Bleaching Acros

[Hara]

What could cause a blue tipped acro to bleach completely, virtually overnight? Lighting hasnt changed, flow hasnt changed, temp hasnt changed.
I have been slowly changing salt from IO to the Oceanic. When I mean slowly it was roughly 20 gallons in a 200 gallon system.

 

[Anemoneman]

bummer Hara. Wish I could help. Don't know much about non-photosythetic types...

 

[reefrunner69]

Picture? You listed the big reasons for bleaching, the only issue I've seen related to salt was usually when going with a higher volume. I have recommended going with 5% per time, but when I switched I went with 10% and had no issues.

 

[douggiestyle]

how long have you had the coral before bleaching occured?

nice bike mark.

 

[Hara]

a long time. Kevin, when was that? This was one of your frags.

 

[reefrunner69]

It's been this past summer, Sept 18th is when you posted in the trades feed back forum.

Can you get a pic? I'm thinking for it to bleach that quickly and completely, it might not be bleaching but RTN.

 

[Hara]

I cant til this evening..but I will then.

 

[douggiestyle]

a long time

is it possible that growth in the acro as well as surrounding corals may have affected water flow? or would that not give overnight results?

 

[jamal-188]

a long time

is it possible that growth in the acro as well as surrounding corals may have affected water flow? or would that not give overnight results?

I"m not expert but I don't think that would cause such an affect overnight.

 

[douggiestyle]

hmmm

Whats rapid tissue necrosis? what causes it?

 

[Hara]

sorry I am a day late with this.....life sometimes gets in the way of plans ..

 

[cj10488]

that looks like it RTN'd to me.. IME it can happen for any number of reasons.. I have had 1 acro rtn and all the others fine.. and that happened overnight... Its very wierd but it happens.. I have lost a few to rtn but usually if you catch it at the start you can save by fragging..

Sorry for your loss Hara,
James

 

[Hara]

so what causes it to "just happen" out of nowhere? any ideas?

 

[cj10488]

IMO it could be anything.. RTN seems to be a commonly used term for SPS as there could be really no know reason.. The ones that have RTNd of mine i was never able to figure out a reason.. Where as like lastnight my gfci tripped while i was out of town and caused the tank to plumit to 68f and everything looked upset but now that the temp is back to 80 everything looks great as if it never happened... IME acros can/are very tempermental and just a slight breath can cause them to RTN.. I like them but I hate them for the RTN fact.. One reason that i came up with for MY RTN episode with the few i had was crappy fragging methods used by a local LFS store.. it seems as though 90% of the frags I have gotten from them have RTNd.. I was able to frag a few and save them but.. I still think its how they mass frag these things.. Since yours came from Kev i would look more towards "unexplained Cause" or were they close to the surface? Check your surface temp and see if it matches tank temp... Maybe it didnt really like the flow it was in and finally said enough and RTnd..

HTH<
James

 

[Hara]

since last summer? these guys are about 2 inches above the sandbed in a 175...but, it may have gotten warm during the day while I was at work. Tank stays
in the low 80's as the par.

 

[cj10488]

Then i wouldnt look at the temp being a factor... Most of the time with RTN ppl like us will never know what caused it unless the levels are out of whack or you just recently did something Ie; Salt change, change in lighting ect...

James

 

[reefrunner69]

Is that a shroom on it's rock? My guess would be the shroom stung it and they physical injury opened it up to RTN. That coralis gone, you can remove the skeleton, it's gone. I may frag it again in a month or so, if you want another one, let me know

 

[cj10488]

Is that a shroom on it's rock?

Now that I relook again it looks like a nice looking ricordia.. Love the colors on it.. That would be what i would call the cause of it.. even though it may never be know 100% but its always nice to know sometimes

James

 

[douggiestyle]

im not sure i understand the difference between rtn and bleaching. the results appear to look the same.

 

[reefrunner69]

Not realy, RTN is more like ebola for corals, it actually eats the flesh off. Bleaching is the coral expelling it's symbiotic algae and can be localized to one branch or generalized to the entire coral, but the flesh is still there and the coral is still alive. Any place on a coral that has had RTN, is dead.