SPS Bleaching vs. Tissue Necrosis

[jackson6745]

This is confused by many SPS keepers. You'll often read that an SPS coral has bleached, when it has actually died. A bleached coral will still have its tissue, however, the zooxanthelle living within the coral will expel causing it to lose it's color. The severity of bleaching can vary. A coral can be slightly faded in color, or completely white (but still alive) for a variety of reasons. You can usually see polyps on the coral.

Bleached but alive

Tissue necrosis is placed into 2 categories, Rapid Tissue Necrosis (RTN), and Slow Tissue Necrosis (STN). When either occurs, a coral is losing it's flesh. RTN will usually show a "peeling" of the tissue, and death occurs usually in less than a day.

Here's a pic from Sanjay's Tank showing RTN

STN usually occurs from the base of an SPS coral. This could happen for days or months before it consumes a coral. Sometimes it will stop and the coral will regrow over the dead area.

An example of STN

 

[zahid1234]

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[Chefjpaul]

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[evoIX_Reefer]

Nice post!

Is there anyway to continue this by adding what you have done to successfully remedy the issues above?

What would you do if you saw this in your tank? Would you remove that coral and perform a dip or quarantine? Would you check all parameters or specific ones that may be causing this? Does one coral experiencing STN cause other SPS pieces to experience the same issue or is it isolated?

 

[frag apple]

stn and rtn are generally cause when nutrients and alk are out out sync one of the other is either to to high or to low! bleaching is a easy fix turn down your lights!

 

[SteveZ15]

For once my tank don't have either