Sps shredding from the bottom (RTN?)

Herbie

Herbie

Banned
View attachment 1929
This mini colony was doing really well (it came from the MCF "color me up" section) and now it's suddenly losing it's flesh (It's been in there 3 weeks+). There are 3 main branches and it seems to only be on one of them right now. All of my tests are showing perfect now, but I did do a water change 2 days ago and saw a slight tinge of green in my amonia test then (I immediately retested and didn't register though). Is there anything that I can/should do? Should I yank the whole mini colony before it rots in the tank. It's (of course) my largest piece and all of my other tiny SPS frags seem to be doing really well (for the time being). Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This is a bummer.
 
Could very well be a case of RTN. Doesn't look good, I had an SPS mini colony do the same thing to me, could literally watch the flesh peel away staring long enough. I would suggest you make yourself a large frag from the still visually healthy area of the coral, and set that away from the affected part. Hopefully the entire thing is not already doomed.
 
That is good advice Fish. I will probably break off the center branch and superglue around the base.
Is it possible that phosban could cause soemthing like this? I am running a HOB reactor with Carbon on the bottom and Phosban on top. Sponges all around of course, but I have noticed that my MP10 is collecting a residue that looks and acts just like rust. There is also a little void in the phosban part of the reactor that wasn't there when I loaded it, so there has definitely been volume loss (or compression I suppose). There is a screen on the outlet of the reactor, but I know phosban can powder pretty easily. Could that possibly be damaging the SPS? Now that my GHA is completely gone, I may just run sea gel only in the reactor. Any thoughts on that?
 
It could be anything really. That seems to be a common thing for a few maricultured pieces. One day they're doing great, the next they're all skeleton.
 
Herbieace said:
That is good advice Fish. I will probably break off the center branch and superglue around the base.
Is it possible that phosban could cause soemthing like this? I am running a HOB reactor with Carbon on the bottom and Phosban on top. Sponges all around of course, but I have noticed that my MP10 is collecting a residue that looks and acts just like rust. There is also a little void in the phosban part of the reactor that wasn't there when I loaded it, so there has definitely been volume loss (or compression I suppose). There is a screen on the outlet of the reactor, but I know phosban can powder pretty easily. Could that possibly be damaging the SPS? Now that my GHA is completely gone, I may just run sea gel only in the reactor. Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

If you are leaking gfo dust/particles into your tank, it's not good regardless what you are keeping in the tank. It will act as an irritant to your corals. It may not necessarily be the cause of your sps dying, but I would figure out a way to correct the problem sooner than later.
 
There any many things that can cause it and the reality is it really isn't known. How are your other SPSs doing? Like Niel said, maricultured or wild pieces have a higher risk of doing this. True Aquacultured pieces have had generations in a captive tank, and proven that they are not prone to RTN, that is why they carry a higher price tag.
 
My other sps frags seem to be doing fine. I had not previously been aware of the importance in the distinction between maricultured and aquacultured. It makes a ton of sense and really seems to be accurate here (time will tell on my other pieces). Fortunately I paid $20 for this one, so it was worth the experiment. I pulled the colony (terrible smell) and cut out about 4 pieces that still looked healthy. They're in my sandbed now seperated (as best as possible in a NC) from everything else so I'll see how it goes.

On a side note; that JBWaterweld epoxy putty is awesome. It held like stone on this colony several times when I bumped it, but when I went to pull it I just had to give it a levered pull and it all came out like lego bricks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top