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Monti growing or dying?


Xj reefing

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I bought a red montipora a few weeks ago and it was going really good until I got home this afternoon. I noticed it is exposing it skeleton in places. Is it just white growth or is it dying? The picture does not really show it too well. (In the image the light pink parts are white in real life)

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I have the same problem with montis and other "hardy" SPS. They will look stressed and lose color and polyp extension. Parts of it will die back but not completely. They just kinda survive like this and not grow. I haven't figured out the problem, it maybe my alkalinity stability or flow. Flow is lower since I have mostly LPS in the tank.

 

Still trying to get my Alk stable.

image.png.8a2d9676e5ed6ca692575241c5a9e455.png

 

 

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How are the nutrients in the tank?  My montis will do that if NO3 and/or PO4 bottom out.

 

Also, I recently upgraded my lighting on my display tank to an xr15 pro and am getting similar white patch behavior due to the lighting change in areas that weren't as illuminated under the prior lights.  I expect this to turn around as they finish the acclimation cycle.

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White edges is growth but if the remaining flesh is going white, its unlikely growth.

 

Mine after growing a lot started getting white patches on its flesh after i added additional lighting.

 

Is your monti getting too much light? 

 

How is alk, is it stable or is there fluctuations? 

 

What are nitrate and phos levels?

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Yeah the alk had a bit of a swing and my nutrients are not bottomed out. I have a ai prime running about 40cm above it slightly to the right. It is getting plenty of flow. I willl get more accurate measurements for the parameters when I am free to do so. The white bits have got larger.

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Oh aye yeah thats not looking so good now. Even what seems a slight alk swings will put an SPS out of sorts. Are we stable now or still in flux? I like a good alk check daily myself, but I understand most people aren't all as routine driven as me (aka OCD)

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Montipora can be susceptible to magnesium issues, in particular, so maybe if you're dosing but not magnesium, it's getting depleted with time and is causing issues, and more recently I've heard of issues with it before other corals due to potassium being low, but I think with different symptoms.

If you've recently dropped your nitrate/phosphate levels or are running ozone/carbon new, it could be bleaching associated with higher water clarity, but if it was growing there before and you haven't done anything to notably clarify the water, that's unlikely.

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Could be anything.  People say alk swing but my tank drops from 9 alk to 5 all the time because I let the dosing container get empty.  Then I bring it back from 5 to 9 within a few days.  I guess both are not sudden drops within an hour....

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Do you have CoralRx, Lugol's, even off the counter iodine? Whenever my frags start dying I give them a dip in Lugol's. It's works maybe 50% of the time to stop or delay the necrosis.  Sometimes it takes multiple daily dips.

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2 hours ago, DevilDuck said:

Do you have CoralRx, Lugol's, even off the counter iodine? Whenever my frags start dying I give them a dip in Lugol's. It's works maybe 50% of the time to stop or delay the necrosis.  Sometimes it takes multiple daily dips.

I have seachem reef dip which is iodine based.

2 hours ago, DaJMasta said:

Montipora can be susceptible to magnesium issues, in particular, so maybe if you're dosing but not magnesium, it's getting depleted with time and is causing issues, and more recently I've heard of issues with it before other corals due to potassium being low, but I think with different symptoms.

If you've recently dropped your nitrate/phosphate levels or are running ozone/carbon new, it could be bleaching associated with higher water clarity, but if it was growing there before and you haven't done anything to notably clarify the water, that's unlikely.

I have not recently dropped my nitrates and am not running any carbon 

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Magnesium is low, thought I guess a couple of salts aim for it that, I'd aim for raising it at least a hundred ppm, and it seems like you're on the alkalinity, but it's in a zone where some people keep reef tanks already.

If you don't have the stuff to dose onhand, a water change should work pretty well, too, most salts are going to have a notably higher magnesium level - it's common to see 1300s to low 1400s in salt mixes.

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How do the rest of your corals look… the pavona looks good above it… can you get a pic with white lights rather than blue so we can see better what’s going on? 

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1 hour ago, banasophia said:

How do the rest of your corals look… the pavona looks good above it… can you get a pic with white lights rather than blue so we can see better what’s going on? 

All the other corals look great.

1 hour ago, Clown79 said:

What is phosphates at. That is an important parameter to test

Didn’t have the time today to get phosphate but I will do as soon as possible.

 

3 hours ago, DaJMasta said:

Magnesium is low, thought I guess a couple of salts aim for it that, I'd aim for raising it at least a hundred ppm, and it seems like you're on the alkalinity, but it's in a zone where some people keep reef tanks already.

If you don't have the stuff to dose onhand, a water change should work pretty well, too, most salts are going to have a notably higher magnesium level - it's common to see 1300s to low 1400s in salt mixes.

I buy natural sea water from my lfs and have never had to dose magnesium and I just got some

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Your tank looks awesome… personally I would not make any major changes that could throw things off for the other corals… I’d just monitor the monti for now 

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43 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Your tank looks awesome… personally I would not make any major changes that could throw things off for the other corals… I’d just monitor the monti for now 

Should I try and slowly up the magnesium?

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36 minutes ago, Murphych said:

First order of business... Get that cable to the powerhead sorted out... That's put me right out of sorts that. 

Haha sadly that’s the only place it can go out otherwise the lid sits funny and gives my wrasse the opportunity to jump out. I think I have learnt to ignore it and soon it will be completely pink with coraline algae

  • Haha 2
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