RTN Birdsnest Help

[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.