RTN or hopefully something else HELP

[bling_bling466]

Well I picked up a nice tabling acro and it looked good for 2 weeks then this morning I noticed a little tissue loss. Then got home from work and noticed more the half gone. So I removed it and got a couple nice frag witch are now on the frag tray I wasn't able to get pics because I tossed it lol. The question is when I picked up the coral he cut the colony in half throw some water in and gave it to me. I'm kinda new to sps and was wondering if this is just stress or related to how he fragged it. Would it still be RTN and is it contagious. If so what are my next steps

[FragIt Dan]

RTN itself is not contagious, but is an indicator of stress. The source of that stress may be system wide (ie low Ca or red bugs) or local (too much or too little light or water flow in the location for that coral). The fact that it was fragged likely has less to do with it than other sources of stress it has been subjected to in your tank. You have not really given enough info to head you in the right direction for finding the cause... do you test your water? Do you have other sps that are doing ok? Was it RTNing under high light/ water flow? The fact that it survived 2 weeks leads me to believe it is something to do with your tank more than anything.

[bling_bling466]

This was my first tabling acro. I'm using led lighting. I test everything calcium is at 400 alk is 8-9 mag is a little low at 1200 and phos is 0.05(Hanna checker). I placed it a little lower is the tank not directly in light. Maybe the reason I'm keeping other sps some green slimed blue tenius plating montis all at top and some tri colour blue tip lower and a clam inthe sand bed(witch I've had there sometime now) Some of these I've had almost a year and some months. Nitrates nitrate and amonIa is all at 0. I kinda think it was too low in the tank now that I've read more. I see the frags on the rack and there getting great PE well see if therealive tomorrow. I glad to hear it's not contagious. Any other help is much appreciated

[reefermadness]

If you've only had it for 2 weeks....it may have been destined to RTN.

Also I've never had a acro RTN over redbugs.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

Also I've never had a acro RTN over redbugs.

Not RTN, but PQTN for sure. I've lost whole colonies, once they started, they were gone in days.
But probably not what happened here. Just a set of parameters that were likely too different to it's source tank. Too much light typically would cause bleaching, too little and it goes brown. PO4 is a bit high, so that could affect it.
Differing flow patterns, often bigger pieces are more affected. The fragging process probably wasn't the cause, I got a 1/3 of a tabling piece 2 months ago that we just cut into three. All three are doing fine in three different tanks.
Unfortunately in the world of SPS, sometimes this happens. If you keep those pieces that you cut off, you got lucky.

[RedCoralEdmonton]

also you say LED.... but what LEDs there are alot of different brands and styles to group your lighting into one category.... ive seen LEDs that suck and ive seen LEDs that rock... all being the same wattage....

Steve

[FragIt Dan]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

Also I've never had a acro RTN over redbugs.

Yeah, I was just giving some examples of some tank wide issues to illicit some more contextual information, but a fair comment . I actually have no experience with red bugs, thankfully. PQTN...? Parasitic (Q?) Tissue Necrosis? Just a guess, it's a new acronym for me... throw me a bone

[Reefie]

My guess is going to be that the coral RTN'd due to stress from lack of light acclimation. LED's have a way higher PAR than MH's and other lighting. New additions to your DT should always be drip acclimated to match the "water" parameters, but what a lot of us (Myself included, until recently) fail to "light" acclimate and let the coral adjust to our individual lighting. It's a lot for a coral to go through to get it's arm cut off, glued to a plug, tossed in a bag of water, get driven or shipped to its new home, dumped into another tank, get blinded by a new light, and then be expected to grow.

[bling_bling466]

Well the frags are all alive still with good PE. Im not to sure on the LED brand as i got them from a friend. but like i said ive got a clam at the bottom of the tank thats been there for 6-8months. and my other acros are growing. (maybe not a inch a month but there is growth.) i dip all my corals for about 30 min then do a coral rx dip. i hope ive got this issue undercontrol lol. i got some other corals from the supplier and there doing great lots of PE. i guess time will tell

[bling_bling466]

One thing i did notice is the sps crab living with that coral jumped ship 2 days after i got this piece. maybe he knew something before me. lol hes no is my purple acro with green polyps.