> IME RTN kills entire colonies in just a few hours so your
> problem may be non-rapid tissue necrosis. They may have a
> bacterial or fungal disease that is likely to improve if you
> can alter conditions in the system favoring your corals'
> immune defenses. HTH. www.lonestarcorals.com
This is worth a try. I haven't had the same experience, but I haven't had
that much experience with RTN (only 2 outbreaks). Both times, the coral
that started the cascade went very quickly, as you described, but the
colonies that started going as secondaries took days sometimes.
>From what I've heard, the latest thought on the cause of RTN is a stress
induced autoimmune response. The coral's immune system goes berzerk, and it
destroys itself. The tissue that sloughs off may come into contact with
other corals and start the same reaction there, hence the rapid spread of
the problem without an identifiable pathogen. Dipping reduces the bacterial
count on the coral, which may allow the coral to return to a regular immune
response. There's also an antibiotic (forget the name now...starts with a
'M' or 'C' I think) that has been reported successful in some cases. Note,
this is all just theory at this point. I don't think anyone's come up with
any sort of conclusive answer yet.
A good way to help determine if RTN is the problem is to see where the coral
is receeding. If it's from the base up, RTN is more probable. If it's at
random points on the coral, another culprit is probably indicated. Also,
you can usually see tissue flapping around at the recession line if it's RTN
(IME).
Polyfilter pads do a great job of removing stuff that's bad from your water.
These are a good alternative (or addition) to carbon if you have the option.
Since it's generally very hard to cure RTN, I'd go with JhnMfftt's advice
and try his plan first. Just remember that raising the SG more than
0.001/hr can be stressful on sensitive invertebrates like blue linka stars.
Best of luck.
James Payne
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