What is this? Help please.

[Origami]

BTW, you're description of new frags starting to turn "boney" sounds like tissue recession and death. That's when the living part of the coral begins to recede, exposing the underlying skeleton (which is most often white). A lot of times, when tissue starts to die like this, it will continue until the whole frag is consumed. When the whole coral / frag dies very quickly (like in hours or overnight or possibly a day or two for a large colony), we'll call the process "rapid tissue necrosis" or RTN. We'll say that it "RTN'd." Sometimes, though, the tissue recedes much more slowly and we'll refer to the process as "STN" or "slow tissue necrosis."  With RTN, we normally don't have too much time to deal with it and do much more than start taking frags out of the good tissue areas. Hobbyists have tried many ways to identify and to stop or recover from RTN and STN: Dips, fragging, superglue along the border of dying and living tissue. Sometimes we're successful, other times we're not. The causes of RTN and STN are not fully known, but can include bad parameters, infection, or other factors, including a reaction to some triggering event. It's one of the frustrations of the hobby that those of us that have been in the hobby have likely suffered through ourselves.

 

In your case, you're probably buying stuff that is well above your experience level (which, as it improves, will yield better understanding, more experience, and better husbandry techniques). You'll quickly learn in this hobby that it's not at all like what you may see on shows like "Tanked." In fact, a lot of us bemoan shows like that because it leads new and interested hobbyists to unrealistic expectations, frustration and failure. 

 

Taking a breath and resetting your expectations before making more thoughtful choices about where you should start and where you want to go in this hobby is probably called for.

 

Come to the meeting this Saturday and meet some of your fellow reefers. It'll help restore your confidence that things can be better for you. Read a book or two, too. The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Bob Fenner is one of my favorites that will help open your eyes to the value of learning in this hobby. It's sort of dated, but good advice is good advice. Another is Mike Paletta's The New Marine Aquarium. Again, it was published a while back, but it offers some good, practical advice about setting up systems optimized to your livestock selection and husbandry techniques. While a lot of technologies have changed, the basic building blocks of the hobby really haven't changed. It's worth it to get yourself spun up on those building blocks so you can understand more, make better equipment and livestock choices, and enjoy the hobby.

 

Of course, this forum is a great resource where you'll meet a lot of good people. Exchanging information and looking at a few tanks will also help to get the passion re-ignited if you're losing confidence in your ability to do this.

[Bruleyii]

Thank you all. I'm pretty close to giving up. At my wits end. The one you say is very dead is very new. Blew another $70 over the weekend on some new corals and turned the lights way down - especially the whites. My new corals are already losing color and becoming "boney". Very discouraged. Where am I supposed to get coral if I can't trust the two stores I've gone to? All my water and light parameters seem ok and no one has any answers for me. This whole thing has been a huge nightmare.

 

 

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I would take Seth up on his offer. He will be able to test your water in way more depth than most fish stores. 

 

I'm sorry you are having issues with your tank and corals. It can be frustrating at times. It takes patience and time. 

It's worth it to become a member of WAMAS so you have access to things that members sell. The selection and price of corals for sale right now would blow your mind. There is a lot for sale right now since we are coming up on a quarterly meeting date. You may or may not be ready for some corals right now but when you are, you can be assured that the selections and prices from members is well worth the $20 membership fee.

+1

 

Depending on what you buy, you can save more than that in just one coral purchase. You can def save that on a used piece of equipment.  

Edited February 9, 2017 by Bruleyii

[mac227]

3 months in and youre dropping hundreds on things you have no idea about leads me to believe that you didn't research this very carefully before getting into it.

This place (WAMAS) has a better selection than most stores, better knowledge than all stores, and people who will help you first without trying to make a quick buck.

I suggest starting here, then venture into the real world after getting as much knowledge and wisdom that is offered for free....

Do you really think I would be this frustrated right now if I didn't carefully research?

 

 

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[mac227]

Bring about 4oz of tank water with you to the meeting on Saturday and I will run the whole spectrum of tests on it and see if we can troubleshoot it. My bet is the problem lies with one of the parameters you are not testing.

 

Try and stick it out. This whole hobby is about trial and error. We will figure out what is causing the coral die off.

 

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Ok- I'm up in Frederick md, but I'm going to try and make it. My name is Matt. Thanks for the offer

 

 

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[mac227]

BTW, you're description of new frags starting to turn "boney" sounds like tissue recession and death. That's when the living part of the coral begins to recede, exposing the underlying skeleton (which is most often white). A lot of times, when tissue starts to die like this, it will continue until the whole frag is consumed. When the whole coral / frag dies very quickly (like in hours or overnight or possibly a day or two for a large colony), we'll call the process "rapid tissue necrosis" or RTN. We'll say that it "RTN'd." Sometimes, though, the tissue recedes much more slowly and we'll refer to the process as "STN" or "slow tissue necrosis." With RTN, we normally don't have too much time to deal with it and do much more than start taking frags out of the good tissue areas. Hobbyists have tried many ways to identify and to stop or recover from RTN and STN: Dips, fragging, superglue along the border of dying and living tissue. Sometimes we're successful, other times we're not. The causes of RTN and STN are not fully known, but can include bad parameters, infection, or other factors, including a reaction to some triggering event. It's one of the frustrations of the hobby that those of us that have been in the hobby have likely suffered through ourselves.

 

In your case, you're probably buying stuff that is well above your experience level (which, as it improves, will yield better understanding, more experience, and better husbandry techniques). You'll quickly learn in this hobby that it's not at all like what you may see on shows like "Tanked." In fact, a lot of us bemoan shows like that because it leads new and interested hobbyists to unrealistic expectations, frustration and failure.

 

Taking a breath and resetting your expectations before making more thoughtful choices about where you should start and where you want to go in this hobby is probably called for.

 

Come to the meeting this Saturday and meet some of your fellow reefers. It'll help restore your confidence that things can be better for you. Read a book or two, too. The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Bob Fenner is one of my favorites that will help open your eyes to the value of learning in this hobby. It's sort of dated, but good advice is good advice. Another is Mike Paletta's The New Marine Aquarium. Again, it was published a while back, but it offers some good, practical advice about setting up systems optimized to your livestock selection and husbandry techniques. While a lot of technologies have changed, the basic building blocks of the hobby really haven't changed. It's worth it to get yourself spun up on those building blocks so you can understand more, make better equipment and livestock choices, and enjoy the hobby.

 

Of course, this forum is a great resource where you'll meet a lot of good people. Exchanging information and looking at a few tanks will also help to get the passion re-ignited if you're losing confidence in your ability to do this.

Do they have a VRTN, lol. It sounds a lot like RTN. Now to find out why. Thanks for the book recommendations. I've read the New Marine Aq by Paletta and Marine Chemistry by Brightwell. I'm going to try and rearrange some plans and come out for the meeting Saturday. It's a bit of a hike but I'm interested in learning more. Thanks again -Matt

 

 

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[Origami]

Do you really think I would be this frustrated right now if I didn't carefully research?

Matt, I think that Rob was just trying to be provocative (to provoke you to think and consider that you are a big factor in the success or failure of your tank), not mean or attacking. Research is just part of the equation. Don't get me wrong, it's important to research. It'll help you avoid a lot of mistakes, or at least to diagnose problems as they arise. Experience, though, is another big factor. And, if there's one thing that you learn through experience here, it's the value of patience and taking it slow, and the consequences of changing things up too quickly, or the frustration of operating outside our current capabilities or experience level. I'm sure that you can understand that some of these recent failures, in other hands, might not have been failures but might have been successes. As you learn more, develop good husbandry habits, and do things that set up and stabilize a good, working environment where livestock thrives, you'll improve and things will go better. None of us are the same as when we started out. In a way, we cycle just like our tanks.

[ReefAddict]

I saw in your first post that you did dip the coral.  When I was new to SPS and harder to keep coral, I don't know why, but almost every piece of SPS I dipped had RTN.  I could dip LPS all day long with no issues, but SPS always had RTN.  So if your water checks out, maybe the issue is with the dip or dipping process you are using.  Just a thought, hope everything works out. 

Edited February 9, 2017 by ReefAddict

[mac227]

I saw in your first post that you did dip the coral. When I was new to SPS and harder to keep coral, I don't know why, but almost every piece of SPS I dipped had RTN. I could dip LPS all day long with no issues, but SPS always had RTN. So if your water checks out, maybe the issue is with the dip or dipping process you are using. Just a thought, hope everything works out.

Good to know - thanks. I use the Coral RX coral dip - wasn't cheap. Followed the directions carefully, but who knows.

 

 

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[mac227]

You all have really been incredible with the support. I suppose I didn't know what to expect when I reached out. Here are my two new "boney" friends.

 

 

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[mari.harutunian]

looks like a favia and a brain? hard to tell in the blue light. When i get a new coral i always research the care requirements first so i dont kill it when i get home. Its hard to tell if your corals are dying because of individual care requirements or from something wrong with the tank water or just the process of buying and acclimating. To account for everything, we need all your parameters(temperature, ph, calc,alk,mag, salinity), your lighting, your additives, and your acclimation procedure( how long, from what salinity to what salinity, and for how long) otherwise its very difficult to determine much. 

[sethsolomon]

You all have really been incredible with the support. I suppose I didn't know what to expect when I reached out. Here are my two new "boney" friends.

 

 

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First is a favites (brain coral). It's an Lps. medium light. Low to medium flow.

 

Second is a platygyra (maze brain). Same care requirements as the favia.

 

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