Can't keep millis happy

[preef]

Not sure what the deal is but all my sps are growing and coloring up with the exception of my millis. Birds nests doing well, monti cap trying to bust out of the tank, nice growth and color on misc acros.

I have a couple of milli frags that have good polyp extension and good color but no growth since I bought them about 3 months ago.

2 other millis I've bought in the last couple months have had no polyp extension pretty much since I put them in the tank although they have retained their color. One of them was the hairiest milli I had ever seen when it was at the LFS. Today I noticed that one started to STN on the dark side and tip so I fragged it.

I had a really nice colony that I lost to a crash that had been growing extremely quickly and looked great up until the crash in April.

Are millis normally tougher to keep or are they hit or miss?

Temp 80F
SG 1.026
Nitrate varies between 0.0 - 2.5. Will occasionally see it hit 5. (Salifert)
pH 8-8.5 during the day
Ca 450 (Salifert)
Alk 10 (Salifert)
Mg 1325 (Salifert)
Phosphate 0.00 (Hanna Checker)

I dose Alk and Ca hourly. One on the hour and one on the half hour to ensure stability.

I feed Rod's Food(about 1 square cm) every other day and cyclopeeze on alternate days.

I do have red bugs on some of my smooth skinned acros but I can't see any on the millis.

Running a mixed reef with some leathers. I'm not running carbon because when I do my nitrate level always goes up to around 10 since it traps gunk. I wasn't running carbon when my milli was doing great up until my crash.

A couple of weeks ago I added 2 Koralia Evo 1050s in addition to my two K3s.

Any thoughts?

 

[smtank]

I consider millepora to be one of the easier acropora. No PE is a big sign that something is not right and I would look to the leather corals and running no carbon.

 

[StarF]

when i had truble with mili´s it was usaly:

1: po4
or
2: flow isues... in my experience they do like som random flow.

 

[preef]

I consider millepora to be one of the easier acropora. No PE is a big sign that something is not right and I would look to the leather corals and running no carbon.

I'll try running carbon again but I'm concerned about nitrate going up.

when i had truble with mili´s it was usaly:

1: po4
or
2: flow isues... in my experience they do like som random flow.

Phosphate is undetectable with the Hanna Checker.
I have a lot of flow. Not directly on the corals.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[cwegescheide]

Take one of the suspect milli's out and dip it with Revive. See if anything comes off..

 

[mike_cmu04]

Alk at 10 is also a little high try lowering it to 8 dkh