RTN got one help me keep the rest alive

I recently set up a new 55 gallon reef. An upugrade from my 12 gallon nano. I purchased 86 pounds of LR from a local fish store that was set up in their tanks. After a very light cycle and waiting 4 weeks i moved my SPS and other corals from the nano to the new tank. Some are doing good some are not. One of my favortie frags a green sps had an area of what looked like tissue sloughing off. And after seeing so many pics of RTN i am pretty sure thats what was happening. So I attempted to frag some pieces off and hope for the best. This morning all the pieces and the original are white and dead. Also today my Zoas are not opening up at all. one other Sps has a little white on the base that appears stable. I also have a Monti cap that is doing very well and another acro that seems to be doing just fine.

Water Pars: Ammonia 0
Nitrates 0
Nitrites 0
Ph 8.2-8.4
Sal 1.025
Temp 79-81
Calcium 480

Checked water every other day.
I have a 10 gallon Sump and Reef Octo 110 skimmer. I have carbon, phoslo, and purigen in sump as well as cheato and refuge mud. 2 korallia #2s. 2 150w MH 14000k and 2 actinics 54 w.
I have a few fish clown and damsels.

What do I need to do to keep the rest of my acros alive? I did a 10% water change yestday and will do another today.

any help would be greatly appricated.

 

Well if it is RTN there really is nothing you can do. You can try an iodine dip, but even that rarely works.
What was the lighting in the smaller tank? If the big tank has a more powerful set-up, were they light acclimated properly? What are your dKH, MG, and PO4 levels? Flow?

 

I have two koralia #2's so my tank has what i think is really good flow.

My phosphate is .25. dKH was greater than 12. I havent tested for MG.

I actually had a viper 150w on my 12 gallon and moved it over to the 55. I have 2 150w vipers and 2 54w actinics on the 55. And I kept the coral on the upper 1/3 of the tank.

Just really worried about my other SPS I don't want to loose them. Also I have a Favia frag about 1 inch square that 2 of the eyes have gone out in so far.

 

2 K 2s - Sorry Pancake other than those what else have you got moving water?

I have a 70 and only 4 pieces of SPS corals - and have 42 x the tank volume in water movement- between 5 x powerheads

if you only have the 2 x K2 thats 1200 GPH ( 20+ X your tank volume approximately) and for SPS closer to 50 x tank volume is considered normal

my 70 is 5ft long
your 55 is 4ft I believe? Im not saying flow is the root cause of the RTN ? but for long term consideration of the SPS you have, or in future, you might want to look at increasing flow

Steve

 

I also have a 300 gallon per hour pump in the sump that returns to the tank. I don't know how much more flow I could get in the dt and keep the sand on the bottom. The corals were in the nano with a stock pump so they were not getting superflow before and seemed to be doing good in there.

The whiteness is increasing on a few of my corals this morning. Would a iodine dip save them or help in any way?

 

I don't think it could hurt, RTN is suspected to be caused by a bacterial infection, although we really don't know what actually causes it. I had an sps that RTN, I tried to frag it, but in the morning, everything was all white. There is really not much you can do except keep your water as clean as possible, which it seems you are doing.

 

Coral Diseases and Parasites

I have no experience personally of this problem ( for that I am gratefull)

a member on this site Charles known as Chuck has written about Lugols dip in the fight against RTN

Steve

 

My dKH is reading high at like 17 drops to make it turn that make it well above 200!!! could this be the reason why my coral is dying?? How do i lower it? my calcium is fine and all the rest of my lvls are WNL. I don't have a test for MG. my pH is 8.2.


I have been doing 5 gallon water changes a day since this past weekend and my coral started dying. I use reef crystals salt.

 

I would say you moved in the coral too soon. It doesn't matter what the tests show as far as everything coming out zero. The key when cycling a tank successfully is to allow the tank a good 3-4 months to go through all of the total cycle and stabilize. Stop changing the water! Let the live bacteria (in all of its' forms) establish itself. Like many aquarists in this and other forums I see no mention of Magnesium or Alkalinity. Your PH, SG and Calcium are fine but you need to know what Mag and Alk are.
I don't wish to sound too critical it's just that you jumped the gun a little. Add some live bacteria to help in the saturation of the bed and resist changing the water for 4 weeks. Also, you don't mention if you put the new lights on and just (excuse the abruptness) blasted the tank (coral) with a lot more light than they were used to. I would have the actinic come on for the first 4 hours (normally 2) then daylights for maybe 6 hours then 2 more hours of actinic in the evening after daylights go off. This should ease the stress on the coral and give them a chance to recuperate.
I would also feed them a couple times a week to help them along.

 

I agree with the water change advice, I would stop doing that, or at least cut back to 1 a week. I too thought it was a little early to move the corals in, but that may not be the cause. What sucks is that you may never know the cause, it just happens sometimes.