Trim of RTN parts

[Tofer]

Monday night/ Tuesday I had a RTN of my JF enchanted forest birds nest and 7 frags of the same and 1 frag of JF project x stylo. With the birds nest colony the rtn was the tips and some a little more down from the tips . The frags only small patches of tissue was left the stylo had 1 area in the middle . I trashed the bird nest frags and kept stylo.

With the colony should I trim off affected parts ?
first pic is oct
Rest are from Tuesday night

 

[T-J]

IMO, at this point it looks like you have nothing to lose by trimming and making frags.

 

[ScottB]

I always trim well back into the living flesh. I quick soak in some Lugols solution afterward in case there is some Vibrio spooling up.

 

[Tofer]

I always trim well back into the living flesh. I quick soak in some Lugols solution afterward in case there is some Vibrio spooling up.

Thank you for the info . I’m not sure it was Vibrio . I had did a water change the night before and vacuumed the sand bed and more then I normally do at 1 time. So I might have released something trapped in the sand bed as the color of the crap that came out . Normally I do a 1/4 or the tank at a time but I have had high phos as I had someone else feed tank the past month and the were apparently a little heavy handed so I did 1/2 the tank . My phos prior to water change .29 the when came home from work the next and saw the coral tested all fine but phos was at .47 . Mixed up water and did a change brought it down .36 going to do another change today .

 

[Tofer]

IMO, at this point it looks like you have nothing to lose by trimming and making frags.

Thank you

 

[ScottB]

Thank you for the info . I’m not sure it was Vibrio . I had did a water change the night before and vacuumed the sand bed and more then I normally do at 1 time. So I might have released something trapped in the sand bed as the color of the crap that came out . Normally I do a 1/4 or the tank at a time but I have had high phos as I had someone else feed tank the past month and the were apparently a little heavy handed so I did 1/2 the tank . My phos prior to water change .29 the when came home from work the next and saw the coral tested all fine but phos was at .47 . Mixed up water and did a change brought it down .36 going to do another change today .

I don't generally think of vibrio as an initial stressor of corals. More like a secondary infection once they are losing flesh.

Unlike with nitrates, it is almost impossible to remove high levels of PO4 with WCs. Most of the PO4 is bound to your rock and sand.

VERY SLOW and careful removal with GFO or lanthanum chloride (binding agents) is the way to go.

Which begs the question: what are your nitrates?

 

[Tofer]

I don't generally think of vibrio as an initial stressor of corals. More like a secondary infection once they are losing flesh.

Unlike with nitrates, it is almost impossible to remove high levels of PO4 with WCs. Most of the PO4 is bound to your rock and sand.

VERY SLOW and careful removal with GFO or lanthanum chloride (binding agents) is the way to go.

Which begs the question: what are your nitrates?

As of Wednesday night my nitrates were 4ppm . I did add a small bag of chemi pure elite smaller then tank size to the tank Thursday night will be retesting tonight or tomorrow night. The phos spike could have been due to the RTN .

 

[Tofer]

Update .
birds nest is healing very nicely after trim . My phos have come down to .17 as of Wednesday. I’m starting to think the super high .46 was from the RTN tissue but really not sure . I’m really not sure if I will ever know the cause .

 

[ScottB]

Update .
birds nest is healing very nicely after trim . My phos have come down to .17 as of Wednesday. I’m starting to think the super high .46 was from the RTN tissue but really not sure . I’m really not sure if I will ever know the cause .

Good to hear. Thanks for the update. If you have a target level on PO4 just be sure to keep the decreases slow. You rock will continue to act as a buffer or store for PO4 that should keep you out of trouble, but your corals need time to acclimate to lower levels, as does your biome.

 

[Tofer]

Good to hear. Thanks for the update. If you have a target level on PO4 just be sure to keep the decreases slow. You rock will continue to act as a buffer or store for PO4 that should keep you out of trouble, but your corals need time to acclimate to lower levels, as does your biome.

Scott ,
Yes I am keeping that in mind that is why I went with a undersized bag of chemi pure elite . Everything seems to be okay with the drop. I try to keep the tank between.05and .10ish that seems to be where everything seems happy .Will post some pics a little later

 

[Tofer]

Updated pic after trim. Also broke a couple of branch’s inadvertently.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Updated pic after trim. Also broke a couple of branch’s inadvertently.

How's it doing now?

 

[Tofer]

How's it doing now?

Doing well ! I think I figured out what happened as I did have another issue some timing right after water change . I looked back in notes and both times I had removed lg sections of zoa off the rock work . So I’m thinking the released toxins in tho the water .

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Doing well ! I think I figured out what happened as I did have another issue some timing right after water change . I looked back in notes and both times I had removed lg sections of zoa off the rock work . So I’m thinking the released toxins in tho the water .

Good information!