RTN is no fun

[Zibba]

Came home to see my purple pillow looking pretty grim. I just ended up pulling it from the tank. No clue what caused it to happen. Checked all my levels: (salifert & AC Jr. readings)

Temp - 79.3
pH - 8.16
Ca - 430
Alk - 10.4 dkh
Mg - 1390


This was just a small frag (like most of the corals in my tank), but it seemed to be doing well for the last 3 months since it's been in my tank.
Here is a picture from October:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z187/zibba02/Purple-Pillow-web---110107.jpg


Heres a picture from December:
http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z187/zibba02/PurplePillow-12192007.jpg

And this is now:

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z187/zibba02/PurplePillow-022120087RTN.jpg

http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z187/zibba02/PurplePillow-022120087RTN2.jpg

Any ideas? I'm going to do a 15% wc just because....It might have been that it didn't like the new lighting. All the other corals seem to be doing fine (keeping my fingers crossed)

[mattb]

No one knows why RTN happens.... once it happens, the coral is typically gone in a couple of hours. Once it starts, its done, nothing you can do.

[Zibba]

Yeah it was just a few hours. strange though. Just thought I would share a few pictures

[RogersCG]

Bummer Eric....

Everything else look fine?

[mattb]

I had a nice colony, a stag, that was solid baby blue that RTN due to changing tanks.... unfortunately, a reality for sps keepers. Coral disease is really in its infancy, there's a whole lot of speculation happening. In the hobby world, its even worse, Bingman pronounced in the late 90sthat RTN was due to bacteria or Vibrio because he found some on the skeleton of an acro that rtn'd. While this may have been true, there's no evidence the relationship was causal. There's been subsequent investigations and scientists found that living, healthy corals do have bacteria colonies that live on their tissue, called holobiant (sp?).... Even more studied disease such as the White Band Disease that wipped out 80% of A. palmata in the caribbean, the causes are truly not known. Most though point their fingers at man (sedimentation, sewage, pollutants, physical damage from fishermen/boats etc) and mother nature (physical damage caused by hurricanes weaken the coral)

[spsick]

That coral is a picky one. I have had one rtn on me as well.

[BonesReef]

Rapid tissue N_____.......?
So there is no know cause why it occurs.... I need someone to teach me sps 101 because my 120 gallon will be dominated by SPS...that is if this does not happen to them... now I'm a little nervious

[BonesReef]

Eric,

I want to see a full tank shot if you have them.

[Zibba]

RTN - rapid tissue necrosis (rapid tissue death). All the tissue just completely falls off the skeleton within a matter of hours.

I'll get a FTS for you.

[BonesReef]

IS RTN common?

[twincitiesreefer]

Its pretty common,man im sorry eric.I think it could have been the rapid change in lights,Ive been told some of them t5 fixtures with the individual reeflectors are brighter then some halides.

[Zibba]

Its pretty common,man im sorry eric.I think it could have been the rapid change in lights,Ive been told some of them t5 fixtures with the individual reeflectors are brighter then some halides.

I just hope that that's the only one and it's done now.



I want to see a full tank shot if you have them.

I will be doing a water change here soon, so after that is done and clears up a bit, I'll post a FTS.

[twincitiesreefer]

I had some of my sps bleach on me when i switched tanks over,and they just stoped now...so i think u shjould be good,was that a deep water acro?

[Zibba]

Just for fun I added a picture of this coral shortly after it was put in the tank. You can see that there isn't much growth in this one.

[Flounder]

bummer.