dying monti

[Newsalth2o]

In four days this monti turned to this..
ALk 7.8
Cal 300
Po 0
Ni 0
Ph 8.1
Temp 79

Needless to say theres only a few small pieces left in the tank

 

[aquaph8]

Watch for nudis, they're pretty hard to see but they're white colored?

 

[Newsalth2o]

I looked hard on all the parts I took out but didn't see anything. I only kept about 10% of that whole coral.

 

[Newsalth2o]

Do they usually cling to the bottom of the coral when the lights are on? Are there any natural predators for nudis?

 

[degibson84]

Calcium is pretty low too. Not sure if that would cause the bleaching

 

[aquaph8]

I agree on the calcium, that's really low. Any big swings in alk?

 

[danfeig]

To me, the Calcium really sticks out. Did you have any sudden changes with your water chemistry or do you always keep it this low?

 

[phenom5]

Alk swing was my first thought. Is you Alk stable?

 

[Newsalth2o]

Alk seems to be stable the calcium is way low its usually 400-450 I dose manually and I was gone for three days. I didn't have anyone dose I upped the kalk drip to about double, about 4l a day instead of 2l. And that's what I came home to. No other monti took it as hard as that one did. I did move my light forward on the canopy about 3" last week also but I can't see that causing this much damage. I would have expected the Ph to be a bit higher with so much kalk. But I did not expect such a drop in calcium. I'm due for a water change this weekend so I may double the amount to help raise the Calc. Everything else in the tank is fine??

 

[mattmann88]

Upping you're kalk drip would have caused a change in your alk, that may be what caused it.

 

[aquaph8]

The calcium and Alk are a balancing act, if the calcium dropped that much I'd assume the Alk changed with it.

 

[deazwe]

Your phosphates (PO4) look great and so does your nitrate level (NO3).

When I first looked at it I thought you were using some kit to check for Polonium (Po) and nickel (Ni).

Sorry for your loss. That was a fine looking Montipora.

Doug

 

[Newsalth2o]

I believe it was a salinity issue. When I checked it was 1.032. Not sure how it got so high maybe a combination of too little make-up and not balancing real good during a water change.

 

[Bgsutton]

Ouch! That'd probably do it...

 

[aquaph8]

Oh yikes