So, I have several frags of Pocillopora damicornis, and yesterday (Saturday) they started showing some pretty bad RTN. (as in, areas that had shown strong polyp movement and even growth suddenly turned deathly white) Even worse today. 
I'm going to frag the most viable piece (s?), dip them in coral RX, and junk the remainder, tonight.
No other corals (Favites war coral, Pterogorgia anceps gorgononian, Green implosion palys) are affected yet. Pocillopora was growing well up to Thursday (I dropped the main colony three weeks ago, leading to lots of small frags, but the broken up parts had completely healed as of Monday, and maybe had even grown). Very surprising and sudden turn of events.......
Any thoughts about what might have happened/what I should do welcome.
Baseline (past few months):
Bought the frag around Christmas. This was a branching tree-like P. damicornis frag; the bottom of the colony was dead (in retrospect, IMO showing signs of previous necrosis).
At the time, my PO4 was around .1-.3; Nitrate 25+, alk was being constantly consumed and I tried to dose baking soda to keep it around 165ppm, though it often went down and up. About 2-3 months ago I got cyano, and I've tried to combat it by vacuuming detritus. Kessil 360 goes up to 80% for 8 hours above them. I dose about two caps of vinegar per day. A Jebao PP4 was pointed fairly directly at the largest colony, on random mode, at about 66% power. Colony dropped and inadvertently fragged, as mentiond above, and put onto maybe 6-7 different frag plugs, and one rock with like 5 frags glued together in a pseudo-colonial form. Before, in retrospect, I think the dead spots moved upward a given the frag, but very slowly, if at all, so I didn’t think much of it.
Events of 2 weeks ago:
Cyano I think is beat; detritus is down, daily cyano growth is minimal. PO4, as of two weeks ago, was 0.05ish; Nitrate 1-2ppm, Alk stable at 165ppm-ish without baking soda dosing. Increased Jebao to 100% random mode
In the past week:
Added a grow light for macroalgae (which is growing decently again after no growth for quite a while), on top of the Kessil. Still very little cyano growth; some green microalgae growth. PO4 is around 0.1, and Nitrate around 10. Alkalinity went down to 145ppm, and I've started slowly dosing baking soda (0.5 tablespoon a day for the past few days, hoping to gradually get it up to 165).
RTN in areas of previously strong growth started in main colony Saturday early AM; it has since "spread" to other frags.
Since I noticed RTN :
10% water change yesterday; was going to do it in the first place even without RTN (and I’ve stopped baking soda dosing until I check Alk, Nitrate, PO4). Turned off the grow light.
Previous thread about "what I'm gonna do about the frags" here. I think that's now resolved.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-handle-lots-of-pocillopora-frags.366801/#post-4549656
Edited for flow and grammar. Sorry, I knew I was distracted when I was writing it, but not THAT distracted.
I'm going to frag the most viable piece (s?), dip them in coral RX, and junk the remainder, tonight.
No other corals (Favites war coral, Pterogorgia anceps gorgononian, Green implosion palys) are affected yet. Pocillopora was growing well up to Thursday (I dropped the main colony three weeks ago, leading to lots of small frags, but the broken up parts had completely healed as of Monday, and maybe had even grown). Very surprising and sudden turn of events.......
Any thoughts about what might have happened/what I should do welcome.
Baseline (past few months):
Bought the frag around Christmas. This was a branching tree-like P. damicornis frag; the bottom of the colony was dead (in retrospect, IMO showing signs of previous necrosis).
At the time, my PO4 was around .1-.3; Nitrate 25+, alk was being constantly consumed and I tried to dose baking soda to keep it around 165ppm, though it often went down and up. About 2-3 months ago I got cyano, and I've tried to combat it by vacuuming detritus. Kessil 360 goes up to 80% for 8 hours above them. I dose about two caps of vinegar per day. A Jebao PP4 was pointed fairly directly at the largest colony, on random mode, at about 66% power. Colony dropped and inadvertently fragged, as mentiond above, and put onto maybe 6-7 different frag plugs, and one rock with like 5 frags glued together in a pseudo-colonial form. Before, in retrospect, I think the dead spots moved upward a given the frag, but very slowly, if at all, so I didn’t think much of it.
Events of 2 weeks ago:
Cyano I think is beat; detritus is down, daily cyano growth is minimal. PO4, as of two weeks ago, was 0.05ish; Nitrate 1-2ppm, Alk stable at 165ppm-ish without baking soda dosing. Increased Jebao to 100% random mode
In the past week:
Added a grow light for macroalgae (which is growing decently again after no growth for quite a while), on top of the Kessil. Still very little cyano growth; some green microalgae growth. PO4 is around 0.1, and Nitrate around 10. Alkalinity went down to 145ppm, and I've started slowly dosing baking soda (0.5 tablespoon a day for the past few days, hoping to gradually get it up to 165).
RTN in areas of previously strong growth started in main colony Saturday early AM; it has since "spread" to other frags.
Since I noticed RTN :
10% water change yesterday; was going to do it in the first place even without RTN (and I’ve stopped baking soda dosing until I check Alk, Nitrate, PO4). Turned off the grow light.
Previous thread about "what I'm gonna do about the frags" here. I think that's now resolved.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-handle-lots-of-pocillopora-frags.366801/#post-4549656
Edited for flow and grammar. Sorry, I knew I was distracted when I was writing it, but not THAT distracted.
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