I noticed the alk was low might have to start dosing that and calcium cause I think my tank is starting to suck it outa the water

I'm thinking I can get the levels back in the parameters then maybe start kalk hey?

[denny_C]

Originally Posted by Craigdillman

Yea after the last WC I noticed the alk was low might have to start dosing that and calcium cause I think my tank is starting to suck it outa the water

I'm thinking I can get the levels back in the parameters then maybe start kalk hey?

you can do kalk for sure nothing wrong with that product , if your dropping 1 dkh a day then youll need to start dosing to keep it stable , 1 dkh drop isnt horrible and expected but if its dropping like this over a week then brought back up and this repeats then the benefit of dosing isnt quite what it could be and creates instability.

i would for now dose bicarbonate and leave your calcium alone , calculate what your corals are consuming over a week long period and adjust your alk dosing to supply this need.

calcium is another story , small dose arnt going to be horribly noticable or effective on our crappy tests so youll end up chasing a unstable number on small amounts , once alk levels are stable and doseing is figured then look at bringing up your calcium and keeping it there.

once both are brought to ideal range then consumption will be am exact ratio with each other ( 20ppm of CA : 2.8 dkh) now you can dose exactly what you need , thus parameters will stay in line.

this will lower the chances of stn and rtn as well.

with a low alk like yours dropping po4 too fast using phosphate binding medias can result in rtn( or so it goes) as generally po4 is a part of your total alkalinity it is dropped slightly inline with gfo.