PLEASE HELP MY ACORS ARE MELTING

[Greg Hiller]

Dude,

You're not being very specific about what happened. Was there a temp spike, did you add any new live stock, did the calcium reactor fail, run out of CO2, did a pump shutdown? Throw us a bone here?

- Greg Hiller

 

[reeflobo]

Sorry about not being extremely specific, but i really didn't want to right a novel, that would bore those who are willing to help. As far as I know there has been no temperature spike, but i just added a chiller to keep it from going into the mid-eighties. I don't think it has anything to do with the temp. I did have to turn off the calcium reactor, but it's back up and running and has all new calcium substrate in it. My pump did burn out while i was out of town, but I've replaced it, and the acros seem to still be melting. I also added a group of frags to the tank, but all of them are doing great, and thats why I'm so confused. Any other ideas that people can offer would be much appreciated.
thanks again
andrew

 

[reeflobo]

I was forced to leave town in june and was gone for almost a month, and when i returned my tank was falling a part. I had a reliable fried taking care of the tank, but as we all know, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Anyways to make a long story short, when I returned here, most of the acros were suprisingly still doing great. Within the next few days I started to have acro colonies melt away, and over the past couple of weeks I've lost 3 colonies, and nearly 10 frags. I've tested the water, and copleted two water changes, and I thought it was over with, but this morning i noticed that another one had died. Please help
drew

 

[jdeets]

Which pump went out while you were away? You said your tank was "falling apart" when you got back. What all was wrong with it? I don't think anyone will be able to help with your acro problem unless you fill us in on all the gory details...

[ July 20, 2001: Message edited by: jdeets ]

 

[tlc]

was your ca reactor broke the whole time. did you test your water when you got back to see if it gave you any clues. the more we know the more we can help you.

 

[reeflobo]

The pump that went out was my main return pump, which was a little giant 4, and the guy taking care of the tank rigged a rio 3100 as a return pump, while I was still gone. When I returned, I attempted to replace the pump with one of the custom sea-life velocity T4 pump, but the first one I got leaked, so by the time I got a new one, I had a soaked carpet, and the acros were melted away. THe problem has persisted for the past couple of weeks since I got back. When I got back, the only thing that looked bad was my colony of Fiji Pom-Pom Xenia, and it's still trying to make a come back. As for the calcium reactor, It was down for about 10 days total, and I haven't checked the calcium level yet, but that could quite possible be the problem. The skimmer was also down for a very short time, but that was only for a couple of days. The weirdest thing was that all the sps's showed exceptional growth while I was gone. I just can't figure it out. If theres anymore questions that can help my get to the bottom of this, please feel free to ask and I will respond as quickly as possible.
Thanks again,
drew

 

[reeflobo]

Okay, I've tested the water again, and the calcium is at 450, the ph is 8.4, and the regulars are all at zero. Any other ideas you guys might have would me much appreciated, just keepem coming.
thanks again
drew

 

[Greg Hiller]

Dude,

Unfortunately, we will probably never really know what caused the melt down. A tank usually needs to have constant circulation, and calcium and alkalinity levels should never fall below certain levels for any length of time. Also, whenever you add new corals (SPS) there is the potential to bring an active RTN infection into your tank. Most people use a Lugol's iodine dip before they add new corals to their tank. This is particularly important for wild collected colonies.

- Greg Hiller

 

[reeflobo]

Is there anything I can do now, I woke up to two more colonies melting?
thanks again for all the advice
drew

 

[reeflobo]

Any ideas????????????

 

[Jazzcat]

Man, I really feel for you

I'm going through hell with my tank too. My one fish is afflicted with ich, and all of my mushrooms are disintegrating before my eyes.

Anyone notice that the pleasure derived from reefkeeping works on the same line as: "Why do you keep banging your head against that wall? Because it feels so good when I stop."

 

[jdeets]

Is there any way you could provide pics of the "melting" SPS. I'm actually having a lot of trouble visualizing what is going on here...

 

[reeflobo]

Unfortunately, I don't have a digital camera, and for that matter even a camera that will take a decent enough picture to put on the web. The best way I can describe the "melting" as I call it is kinda like a persons skin after it gets sun burned. The outer layer of the acro seems to be cracking, and then just peeling away, just leaving a perfectly bleach acro. It seems to start at the base, and work towards the tips, killing off about half, and then taking care of the other half. I feel I've tried nearly everything, except for tearing down the whole tank and starting over. I've tried water changes, check all the levels, cleaned out the entire sump and skimmer, and nothing has seemed to work. If theres any other ideas out there, I'd love to hear them.
thanks
drew

 

[Sue Truett]

Drew, what you are describing with the tissue flaking or seeming to be coming off the skeleton sounds like RTN. If it is indeed RTN, or rapid tissue necrosis, there isn't much you can do. Especially after the lenght of time it has gone on. You did water changes and aside from fragging everything you may not be able to stop this event. For whatever reason this started in your system after this much time has passed I don't know if anything would or could stop it. Tearing down the tank isn't going to help and may stress the corals even more. I'm so sorry this is happening to you and hope you can figure out what may have happened for trips in the future.

check out my 120 sps tank: http://suetruett.homestead.com/home.html www.marshreef.org/members

 

[Vins Fins]

here is a possible solution to your problem, read this thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=3a132f76ab01f5b481db0242c5baa2fd&threadid=6315&highlight=melafix+rtn

 

[Jason Day]

Drew,

Relax theres probably nothing you can do now. Just ride it out. I can tell you having to go through a tank crash is like going through a mariage separation lots of guilt, pain ect.

Learn from it and move on, don't do what I did and start ignoring the tank more.


Jason

 

[Greg Hiller]

Drew,

I agree with the above. It's too late to do much at this point. If it had just started, and started to snowball you could have tried the whole tank Chloramphenical treatment. I did this once about a year ago in a frag tank. It stopped the problem, but let me tell you...this treatment is not for the light of heart!! There are files in the library I believe that describe the treatment method.

- Greg Hiller

 

[reeflobo]

Thanks for all your reply's, I think the damage has been done,and the tank is in the recovery stage, so say a prayer for me. If yall have any more suggestions, I'm still willing to hear them. Last question, but how long should I wait before I try to add another acro, and should I give it a Lugols dip before putting it in?
thanks
drew