SPS suck

[AndyL]

So anyone care to explain how to avoid RTN?

Thought I was doing really good, my dozen or so frags were starting to colour up again, and were looking good. 3 of nicer milli's were growing noticeably each week...

Then @ lights on this morning, those 3 millis were pure white. Didn't seem to effect the others..

Why would all the millis (save one - of course it wasn't anything overly nice even before it hit the tank) have RTN'd? Nothing changed, nothing dosed.

Andy

[OCDP]

Andy, I hear ya man. SPS can be such a pain in the arse. I have had several (nice) frags and colonies RTN on me overnight. I hadn't changed anything nor added anything. I really don't know the cause, but it has to be some kind of change in water chemistry or something... either that or it's just a mystery

[christyf5]

I think thats the million dollar question Its the wierdest thing how random it all is, yet so selective sometimes (ie. just millis in your case). Sometimes I think SPS will RTN if you look at them funny.

[WaterLogged]

what does RTN mean?

Sorry to hi-jack....

[christyf5]

Rapid Tissue Necrosis. The tissue pretty much just melts or dissolves off of the coral in a matter of hours, leaving a white skeleton behind. Sometimes it can be due to water quality, temperature or lighting, other times its just random and nobody can figure it out.

[danny zubot]

And the problem is that it can happen so fast that it doesn't even give you time to figure out why it happens. I've lost many randomly chosen frags to RTN, thankfully no colonies though.

[Delphinus]

I'm pretty much with Christy on the "you looked at it wrong two weeks ago" theory. I'm sure it can be traced back to a reason but it just seems so darn random. And it travels in packs of 2 or 3 too, or so it seems. I.e., if you lose one you'll surely lose another.

[Canadbis]

Excuse the Newbe in this case, but would the SPS recover from this?

[OCDP]

Nope. It's super hard to save an RTN'ing SPS coral. The only chance of survival is to frag off where the tissue is not coming off. Then pray for the best.... but once all the tissue is gone, you have nothing but a skeleton, and I am pretty darn sure they don't come back to life .. it sucks.

[christyf5]

RTN is one of those things you don't really get the opportunity to see in action, let alone have time to do anything about it. Once it starts its very hard to stop. My guess is that its usually bacterial and for some reason its more likely to happen overnight (at least in my case anyways ). RTN is pretty much a "catch-all" phrase for "instantaneous" SPS death.