Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

Starburst montipora lost its yellow


rsucre

Recommended Posts

My starburst montipora capricornis lost its yellow color (polyps). It has been with me a couple of months.   

 

Under which circumstances this can happen?

Link to comment

Hi. 

 

PO4: 0.15 ppm

NO3: 1 ppm

KH: 7.6 dKH 

Salinity: 1.026

Ca: 420 ppm

 

I don’t have any PAR readings, all I can say is that I have frags of this same monti on high light and low mid light and both have the same issue. 

 

It seems that polyps are not extending. 

 

I had a large monitopora capricornis all red which was doing very well for a year or so. Then it suddenly died. At the time I attributed this to PO4 and NO3 at zero and KH raised to 10 dKH.  Sinse then, I try to keep PO4 and NO3 a little above zero and KH between 7-8 dKH. 

 

Flow: I have a frag of this monti in high flow and another in mid-low flow. 

 

Link to comment

 

 

Phos is high. That may be an issue. 

Some have experienced issues with corals in high phos, some have not.

 

How stable is your alk? Is it dropping through the week?

 

What light do you have and what size tank?

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
On 5/1/2018 at 1:23 PM, Clown79 said:

 

 

Phos is high. That may be an issue. 

Some have experienced issues with corals in high phos, some have not.

 

How stable is your alk? Is it dropping through the week?

 

What light do you have and what size tank?

 

 

Hi Clown79.  Thanks for your feedback.

 

I'm coming from zero PO4 and NO3.  At that time and as a result of that, I managed to almost eliminate algae.  Then I started to get dinos on my sandbed (confirmed dinos by microscope observation).  Also, it seemed to me that if KH raised above 10 dKH my SPS started to suffer.  I read that usually with ULNS tanks, you have to watch out the KH and keep it a little low (7-8 dKH range).

 

Then I decided to raise my nutrients a little bit, in order to get a little algae back into the tank and see if the dinos will get under control.  Also introduced some copepods, which for some reason I did not have any.  Now I have a decent population and growing.

 

Today, PO4 is at 0.17ppm (Hanna Phosphorus ULR Checker).  

 

I do vinegar dosing via dosing pump.

 

My KH is 7.8 dKH and pretty stable.  I maintain it with Kalk in my ATO water.  Test it every other day (or every 3 days) with Hanna dKH Checker.

Link to comment
On 4/28/2018 at 8:13 PM, HarryPotter said:

 

photo? Are the polyps red, or are they not extended? 

Hi Harry.  Not extended.

Link to comment
2 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

Have a photo? Would help a lot more

Here's a quick shot from my iPhone.  

IMG_8270.thumb.JPG.a308ce4d55fe221d5c3cf03fbe60537a.JPG

 

The mystic sunset monti that is next to it has nice polyp extension and coloration.  Also, my other red monti cap has.  Don't know what's wrong with this Starburst.  It had nice yellow polyps when I bought it.  I also have a smaller piece lower and with less flow -- same situation -- no yellow polyps (or no polyp extension really).

Link to comment
  • 2 months later...

Hi.  Just a quick update.  After tweeking my parameters, finally the starburst montipora is showing its yellow polyps.  I did an ICP Test with ATI Aquaristik and it showed low Iodine and low Iron.  So I dosed both.  And also set NO3 at 0.5 and PO4 at 0.07 - 0.1.  So I'm not sure exactly what helped with the montipora, but it definitely has improved.

 

IMG_2872.thumb.JPG.4a52b6afbdaa9c66e1ee959ea7416a7b.JPG

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...