Monti Cap Help

[Der ABT]

picked up some orange monti cap that was doing great until i went to look at it this morning. Zoa's and rest are great.
yesterday

today

these are some of my first sps additions but so far the birdsnest looksfine,

the acro look ok but has a few small places where the polyps have died and a little skeleton is showin. lower right of picture you can kinda make it out.

ph 8.3
sg 1.023
nitri, nitra, amon, 0
Calc 420
Phos 0
81-78
2x150MH
dont know alk yet but have been using pickling lime drip.

I have had a brown algea bloom lately as i am in need of an RO/DI filter.

 

[J. Montgomery]

You need to find out where you alkalinity is. Thats the first thing that I thought of. The piece seems to small to be harboring monti-eating nudis (typically caps are nearly indestructible).

The acro doesn't really look bad.

 

[mike68]

if you want more of that to try let me know i have bunches of it i'll fix you up with. stuff grows like crazy.

 

[J. Montgomery]

How long was it in your tank before it started bleaching? Any drastic changes in lighting (from previous tank to yours, or from frag rack to rock)?

 

[Der ABT]

thanks for getting back so fast.
it was in the tank from sunday and was fine until today.
yes the lighting had changed, it was under a 400 in a frag tank prior form those pics i shared
i just recent got an algea bloom and im guessing that is the cause of this thing dieing, you can see the brown crap on the eggcrate in the pics, never had it until about a week or so ago. I put some phosgaurd in after washing it thouroughly, and placed it in a bag in the sump. i took it out today just incase. hopefully that wasnt my stupidity.

any suggestions, is it dead or just wait an see. i moved it out of a strong flow and put it on a rock to see if that would help also.

ill go get an alk test today and see.

 

[J. Montgomery]

It doesn't sound like lighting is a problem. I doubt that algae had anything to do with it either, especially since the algae wasn't growing on the frag.

IIRC, phosphate removing media can lower your alkalinity levels as well.

The cap doesn't look dead from the picture, just bleached.

 

[ade]

I will second that alk, if it dies then like mike68 I have some that you are welcome too.

 

[Der ABT]

ok alk is at 3.6meq/l
which isnt to high but also not to low right?

 

[J. Montgomery]

No, that sounds fine, its not too low.

When using phosphate absorbing media, many people recommend starting with a low amount and slowly increasing it to prevent from shocking the tank . . . thats grasping at straws, but just throwing the idea out there.

 

[Der ABT]

yeh i only used half of what i was supposed to and put it in the overflow but hmm. i cant think of anything else that caused it. hopefully it recovers

thanks for the help.

 

[mike68]

too much flow will cause it to loose color i've had that happen when the elbow fell off my return line. bleached out a golf ball sized portion in 1 day.

 

[surfnvb7]

what is the tds of the water you are using if you are not using RO/DI water?

is it well water? or tap water?

 

[Der ABT]

its a mix of tap and ro/di.
my wife have RO/DI water at work and she gets me 5 gallons here and there, i usually use that for water changes and to drip pickling lime.
top up water is usually just tap water with pure water conditioner

just trying to get money up for an RO/DI unit.

looks like the frag isnt going to recover, ill give it a few more days and see if it gets any color back.
birdnest and acro are still doing fine at least and the zoa's already are making babies.

 

[J. Montgomery]

Dang, I didn't even think about tap water. That could be causing your problem with the monti, and most likely the algae breeding culprit as well :eek1:

 

[Der ABT]

Well i move the frags into the rock for a temporary placement and so far the bleaching has not gotten worse so hopefully i am in the clear on that.

My Acro started to show some bleaching as well so i have just decided to move all of my frags on the the rocks and already the zoa's seem happier. maybe i just had them too high in the tank i dont know.

all of my parameters are still in line so im hoping its going to pass.

I am looking into a phosban/carbon reactor now to try and help deal with the algea along with an RO/DI filter.

Anyone have one for sale, cheap.haha.

 

[ade]

What an RO/DI or phosban reactor?

 

[Der ABT]

haha all of the above, and i have a list of other wants, calcium reactor bigger tank(s)/system, more liverock, more frags, more reading.......... list can go on for days as many of you know.

Im just wondering if there is too big of a temp swing up high near the MH but really everything happened after trying a bit of the PhosGaurd, but i havent heard of others having this prob, and my alk was fine.

 

[manderx]

there's always been talk about phosguard releasing aluminum into the water and causing bad things, which is why a GFO is generally preferred.

 

[J. Montgomery]

I've also heard that sudden changes in phosphate levels can affect corals.

 

[J. Montgomery]

Update?