Your thoughts on RTN?

[GangstaReefa]

I'm been through many RTNs due carelessness and no superglue, and 100% of those are from flow. What i think is when the coral (sps) is stressed, it is much easier to have it RTN on you. So what I mean is if your tank is going through a bad phase, or havn't gotten any attention in 2 weeks like mine, the most innocuous thing may trigger a RTN. I had my one of my Anacropora RTN this morning when I found it fell to be back of the tank, the half that is sticking out of the rock is fine (had flow) the other half behind the rock is dead. RTN is tissue being gone in super fast, and these things are usually respatory problems, when the thing can't breath (no flow) it dies. I don't think moderate alk/calcium/ph problems can directly trigger all out RTN, at least i've never seen it. What alk/calcium/ph do is cause stress, and if something adds to that stress then the things is gone. And also I believe that from a tank with extreme amounts of flow, when the coral fell to a place, such as behind a rock in a deadspot with almost no flow, it reacts very negatively.

Please share your thoughts, thats just my worthless opinion .

[GangstaReefa]

I'm been through many RTNs due carelessness and no superglue, and 100% of those seem to be from flow. What i think is when the coral (sps) is stressed, it is much easier to have it RTN on you. So what I mean is if your tank is going through a bad phase, or havn't gotten any attention in 2 weeks like mine, the most innocuous thing may trigger a RTN. I had my one of my Anacropora RTN this morning when I found it fell to be back of the tank, the half that is sticking out of the rock is fine (had flow) the other half behind the rock is dead. RTN is tissue being gone in super fast, and these things are usually respatory problems, when the thing can't breath (no flow) it dies. I don't think moderate alk/calcium/ph problems can directly trigger all out RTN, at least i've never seen it. What alk/calcium/ph do is cause stress, and if something adds to that stress then the things is gone. And also I believe that from a tank with extreme amounts of flow, when the coral fell to a place, such as behind a rock in a deadspot with almost no flow, it reacts very negatively.

Please share your thoughts, thats just my worthless opinion .

I also just dropped my lights from 16'' to 9'', a pretty big change that may also cause stress. So what i got here is something compounded that causes the coral to not do well: Big change calcium, and alk along with some minor pH; Light shifted pretty quickly, and also I raised the calcium back very fast. Not having enough flow or have something dropped on it usually don't cause entire the to RTN, just when stressed it is easily triggered.

Does RTN'd coral release something in the water to trigger the stresss response of other corals and make them RTN or more easily RTN also?

Thanks.

[xtopher]

IME STN and RTN were caused by poor water quality, although flow is important for gas exchange if nutrient levels are high this will trigger a RTN way more often. If you have dead spots in your tank these might be likely causes for nutrient issues
JMO

[GangstaReefa]

yea, no nitrate no PO4, big big skimmer working hard and Kalking wasser drip to make sure the PO4 is at 0

[hng]

Originally Posted by GangstaReefa

I also just dropped my lights from 16'' to 9'', a pretty big change that may also cause stress. So what i got here is something compounded that causes the coral to not do well: Big change calcium, and alk along with some minor pH; Light shifted pretty quickly, and also I raised the calcium back very fast. Not having enough flow or have something dropped on it usually don't cause entire the to RTN, just when stressed it is easily triggered.

SPS need stability and it seems like you don't have it. I think you're right about why you get RTN. The key now will be to figure out how to achieve stabilty and avoid it in the future. Some people believe that stress makes sps prone to infections and that can spread if other corals are already susceptible.