Massive RTN event

[Brandon McHenry]

And by the way corals, especially SPS, love fish poop. Ask any long term reefer and they will say they wished someone bottled the stuff. You will get very far with SPS by feeding heavy and exporting heavy.

 

[homer1475]

Understand that also. My fish are so fat, they look pregnant. lol Pretty sure I feed them enough so that shouldn't be an issue either as far as pooping goes.

Honestly, I'm not worried about the nutrient levels in my tank, as that topic is highly debatable, and this not the time nor the place to do that. I am just trying to figure out how this happened, and how to avoid it in the future.

People on forums get locked into one way of thinking, or one posts, and the thread strays way off topic. lol

Now that I realize it's not RTN, and rather bleaching from dino's possibly( although I've had them much worse, like in my build). I'll start with working on that, as I know how knock them back. I will just have to deal with some GHA, and up my CUC to beat that back.

Why not a blackout though? That should help alleviate the dino's, and be less stressful on the bleached corals, No?

I'm not the best with words, so if this comes off a little cocky, or rude, it's not meant to be. I apologize in advance. And I really do thank everyone for the help! I rarely post my own threads just because I know I do come off rude at times.

 

[homer1475]

https://www.chewy.com/eheim-everyda...I2OGA2Or47QIVB-DACh0QLQ4aEAQYASABEgJy8PD_BwE#
Eheim fish feeder?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Understand that also. My fish are so fat, they look pregnant. lol Pretty sure I feed them enough so that shouldn't be an issue either as far as pooping goes.

Honestly, I'm not worried about the nutrient levels in my tank, as that topic is highly debatable, and this not the time nor the place to do that. I am just trying to figure out how this happened, and how to avoid it in the future.

People on forums get locked into one way of thinking, or one posts, and the thread strays way off topic. lol

Now that I realize it's not RTN, and rather bleaching from dino's possibly( although I've had them much worse, like in my build). I'll start with working on that, as I know how knock them back. I will just have to deal with some GHA, and up my CUC to beat that back.

Why not a blackout though? That should help alleviate the dino's, and be less stressful on the bleached corals, No?

I'm not the best with words, so if this comes off a little cocky, or rude, it's not meant to be. I apologize in advance. And I really do thank everyone for the help! I rarely post my own threads just because I know I do come off rude at times.

First I also want to apologize if I’ve gotten off track. I do sincerely believe that my suggestions on feeding and increasing biodiversity are very valid in the context of this conversation and may very well help your corals to recover from this issue. Also no worries about offending me, I know how frustrated you must be and sometimes these types of threads can get very overwhelming and I think we all understand where you are coming from.

I do think we could all benefit from a few more pictures of the unhealthy corals, especially right after you have blown them off. I’d love to get a closer shot because I do believe that there has been some tissue loss for the algae to be growing over that much of the coral. Pictures of healthy corals would also be good for comparison.

I don’t like the idea of a blackout for stressed corals. Unless they bleached from too much light, which it doesn’t sound like, turning all the lights off and depriving the zooxanthellae from nutrition seems counter productive.

If your tank is not overrun with dinos we may still be looking for a cause and the dinos just took advantage of some weak corals.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

https://www.chewy.com/eheim-everyda...I2OGA2Or47QIVB-DACh0QLQ4aEAQYASABEgJy8PD_BwE#
Eheim fish feeder?

That’s the one!

 

[homer1475]

First I also want to apologize if I’ve gotten off track. I do sincerely believe that my suggestions on feeding and increasing biodiversity are very valid in the context of this conversation and may very well help your corals to recover from this issue. Also no worries about offending me, I know how frustrated you must be and sometimes these types of threads can get very overwhelming and I think we all understand where you are coming from.

I agree with you on the nutrients, just never really thought .03 was that low. On the biodiversity level, it's one of the reasons I ditched my dry rock a few years back, and bought actual live rock.

I just didn't want the convo to gravitate towards nutrient levels instead of trying to figure out what, or how this happened. Thank you for understanding.

I do think we could all benefit from a few more pictures of the unhealthy corals, especially right after you have blown them off. I’d love to get a closer shot because I do believe that there has been some tissue loss for the algae to be growing over that much of the coral. Pictures of healthy corals would also be good for comparison.

I'll see what I can do right now, my picture taking skills suck. lol and anything other then whats on my frag rack is tough to get a picture of simple from being to far away from the glass.

I don’t like the idea of a blackout for stressed corals. Unless they bleached from too much light, which it doesn’t sound like, turning all the lights off and depriving the zooxanthellae from nutrition seems counter productive.

Understood. My thinking was no zoox and bleached, less light less stressful?

If your tank is not overrun with dinos we may still be looking for a cause and the dinos just took advantage of some weak corals.

Nope not overun, but they are obviously still present, and are growing on the bleached tissue. I'll post an FTS when I try and grab some more pics. BRB

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I agree with you on the nutrients, just never really thought .03 was that low. On the biodiversity level, it's one of the reasons I ditched my dry rock a few years back, and bought actual live rock.

I just didn't want the convo to gravitate towards nutrient levels instead of trying to figure out what, or how this happened. Thank you for understanding.



I'll see what I can do right now, my picture taking skills suck. lol and anything other then whats on my frag rack is tough to get a picture of simple from being to far away from the glass.



Understood. My thinking was no zoox and bleached, less light less stressful?


Nope not overun, but they are obviously still present, and are growing on the bleached tissue. I'll post an FTS when I try and grab some more pics. BRB

FWIW I think your residual N/P are just fine. Now if you wanted to look into some pods, live phyto, IPSF, GARF grunge, etc you could always boost your diversity.

And no worries, do you best and any additional pictures will be helpful. You could even take video if that’s easier.

 

[homer1475]

Ok lets start with healthy corals:

Oregon Tort:

Random stick I got on a live sale:

Stylo I fragged last week:

Mint chip pavona:

FTS:

I'll do another post of the corals I just blew off that are suffering.

 

[ScottB]

First I am sorry for your losses and hope the rest recover.

Next, if your dinos are Coolia, they are not very toxic at all. So while they need to be managed, I don't think they are the direct cause. Ostreopsis on the other hand...

I have to go with a piece of equipment that is gradually leaching nasty into the water. Once the concentrations got to a point some of your species bailed out. And when one goes, I swear, there is some group behavior and others start bailing out.

I would quickly get some polyfilter in there, along with some cuprisorb or equivalent. Check the poly for any color change that is not brown.

Next I would check each piece of wet equipment for anything suspicious.

Working against my theory is the lack of voltage, but maybe the grounding probe is removing that symptom.

 

[homer1475]

Ok so corals that are suffering...

I use this gorg as my "canary in a coal mine" if you will. When it's closed up, something is not right.

SSC:

Pinky the Bear:

Macro of the green slimer:

mesentrial filaments at the base of the slimer?

 

[homer1475]

Eheim feeder added to my chewy cart next time they ship my dog food. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[ScottB]

You don't mention the application of Fluconazole, but just want to confirm. No Fluc application recently, right?

It looks just like a Fluc driven SPS crash.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Ok so corals that are suffering...

I use this gorg as my "canary in a coal mine" if you will. When it's closed up, something is not right.

SSC:

Pinky the Bear:

Macro of the green slimer:

mesentrial filaments at the base of the slimer?

Yes those are mesenterial filaments at the bottom of the slimer. This is a sign that there is still an irritant or stressor in the tank. To me I really think there is some tissue thinning in some of the corals. You can tell by the sharp skeleton ridges showing around some of the tips. This is different than bleaching where there is still tissue but the coral has simply expelled the zooxanthellae that gives the coral its pigment. I still think we are looking for some sort of contaminant/stress factor or something along those lines. Any leather corals? Or palys?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Eheim feeder added to my chewy cart next time they ship my dog food. Thanks for the suggestion.

No problem!

 

[homer1475]

You don't mention the application of Fluconazole, but just want to confirm. No Fluc application recently, right?

It looks just like a Fluc driven SPS crash.

No not currently, but I did use it like 3 years ago.

Yes those are mesenterial filaments at the bottom of the slimer. This is a sign that there is still an irritant or stressor in the tank. To me I really think there is some tissue thinning in some of the corals. You can tell by the sharp skeleton ridges showing around some of the tips. This is different than bleaching where there is still tissue but the coral has simply expelled the zooxanthellae that gives the coral its pigment. I still think we are looking for some sort of contaminant/stress factor or something along those lines. Any leather corals? Or palys?

Nope no softies other then the single gorg. Everything is either LPS, SPS, or RFA. There is only 25 different corals in my tank.

 

[homer1475]

Mixing up water as we speak, and will change the carbon again. Obviously something is still not right, from the mensentrial filaments, and the gorg is still closed up.

I will have to order poly pad, as the closest LFS is about a 1 1/2 drive one way, and they don't carry it(petco).

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Mixing up water as we speak, and will change the carbon again. Obviously something is still not right, from the mensentrial filaments, and the gorg is still closed up.

I will have to order poly pad, as the closest LFS is about a 1 1/2 drive one way, and they don't carry it(petco).

Fresh carbon, water changes and poly filters will cover a lot of your bases and are great stabilizers. So I think that’s a really good immediate plan. And I forget, you’ve checked for current without your grounding probe? And you’ve checked for any rust, fallen screws etc?

 

[homer1475]

Just looked around the sump, nothing. I did pull all my equipment 2 weeks ago for a deep cleaning, and check for all that stuff, everything was good.

Skimmer is going like crazy now that I turned it back on. Was off for like a week. I've skimmed like 3 gallons of water so far, soon to be 4, but it's looking like it's calming down now.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just looked around the sump, nothing. I did pull all my equipment 2 weeks ago for a deep cleaning, and check for all that stuff, everything was good.

Skimmer is going like crazy now that I turned it back on. Was off for like a week. I've skimmed like 3 gallons of water so far, soon to be 4, but it's looking like it's calming down now.

Good to know there’s no signs of rust. I can’t imagine that the skimmer being off for a week could be that bad but with it going crazy like that it could indicate something in the water.

 

[homer1475]

Good to know there’s no signs of rust. I can’t imagine that the skimmer being off for a week could be that bad but with it going crazy like that it could indicate something in the water.

My thoughts too. So I'm just letting it run, and adding back SW.