Lost SPS to RTN

[toptank]

After pending a year on making thing correct to house SPS and spending LOTS of money and now I have only 2 left. I had a run of RTN and it spend so fast. Within 3 days I lost 9 nice SPSs. I really do not know what I can do except do a major water change to save the 3 remaining. I have 7 clams and some fish in my 180 and they all are doing well. Sometimes I think that I will change to FOWLR. It seems to be a constant battle trying to keep SPSs.

Randy if you read this, some of the nice frags you gave me were doing so well now gone. SORRY

Barry

 

[KenH]

Hi Barry,

I noticed on your website that you use NSW for your water changes in the San Diego area. I don't know where you collect your water, but you might really be better off using salt mix so that you don't need to worry about introducing something into the tank accidentally. I lived in that area (Oceanside) for a while and the water isn't really all that clean due to all the ship traffic.

The other thing is that I notice you have a good size Sarc in the tank. Both Sarcs and Sinularia, and possible other large soft corals, can cause a certain amount of water degradation over time, and can quickly degrade the water if they take ill. I had a large Sinularia go downhill in my last tank and take out some of my SPS. I recently removed my large Sarc from my SPS tank as well when it started to look a little under the weather to be on the safe side. If you keep these types of larger soft corals with your SPS, you should do a fair amount of water changes and run carbon to minimize the effect the they have on the water quality and hence on your SPS and keep an eye on their health. I didn't notice, but assume that you are running a skimmer. I think a good skimmer is really necessary for an SPS tank, more so than for soft or LPS corals.

At this point, a large water change can only help and would probably be a good idea. If you have true RTN, it probably won't help, but if something else is going on it might. I am assuming that you haven't had something else get out of whack like the water temp shooting up or salinity getting out of line.

Other than that, you have a great looking setup for SPS and there is no reason you shouldn't be very successful with it. Once going, an SPS tank can be fairly easy to maintain and you already have an investment in the right equipment. I wouldn't give up quite yet!

--- Ken

 

[toptank]

Thanks Ken for your reply. I have been using NSW from Srcipps for about 6 months with no problem not to say that I might have got some bad water this past time. I our local club, almost all are using NSW from Scripp Institute.

I have heard that when you have a SPS tank that you could have trouble if you also house soft coral like you said. But again I know of some beautiful SPS tank in our club that also have LPS and no problems.

I am going to run some carbon like you suggested and I also run a big skimmer.

Thanks again for your reply.

Barry

 

[bsme]

Hello Barry,

Wish I had stopped by to see your tank before the RTN hit. I've had similar losses in the past but it was always triggered by extreme water temps (high 90's). The only other thing I can think of in your case is your skimmer. Are you still using the Turboflotor? It's a bit small for a fully stocked 180. Especially if you run it stock. Did you ever try hooking up an air pump to the skimmer? It will double/triple the amount of skimmate you pull out. A Euroreef skimmer would be even better. If thats not an option then possibly adding a refugium w/macro algea would help prevent the accumulation of undesirable organics. I doubt the use of Scripps/NSW water would trigger the RTN. I wouldn't get too discouraged. BTW, I finally bought a 240 tank. Haven't set it up yet but will let you know when I do.

Frank

 

[HARRISON]

Can one of you e-mail me with the info on the San Diego Club??? I haven't been able to find anything on-line...

Thanks

 

[chris_h]

I had a strange experience that is very differnt than what I have been hearing. I have a 75 gallon tank with a 70 gallon rubbermaid sump. About 5 months ago I removed my UV filters and my colt coral started to bleach. I forgot about it and thought it would recover. Last monday I realized the colt was almost complelty gone and had been slowly dieing. I have been experiencing an algea bloom for a few weeks, but the sps are growing faster than they have ever before. Mabey they liked the extra nutrients. Anyway my skimmer sure was skimming a lot so I was happy to find out why.

 

[cubera]

When I lived in San Diego I used water from Scripps but I would cover the containers with dark plastic for two weeks and run the water through diatom filters before introducing to my tanks. I still had a big problem with disease introduction even with Ozonation. You might have better success with sony corals with a good synthetic salt and bare bones I/O. Best bet would be to talk to local stony keepers and see how they do it before making futher decisions. HTH

 

[toptank]

Hi Frank, yes I did hook up a pump to that turbofloter and what a difference. What kind of lighting you going to put on that 240?

I do store my NSW for a few weeks before using.

 

[bsme]

Barry,

I'm not sure about the lighting yet. I have 2 250W 65K's now and was thinking of adding 2 more when I set up the big tank (8'x2'x2'). Or...going with the 10K AB HQI fixtures that Todd (Custom Aquatic) carries. Either way I'll be going 250W. 400W is too much heat and electricity for me. I can break off some orange cap, pink birdsnest, and micropthalma when you are ready. They're darn near bulletproof and add some nice color.

Frank

 

[Bryan]

I feel your pain. I have found that RTN can be cause by minor changes in the enviroment. I had a outbreak about months ago and I contributed it to a seized powerhead. I believe the loss of circulaton was a major contributor.

-=Bryan=-


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by toptank:
<STRONG>After pending a year on making thing correct to house SPS and spending LOTS of money and now I have only 2 left. I

Barry</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[myreef]

Sorry to hear about your loss Barry. I had one blue tipped acro get RTN about 4 months ago and it was gone in less than 24 hours. I even tried to frag it to no avail. As others have suggested, it is usually stress induced. In my case, I determined I did a water change and hadn't done one in a long time prior so apparently it stressed this particular acro. I do not have any softies in my tank...only acros and a few LPS and a photosynthetic gorgonian.

Did you introduce anything new in the tank at all? New additive or anything? Good luck.

 

[toptank]

I didn't add anything new to the tank, but the more I think about it I feel the heat had something to do with it.

Frank, IMO I am glad that you are going with 250 instead of 400watters. If I had to do it all over again I would have kept my 250 watters as yes they put out much more head IMO. I had 2 x 250s on my 90gal which was 24" deep and everything did great and now I have this 180 which is 24" and now run 3 x 400s and 2 x 140 watt VHO.

Barry

 

[KenH]

If your house has AC, you should be able to keep things cool enough. I have 4-400W MH and 440W Actinic over a 225 (same as 180 only 6" wider) and I keep my tank in the 79-81 range with just fans and no chiller. I have found that running a large fan over the sump and keeping one of the end cabinet doors open to allow the heat to escape helps a lot. Of course, I also have to keep the house pretty cool. My wife will force me to buy a chiller by next summer I am sure

I know a lot of people are keeping their tanks at 85 plus, and I have run my own various tanks from 75 - 84, but I find SPS seem to really do better at the lower end of the range. Most large scale SPS losses I have heard about or witnessed were due to tank temperatures getting too high and the SPS corals getting stressed. When the tank is being run on the high side in regards to temperature, it doesn't take much to go from being warm to being too warm for the SPS. The most spectacular SPS reef tank I know of is run in the 76-78 range.

--- Ken

 

[toptank]

Ken, I must agree with you on the tamp control. When ever I have had problems with my SPSs it is normally due to higher temp which I feel causes stress. I do have AC but here in San Diego we do not have to run it all the time. So the rest of the house can be 76 and in the room where my tank is can be as high as 85 from heat from the lights and other equipment. I would get a window AC but I am at the range where the circuit will not take anymore without the breaker cutting off.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Barry/Toptank,

I know this may be a simpleton's question for you. But your calcium and alkalinity levels were in the correct ranges during your RTN episode I assume (Ca > 400 and alk > 2.5 meq/l)? What temp did your tank reach? Were all your SPS from frags, or did you have any wild collected large colonies? Any A. gemmifera or A. humilis?

- Greg Hiller

 

[toptank]

Hi Greg, my ca ranges from 410 - 440ppm and alka ranges from 9.2 to 10.4dKh and my temp has been as high as 86. I had both SPS you mentioned. Had some wild colonies and some frags that I obtained from friends in our club. As I mentioned, I have had no problem for months until now. The newest coral I added was about 3 months ago. I did have a A.gemmifera but it didn't last long, that was about 4 months ago. I have heard that the gemmifera is very hard to keep in captive?

Barry

[ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: toptank ]

[ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: toptank ]

 

[toptank]

up

 

[NuReef]

Sorry to butt in, but Greg, why are u curious about gemiffera or humilis?
just curious...

Nureef

 

[Emperator]

Walt Smith was kind enough to come by our reef club meeting in LA a few weeks back and he mentioned that he keeps all the corals in his facilities at @76 degrees. Due to the fact that the average year-round temperature of the water he collects from is in the mid 70's, he recommends keeping corals from the south pacific at that remperature.

HTH

 

[humu]

about 2 months ago I thought I had RTN because all my sps were slowly bleaching from one end to the other, but then I noticed these little nudis that were the same color as the sps munching on the polyps. could this be the case in your tank?
aloohas
ryan