Millepora RTN Experimental treatment

[Thepopo]

Hey guys! I thought I post about my experience this week dealing with RTN. I had RTN on many a acro over time. Tried all sort of things and none of them really worked short of fragging healthy parts away from the colony. So recently I bought a few new acros. I have my iodide at .06 and everyone is doing quite well ( 90 percent of my acros die if I don't keep my iodide levels up at .06). So this beautiful millepora goes in the tank along with all his acro friends. About 2 weeks later he starts to RTN on me. Yeah this ain't good for any of them. Usually they all go in a row since they are all small frags. So this time I decided to try something experimental. I frag the healthy parts, from the looks of it he was gonna go in one day so no time to spare. I took the rtn'n parts and had them exposed to direct sunlight at around 2pm . I exposed him for around maybe 30 seconds in direct sunlight, making sure he had the sun hit him everywhere. I then put him back in the tank sideways on top of my blade caulerpa about one inch below the water level. Well I am happy to report the RTN has completely stopped and has already started to fill in tissue in the areas he had RTN . Of course since he is lying sideways the area not getting light has died off. But now it has been about a week and he is recovering nicely. Today i am even getting some nice polyp extension. I have never had a acro recover from RTN so this is a first for me. Thought I let you guys know my experience with this experimental treatment. I am not sure if its the direct sunlight, or the lying him down sideways, or the fact that he is lying on top of so much algae. Point being his RTN stopped and has reversed to good growth and moderate polyp extension in one week :beer:.

[Logzor]

Not sure about the experiment but your acros shouldn't RTN because of your iodide levels. That doesn't make any sense to me. I'm guessing some other parameter is out of balance.

RTN shouldn't be a very common event for anyone, there are a few sensitive corals out there but for the most part, stable parameters will prevent RTN.

[Thepopo]

Something about my water balance. I don't use RO I use well water. Before I kept my iodide up my acro death rate was 95%. Now its at 95% survival rate

[dvanacker]

I'm not going to say you are wrong in you hypothesis.....but I will say it's a far stretch.

[Thepopo]

Those are the only conditions that changed since he started RTN. I have never had RTN stop in 24 hours ,especially if 30 percent of the acro is gone. As I said it was just an experiment. I am very surprised it worked out so well. If I ever had any other acros RTN I will try to divide the conditions and see which one helped out the most. Since the acro is on top of algae all day, it could be the massive amount of carbon dioxide the algae puts out that helped the zooxanthellae get the energy to fight the RTN since they use carbon dioxide as a form of fuel. I am happy the colony and the frags survived. I just wanted others to see a treatment that worked for me. Most acros that have RTN never make it, so at that point why not try something different.

[joeyvu]

i am gonna try your method and see....it does not hurt any thing, right? :)

[d0ughb0y]

are you saying tissue actually grew back on the part that rtn'ed?

[Thepopo]

Yes there has been tissue growth in some of the RTN areas. I believe because the frag is lying sideways it must make the coral think it has broken off the main colony and it kick starts a growth mechanism. This might be a key point in slowing RTN.