rsucre Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 My starburst montipora capricornis lost its yellow color (polyps). It has been with me a couple of months. Under which circumstances this can happen? Quote Link to comment
dandelion Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 Many things can do this. What are you nitrates and phos? How’s your lighting? Enough flow? Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted April 29, 2018 Share Posted April 29, 2018 photo? Are the polyps red, or are they not extended? 1 Quote Link to comment
rsucre Posted April 29, 2018 Author Share Posted April 29, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment
Clown79 Posted May 1, 2018 Share Posted May 1, 2018 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? 1 Quote Link to comment
rsucre Posted May 6, 2018 Author Share Posted May 6, 2018 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. Quote Link to comment
rsucre Posted May 6, 2018 Author Share Posted May 6, 2018 On 4/28/2018 at 8:13 PM, HarryPotter said: photo? Are the polyps red, or are they not extended? Hi Harry. Not extended. Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted May 6, 2018 Share Posted May 6, 2018 5 minutes ago, rsucre said: Hi Harry. Not extended. Have a photo? Would help a lot more 1 Quote Link to comment
rsucre Posted May 6, 2018 Author Share Posted May 6, 2018 2 minutes ago, HarryPotter said: Have a photo? Would help a lot more Here's a quick shot from my iPhone. 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). Quote Link to comment
Asureef Posted May 7, 2018 Share Posted May 7, 2018 Mine did the same, but is pink. I’m thinking the drop in no3 did it.. I went from 10ppm to 2ppm and po4 at 0. 1 Quote Link to comment
rsucre Posted July 24, 2018 Author Share Posted July 24, 2018 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. 1 Quote Link to comment
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