Help my Monti's are dying but other SPS's are fine

[Peter Eichler]

Check your K potassium and make sure it around 380 to 400. If not nudibranch then only low in potassium will kill your monti cap.

I've seen this one repeated ad nauseum over the years, and yet I've never seem a shred of evidence to support it, nor any other credible support for potassium dosing.

 

[Titans_Reef]

Check your K potassium and make sure it around 380 to 400. If not nudibranch then only low in potassium will kill your monti cap.

Never knew about potassium, I will go buy a test kit tomorrow and see what it's at. That might be why since that orange monti was in there for over a year and was growing fast until lately.

 

[Peter Eichler]

Never knew about potassium, I will go buy a test kit tomorrow and see what it's at. That might be why since that orange monti was in there for over a year and was growing fast until lately.

Or you could not waste your money

 

[ycnibrc]

I dose potassium not just monti cap is healthier but coraline algae is exploded. Reefing is experiment if you don't try you wouldn't know. It doesn't hurt to test and keep potassium at sea level.

 

[Reef Bass]

Believe it or not, sometimes montis can be more sensitive than a lot of acros. When troubles brewing montis are sometimes the first to show signs of stress.

I agree with this and have experienced it first hand last year with some just wrong alk fluctuations in my tank. The montis were the first to look upset, the first to look better when alk was passing through "in range", and then the first to die as fluctuation continued. A few acros held in for a long time and then quit. However, most of them, including turaki, secale and tortuosa, survived. They browned some but growth and color are returning.

 

[kipper31]

Yes I agree with checking your Pottasium.Had a few Montis and Birdsnest start to lose colour.It all started when I decided to run my skimmer a bit wetter to allow for a bit of over feeding when adding a few new fish.Apparently wet skimmer reduces Pottasium a fair bit.Checked my Pottasium and it was down to 320ppm.Started doseing and monti came back to colour within a couple weeks.The whole time this happened no other acro seemed to loose colour.

 

[Titans_Reef]

UPDATE:
So since I have been dosing SeaChem Reef Plus twice a week, my monti is gaining its color back slowly from the bottom plates going up. I spoke with my LFS about potassium which they told me they were already looking into and will let me know if they find anything about it since they did tell me to not waste money on a test kit right now. I trust my LFS since anything I get from them I have had no issues with and they will always help and even make a house call to ensure all of their customers tanks are in top shape. They did tell me that Reef Plus has a ton of vitamins, amino acids, and essential minerals corals need so that may be the reason why the monti is bouncing back, either way its color is coming back. I will post a picture of the monti when I get a chance.

 

[CommsTech]

Sounds like Alk fluctuations. I was having alk swings last year and my montis were the first to start to bleach.

 

[Tweaked]

Also agree that Montis showed first signs of stress with Alk swings.

 

[brad65ford]

I agree with this and have experienced it first hand last year with some just wrong alk fluctuations in my tank. The montis were the first to look upset, the first to look better when alk was passing through "in range", and then the first to die as fluctuation continued. A few acros held in for a long time and then quit. However, most of them, including turaki, secale and tortuosa, survived. They browned some but growth and color are returning.

+1, totally agree they can be funky at times even though some people will recommend them as beginning sps's. I'm now going through the same issue and thinking its low alk (6.8-7.0dhk) though I don't know for sure yet. What's strange is i have 3 different pieces of setosa in 3 different locations in my system for a few months now and they have all be doing great ever day. Until today 1 of the setosa's looks really strange and polyps sunk far in. Also undata is doing the same which is on the opposite side of the tank. So i know something is up, other montis's are fine. Plan to increase alk via dosing a few extra ml a day since i don't want to increase and shock the live stock to quickly. Again I agree with the op and others they mention how other sps's are looking perfectly fine if not better then normal. I've always thought birds nests were the canary of sps keepers....I may be wrong

 

[Reef Bass]

I've always thought birds nests were the canary of sps keepers....I may be wrong

I think there's some truth in that. Two different birdsnests died during my alk fluctuations.

 

[Titans_Reef]

Well when I get home I will post pics of the orange cap monti but I've been dosing seachem reefplus along with the carbonate and calcium to maintain it at 7-8 dkh and 480ppm which my monti finally regained its color back. It has signs of new growth on the edges which I traded a frag of it for a green monti a month ago and it is also growing. After talking to my LFS they brought up the point that my water might of been too clean and that was the reason why my corals were not opening up all the way so after dosing reefplus for a month, there was a noticeable change in growth and color of all my corals. I kept on dosing alk once a week and the same with cal just to maintain it there. I also picked up a bottle of purple up to dose once a week and try to get everything back how it was when I first started the tank.