Green Montipora Plate...White spots

[huskerreef]

I have 3 large green monti plates roughly 18" plus wide and have been happy for as long as i have had them over 2 years, frags well and have several smaller frags growing at about 6-8". I have recently seen some white areas like spots in both the display and look down. They are run in series and total about 1350 gallon I noticed the problem recently when a friend pointed it out, but I thought it was where a frag was busted off but now I am seeing it in the upper display and the lower one. He asked if I had monti eating nudi's but I do not see anything. The only change is that about a week ago my anthelia and pom pom melted away along with a pipe organ, could they have released anything? I never dose anything jusst let the reef be as there is 1500 lbs of aragonite and 700lbs of live rock and all is well, about a week ago i decided to dose with a 2 part calcium and may have went a bit strong, (trying to beef things up for a tank tour I had), my bad. anyway i am leaning towards pest as it is not large die offs. any thoughts.

 

[szwab]

check the ubdersides. that's where the nudis like to hang out. hope it's not them. Ihad them once. 3 months of trying to fight them off eventually i got em but lost quite a few corals and of those that survived they lost a considerable amount of their size.
GL

 

[RCS]

Jim, dumb question probably, but have you tested pH and alk? Xenia especially I've found need a pH in the 8.2-8.4 range with proper alk to do well, and Montipora tend to be especially sensitive to low alk levels as well. Maybe there's a crossover there?

Nudis will normally begin to eat the coral from the underside then towards the center, so if there are random spots I doubt it's them. Could be detritus settling on some spots? Got any pics?

 

[davidknulp]

Need pic.. Think stn..

 

[dscott59]

Not trying to hijack your thread but I have the exact same problem that started 2 weeks ago. I had a 2 year old huge monti cap that I have fragged many times. The mother colony and about 4 large frags all have these white areas on them. I have dipped all in lugols and it seemed to stop spreading it, for now. Established tank and all perimeters are good. If you figure this our please post the results.

 

[shramj]

huskerreef, did you ever figure this out, I have these same white spots on my Monti. If you did, how did you fix the problem?

 

[ned2getfish]

You guys check you magnessuim levels caps do not like low mag

 

[shramj]

No, but I will have to have that checked.

 

[pdkinsel]

What kind of fish do you have? I had an Auschwitz Blenny munch on my caps and caused white spots. I took him out and the spots disappeared.

 

[shramj]

I have a Ocellaris Clown, a red firefish, and a royal gramma. I have a few white spots but it looks like the areas towards the bottom are really white. Should I do a dip? I bought some Tropic Marine Pro-coral cure.

 

[huskerreef]

I found that I had a ph reading of 7.5 so I have added some buffer and will see what happens. One thing I noticed was that my elegance was also looking poor and not opening up but within an hour of adding a buffer to raise my ph the elegance was looking much happier. Not sure I solved the problem but may be on the right track. I have no practical way of dipping the big piece as it will not fit through the opening in the top of my tank so I am hoping it was a ph issue.

 

[shramj]

Thanks huskerreef, I also have been slowly raising my PH, it is at about 8.2 right now. I also am slowly getting my SL to 1.026. Also, the monti is looking better. Thanks, Joe

 

[Rahl187]

I have same problem. Checked underside of Monti Cap as instructed above and sure enough, little red devil nudis! Apparently you have to dip every week for months cuz you can't kill the eggs!???