RTN chain event, losing acro after acro

[howaboutme]

I think your tank isnt ready. I dont like this is only a 7 month old system. Even though you are seeding with live rock, how can everything including bacteria levels, ect. Be stable at 7mos to support acros.

It seems you are trying to fast forward the process of establishing a new tank. Start with digis, birdsnest add acropora later. Who knows maybe 1 dying acro in an unestablished system can cause the others to go down....i think you're paying the price for rushing delicate sps into the system for whatever reason.

I would keep adding cheap sps until this passes and or continue to check for metals and test parameters all the time since its a new system. Check for pests with lights off and uv light. Maybe nuke tank with dr. Gs but you are so unestablished not sure what the outcome will be....

These blanket statements are not helpful. There are way too many variables in each tank to even make statements like this an absolute fact. I would argue that "maturity" of a tank is often not one of the main reasons for STN/RTN. 20 years of experience by the OP provides extra context in this case. Answers to posts like this must be specific.

I'm glad the OP seems to have found a cause. Good luck and sorry for you to have to deal with this.

 

[sculpin01]

Looks like black bugs and fits the pattern of their attack (base up). If you have a microscope, I'd get a high magnification pic.

 

[MrStoffel]

Yeah i started reading in on black bugs and its definitely them.:mad:
I decided to discard all pieces that i have shown previously and inspected the tank at night with a flashlight.
I only found 2 possible bugs on a green frogskin, so that one was removed as well...;Punch
The comming 3 weeks i will continue using RTN-X in tank, as it did seem to affect the bugs, maybe it can disrupt their lifecycle enough so they are no longer able to reproduce, who knows.
I am quite shaken up by this and while acropora are what i love most about reefkeeping, i am hesitant to buy any now.
Every piece seems like a potential trojan horse in the tank.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

Video of the perpatrators
Anybody know what these are? My best guess would be black bugs?

Black bugs? Red bugs? #reeefsquad

 

[sculpin01]

It was most likely your maricultured piece. They are notorious for carrying pests and diseases.

 

[Backreefing]

That terrible news . I hope your aquarium gets better. I have no intelligent advice for you.

 

[ReefBeta]

Black bugs? Red bugs? #reeefsquad

Aren't black bug and red bug take the same treatment as interceptor?

 

[ReefBeta]

Glad you found the cause. I was in similar case with you. At first I thought it was too much light, position problem. Then I also found the digitate hydroids and thought they were the cause. At the end I found out by dipping that it was AEFW. I was actually relief a bit when found that. I'd rather fight a hard battle than don't know what I'm fighting with.

 

[MrStoffel]

It will take a few weeks to be sort of certain all bugs were removed by tossing the affected pieces. Because i don’t want to risk introducing them again I decided to set up a small QT tank for all my new acro’s. They will be treated and inspected daily for 2 weeks.
Yes, this whole thing has given me black bug PTSD! :’D

 

[Joe's 220 Reef]

I think your tank isnt ready. I dont like this is only a 7 month old system. Even though you are seeding with live rock, how can everything including bacteria levels, ect. Be stable at 7mos to support acros.

It seems you are trying to fast forward the process of establishing a new tank. Start with digis, birdsnest add acropora later. Who knows maybe 1 dying acro in an unestablished system can cause the others to go down....i think you're paying the price for rushing delicate sps into the system for whatever reason.

I would keep adding cheap sps until this passes and or continue to check for metals and test parameters all the time since its a new system. Check for pests with lights off and uv light. Maybe nuke tank with dr. Gs but you are so unestablished not sure what the outcome will be....

 

[MrStoffel]

Although i don't appreciate these types unhelpful regurgitated comments, i will continue to document this thread for the sake of bettering the hobby.

Two weeks ago i decided to take all acro's out of the system, luckily this worked out pretty good without breaking any of the bigger parts.
I got hold of Milbemax. This is the european counterpart for what is known in the US as Interceptor.
It does contain Milbemycin as well as praziquantel.

I ground up a whole pill containing 16mg of Milbemycine oxime and 40 mg of praziquantel and dosed this into the quarantine tank (20L). All acro's stayed in the quarantine for 24h. Afterwards i also dipped them in the fauna marin dip and in a KCl dip. This was pretty harsh on the corals obviously, but after some rinsing all were added back to the display.
I am now two weeks later and all acro's are truly flourishing. Better growth & especially better colors.
Didn't lose a single acro during the treatment. All amphipods, copepods, bristleworms, feather dusters present in the QT tank were dead within a few hours after dosing the Milbemax.

Furthermore i read that temperature plays a big part in the presence of parasitic bugs on acro's and lowering it to 23-24°C might be beneficial. So i am now running the tank at 23,5°C.

I'll report again in 2 weeks time with some pics of the corals.

 

[kaceyo]

Update?

 

[jcollinsks]

Thanks for all you've posted here, I am facing a very very similar situation and am purchasing the equipment to look for the back bugs and dip now!