Sunset Monti peeling - white patches

[rsucre]

I introduced this frag of Sunset Monti about 4 weeks ago. I dip it in Bayer Advanced as described in many posts thru the Internet as the best way to kill / avoid the infamous Monti Eating Nudis.

 

For a couple of weeks, the Sunset Monti was OK and I could notice some growth down below, you can notice it is spreading to the ceramic disk.

 

A week ago, I noticed a small white patch, which looks like missing skin (or skin death) on the top of the frag. I dipped it again in Bayer and reintroduce it to the tank.

 

A couple of days after that, more white patches. Nevertheless, the frag is still growing, slowly spreading to the disk.

 

Any thoughts? After the two dips I don't think it is monti eating nudis.

 

All my other corals are doing well. I have 3 frags of Red Montipora Capricornis that are healthy and growing rapidly.

 

My parameters:

 

Salinity: 1.025 / 1.026

Alk: 9.8 dKH --Red Sea test kit (which I'm starting to doubt and I'm awaiting a new Hanna colorimeter)

Ca: 435 ppm

Mg: 1230 ppm --Red Sea kit

Phosphate: 0.03 ppm --Red Sea kit

Nitrate: 0.0 ppm (I'm lowering my Nopox dose to see if it goes a little up) -- Red Sea kit

Tank volume: 20 gallon

Sump: I think it is 5 gallon

Good lighting with Nanobox Duo (80% blue, 25% white at midday)

Nopox: I dose around 1ml daily (down from 3ml).

 

 

[Clown79]

It could the lighting. Maybe being directly under the light, its being burnt.

 

Monti's need moderate light and moderate flow.

[markalot]

Might be a burnt spot due to lighting. Is your KH stable day to day, before and after a water change?

[rsucre]

I try to keep KH as stable as possible. Dose and test almost daily.

 

Could be the light. I did not think that my light could cause this, but I will give it a shot placing the monti lower and see how it goes.

[rsucre]

As a follow-up, just in case this can be of any help to people with a similar situation. The situation became worse, the monti started to bleach. After that, I moved it to the bottom of the tank and I'm happy to say that it is almost recovered. So it seems that the conclusion is that the issue was caused by too much + direct light.

[TFish77]

Good to hear it is recovering. Keep an eye on it at night and when the lights are low just as a precaution. Look for any small white feather looking things moving around on it. I had an issue with monti eating nudis once. The dip will kill the larger ones but won't actually kill the eggs so they inevitably come back.

 

Hopefully it continues to recover but just keep that in mind if you ever notice those white patches again.

[rsucre]

TFish, thanks for your post. I dipped the frag in Bayer Advanced twice (probably with a 7 day separation). I hope that it killed any nudis in case they were present.

 

But I will keep an eye on it, inspect it at night.