I have had very bad luck with Acropora so far. The first Acros I had were lost to RTN. I didn't attempt to keep anymore for awhile. Montipora is doing great in my 80 ga reef so I figured I would try some Acropora again since my water clarity has improved. I got 3 acro frags at the Reef Fest workshop last weekend, Purple (my favorite), pink, and yellow. They have all been in my Frag Tank for the past week and had been keeping their coloring well. Fed the tank DTs at night, and the polyps were out and feeding. Then last night, I noticed a tiny amount of tissue coming off on the base of the puple acro. I get up this morning and half the tissue is gone on this one purple acro. Other two acros are still doing great. I dipped all the corals in my frag tank for about 15 mins, and then cut off the very small portion of the purple acro that still had tissue and glued it to a reef plug. I hate RTN. It seems like you never know when it is going to hit, and the coral is gone in such a short amount of time. Any suggestions? I feed the tank, water current is good, polyps were out and feeding.....and now almost all of that nice puple acro is gone. Lighting is T5 and the frag tank is shallow.
RTN = Rapid Tissue Necrosis From what I have read, it only happens mainly to Acropors Sp. species, and there is know official known cause.
Our purple acro from the frag fest also RTN'd so don't feel to bad. It may have just been the coral, and not anything you done. I really liked the purple acro though!!
I wonder if this frag was broken up say after a soft coral, and there was a residue/cross contamination from the soft corals that was transferred to the acro from the latex gloves? It maybe a good idea to change gloves in between types of corals. I am just reaching here since everyone has lost theirs it seems. Not sure if this type of contamination is possible or not. I know its possible in restaraunt buffets with the serving untinsiles. Any ideas or thoughts on this?
That's a good point Ibassfish, that could have been what happened, that was the first acro we fragged, before that was the montis. It would probably be a good idea (if we don't already) to change gloves or wash really good before switching to the more sensitive corals. But then again it may have just been the coral, some acros just can't handle much change at all. From being shipped to the store, then fragged, then put into bags to be added to are tanks there's gona be some tempature change and some change in the water chemistries and maybe it just couldn't handle it all. Really hard to know for sure what could have happened. Has anybody got a piece of the purple that has lived?
my purple acro is still alive. Its color isn't as vibrant as it was though. I wasn't sure if I might have had it too high up under my lights. I sure hope I dont loose mine too. Everyone keep your fingers crossed
My purple acro is doing great but am feeding it everyday. it under 150 watts of HQI viper in my 30 cube bout half way up. Still hoding color and eating...anxious to see when it will actually start growing tho.
Glad to know it wasn't just mine that died. The other two acros I got at the frag workshop are doing just fine.
I am the new guy here and was looking at some past post. Acros are very touchy to alot of conditions and some more so then others. First off acros don't eat phytoplankton, that is for softies and filter feeders like clams. Acros eat zooplankton, cyclops-ease, coral frenzie, and home made mush, but when making your mush make sure the stuff is fresh and hasn't been cooked or anything added to preserve it. Taking an acro home, you need to acclimate it to MH lighting unless you know for sure it was kept under it when you bought it and at what level on the reef to the MH lighting. Just because acros need brightr lighting doesn't mean you should just take it home and stick it up high on the reef right away. That can cause RTN. Also you need to keep the water clarity pristene with the use of carbon and change the carbon out every other week. Carbon well also help keep bad toxins from softies down. Current is needed with acros, and consistant temps and most fo all alk and calc and ph has to be kept consistant and at proper levels. I know there are alot of people who run very high alk. levels, but running alk high maybe fine, but make sure you balance it out with the calc and the mag levels to match, otherwise the acro well have a hard time growing properly. I have seen alot of RTN happen from someone reading that high alk levels is good, it may be for helping keep algae down, but so is good husbandry. I run my levels at 8.2 alk, 420 calc., 1250-1300 mag and have had no issues for years. Acros like higher salinity also say 1.023 to 1.025. Pristene water parims are critical with acros.
The purple acros that died due to RTN were most likely mishandled during reef fest. I think they were probably dipped/kept in water that was tainted by other fragged corals. FYI, I am probably the worst reef keeper. I have broken almost every rule in the book. Some rules like RO water were a learning experience. Other rules seem to be very flexible. In my tank, my yellow acros are doing well. I haven't fed them. I check the water conditions monthly or at least most months. I didn't change my water for more than 4 months. My calcium is always low and I do add a liquid calcium supplement but, to no avail. I don't have a quarantine tank. I have a lot more confessions about my pitiful reef keeping but, I lack the time. So, I'll leave you with this: Some things are beyond control. Sometimes people have good luck with corals that they shouldn't. Sometimes people who try the hardest have the most troubles (Chris, that's for you).
I don't mean this to sound wrong, but anyone who gets in this hobby or any hobby for that matter that is reliant upon animals removed from their natural habitat should make sure they have the time to administer proper husbandry, and having said that, it does not promise success. I won't get on my soap box about the very poor survival rate of the animals removed from the reefs are in this hobby. I was just pointing out that there is alot more to keeping acros then having a tank full of saltwater. Maybe the acros were not handled properly, but there were some that survived in other tanks that the persons sounded like they had maybe a bit more experience. These forums were created to help people with their questions and since I have had some success over the years with acros I thought my 2 cents might help. I'm glad your able to keep a few acros without much work, but not all acros are created equal. Cheers John
