Montipora Cap - Tissue dying

[willp2]

I had to leave town for an extended time and left a friend to take care of the tank. When I returned I had a pretty good nitrate spike and a fair bit of algae. I noticed this some discolored tissue on this Monti. I did several water changes and everything seems to be getting pretty much back to normal. All other corals including SPS are doing great and growing well, but the Monti still losing color little by little.

 

Other than that stint with no water changes, nothing else has changed. This coral was started from a frag and has been in the same spot with the same LED lighting since the beginning and normally grows like a weed.

 

Thanks for any thoughts on this. I'd hate to lose this thing.

 

[Fluffeh]

wow that is an amazing looking monti

[willp2]

wow that is an amazing looking monti

Thanks, it's been a great piece.

[MatthewStarr]

Could of just been the change in water params. Since you left there were nitrates and all. Depends on how long u were gone for it could of also been lack of essential elements like calcium, mag, etc. After the water changes you basically restored those elements. Just keep up with your weekly routine. I'm sure the tissue will start to gain its health back in time.

[kevlow]

Great looking piece. Hope that everything stablizes for you.

 

Is that the coral's coloring [ green w/ purple] , lighting effect, or the problem discoloration that we see in the pic? It looks so cool. I not understanding which is the problem part. It looks like it has patches of color change.

 

I have a red cap with a splotch of green in it.

[Captain Hook]

I had a piece of a frag of this stuff that was laying face down in the sand for over a week unnoticed. It eventually regenerated even after half the coral turned white and lost tissue. The piece didnt recover 100% but its about 95.

[willp2]

Thanks for the comments.

 

Sorry the damage isn't clear, tough to get a good pic of this. This thing is green. The blue / purple areas are the dying / dead parts. So large bands of this thing are losing color.

[GokesReef]

Are they actually dying and not just changing color? Losing polyps and whatnot?

[willp2]

Looks like its dying to me. There's actually been a bit of algae growth on a couple of the larger patches.

[GokesReef]

Hm that's no good.. could try readjusting the flow so it's getting strong flow consistently. That should fend off the algae and allow it to try to recover. If it's dying fast, frag it out and start over

[kevlow]

Hm that's no good.. could try readjusting the flow so it's getting strong flow consistently. That should fend off the algae and allow it to try to recover. If it's dying fast, frag it out and start over

 

What he said.

[willp2]

Looks like this thing is starting to come back. Looking closer at the way the tissue was dying on high spots and along edges, I suspect it was salt burn. When I got back from my trip I did a few quick water changes and used some old salt that was still a bit cloudy despite mixing for a couple days. Looking back I'm guessing some of that salt settled on the Monti and burned it.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. Looks like it was probably all my fault.

[GokesReef]

Live and learn.. thanks for the update, glad to hear it's doing better!

 

Maybe that interesting coloration will stick

[willp2]

Thanks.

 

It looks neat in the picture, but thats really just the lighting. In person its just sort of brown.

 

It is a nice piece though and more interesting than many monti's out there IMO. Heck trading in the frags from this thing to my LFS have paid all the bills for this tank for the last year.

[BioBoy16]

Old post but I was having the same issue with a spiral nauti monti. Skin would just turn brown and mushy. I cut and fragged healthy tissue and it just kept spread. Eventually lost the whole piece. Still not sure what caused it 😕