when does rtn occure?

[Jeff]

fromwhat ihave experienced and heard from others is that rtn seems to happen at night. i cant remember who wrote it but there is a bacteria in the coral that could possibly be the curlpit but antibiotics do not work on it.
now could this bacteria actually be a beneficial bacteria that the coral needs until a ph swing at night causes it to become a problem. theidea is equivilent to a yeast infection in a woman, the bacteria is already there but a ph difference can set off an infection. now instead of the ph in a tank slowely lowering to a level that it actualy drops quickly and then raises to the night time ph level. that could cause the bacteria to multiply and actually be released into the water collum affecting other corals that might be weakened by the ph adjustment but would not have rtn'd except for the extra bacteria in the water making it seemto be contagious. imjust floating an idea out there maybe someone has heard of this before. :blink

[LoneStar]

RTN occurs when you shell out ALOT of money for a nice colony, turn your back, and POOF!! >_<

[Reef69]

This (http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=17537) is what I think and Im sticking to my guns. Dont know if everybody else agrees or not, but my hypothesis seems very real.

[Jeff]

i do agree with that reef69, but the lack of water flow or parameters has got to effect something to start the rtn( possibly thebacteria). weall have bacteria in our body but if something is out of whack then what was beneficial is now bad for you.

[Reef69]

i am 100% convinced that what triggers RTN/STN is water quality and the demand the type of coral has when it comes to flow and light. I dont believe its a bacterial infection and i dont believe its contagious.

[hobogato]

bacteria usually dont change from beneficial to harmfull. beneficial bacteria in your body E. coli, are beneficial in your intestine, but not in your stomach - its kinda one of those everything has its place things. some bacteria can switch between aerobic (using oxygen) and anaerobic depending on the presence or absence of oxygen. that is not to say that harmfull bacteria cant go from one coral to the next, taking over and killing off the good bacteria.

i really think the key is water quality- like diego said. also, good stock to begin with and remember, just like with fish, it only takes one bad addition to spread something harmfull to your healthy, established critters.

[Reef69]

Plus another thing people dont take into consideration is the requirements of each coral. i.e..a cap doesnt have the same needs an acro has, a milli doesnt have the same a tenius has..They all need different flow and different light requirements..and when someone buys a coral and just throws it it wherever..you are just giving the coral another reason to RTN/STN.

[Richard]

Every day we are bombarded with bacteria/viruses. If you are stressed, maybe working alot not eating not sleeping...then you tend to get sick.

You aquarium is loaded with bacteria, some harmful some not. Poor water quality or other stressors lead to bacterial infections in fish and corals. There are so many aspects of water quality that we just can't test for. I don't think it has much to do with flow or lighting but those are things we can see so therefore the are the easiest things to blame it on. I think it IS a rapid bacterial infection but that it is brought on by water quality which is the root cause.

[hammondegge]

could be brought about by chemical warefare as well. if the flow is not enough to flush away the chemicals that are released in competition then the weaker of the (or both) colonies may be damaged giving an opening for a bacterial infection.
i read somewhere the elevator analogy. i think it was calfo. imagine a packed elevator stopped between floors. if everyone in the elevator is not sick, the ventilation is excellent, all the captives can get along and there is a steady supply of nutritious foods and a continuous removal of wastes........ still there probably will be a fight or two.

[Jeff]

thanks for the answeres so far, this is the response i was wanting, not answeres that people read but something that requires thought, experience, and info that they have gathered. sometimes it is bad to have ananswereS that say READ THIS.

[Reef69]

Read this! (http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=17600) :skeezy

[Thunderkat]

I had never heard of this and read the linked articles and from a microbiological viewpoint I could see a mushroom or other soft coral dying from microbes overnight, but I don't agree with it occuring in an SPS in entirety overnight (due to seperate polyps).

I used to work microbiology as a lab tech and it takes a while for bacteria to spread (yeast infection is caused by a fungus called Candida sp by the way) and you should be able to see evidence of some kind of growth.

A sure fire way to test this is to get a culture off of a coral while it is experiencing RTN (after you get a normal flora culture).

Entire colony death like that would be more consitent with environmental factors such as water quality.

Think of it as a group of people in a room, spray them all with a deadly microbe and some would die sooner than others and some might resist infection. However if I removed the oxygen from the room then they would all die at pretty much the same time.