Monties going pale

[jrp1588]

My red monti cap has stopped growing, and is going pale, especially around the edges. It's not losing tissue, and still has polyp extension, but the color has really faded. I've seen some color loss in a neighboring purple monti as well, but my spongades and my encrusting montis still look ok.

After doing some reading, I suspected potassium, but I got a Salifert test a couple weeks ago and it came to 340. Low, but not horribly so. I got some Brightwell supplement as well, and have kept the level at 400 since.

Temp-80
Salinity-1.026
Alk-9
Cal-420
Mag-1300
NO3-20
PO4-0.00
Lighting-Reefbreeders LED, no recent changes to program
Nutrient export-AquaMaxx CO2 skimmer, ATS, weekly 15% water changes
Alk/Cal maintained by automatic 2-part dosing
System is a year old

I think that covers the basics. You'll notice my PO4 tested 0.00 per the new Hanna checker I got. This is the less precise Phosphate checker, not the Phosphorous one, but I was floored to see PO4 undetectable since I don't run GFO or anything. First of all, how could I have 0 phosphate and 20 nitrate? Second, could insufficient phosphate be harming my monti while seemingly leaving my acros and other SPS unscathed?

 

[heathlindner25]

How old are the reef breeders? I started to lose a lot of color on some acros with an older reefbreeder unit. Switched it out to a Galaxy Hydro and in a few weeks the colors came back

 

[jrp1588]

How old are the reef breeders? I started to lose a lot of color on some acros with an older reefbreeder unit. Switched it out to a Galaxy Hydro and in a few weeks the colors came back

Probably around 3 years. That would be pretty expensive to switch out as a test though.

 

[heathlindner25]

I started to notice my lights didn't have the same Spectrum, looked more red than usual. So I switched them and it didn't take long at all for the colors to come back.

 

[jrp1588]

I started to notice my lights didn't have the same Spectrum, looked more red than usual. So I switched them and it didn't take long at all for the colors to come back.

Well I'll keep that idea in my back pocket if all else fails. I'd probably just convert back to T5, but I really like not having to buy bulbs all the time.

Just throwing ideas at the wall here, but maybe I'll pick up an iodine supplement tomorrow. I read some anecdotes of iodine supplementation helping to recolor pale SPS. If nothing else, it's a cheap test.

 

[ric167]

I too have been losing color on my red cap, sunset & season greetings...but I'm fighting MEN's so I was suspecting the Bayer Complete Insect killer treatment...so I will try to follow this post in hopes of some good info...

 

[jrp1588]

I too have been losing color on my red cap, sunset & season greetings...but I'm fighting MEN's so I was suspecting the Bayer Complete Insect killer treatment...so I will try to follow this post in hopes of some good info...

My sunset monti is looking great. Grows like a weed in my tank. I've been on the lookout, haven't seen any nudis in my tank. Pretty sure my issue is chemistry related.

 

[ric167]

I found the MEN's underneath the frag taking hold of the rock so I pulled all Monti's out of my tank & into a quarantine tank

 

[jrp1588]

What does nudi damage look like anyway? When I tried looking it up, all I found were pics of nudis and eggs.

 

[ric167]

for the most part it looks like the coral is bleaching on the edges (just like when its growing)...but thats only when the nudi's behave like normal...they prefer to eat new growing tissue but mine are way up inside a frag which then lead to them growing and laying their eggs on the rock...so if I can't kill them I'm sadly going to have to break this rock apart along with my mystic sunset

 

[ric167]

I'm going to try to upload an old photo of when i was first introduce to these nasty creatures

 

[ric167]

<a href="http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/ric167/media/20160424_032943_zpser0vkgdt.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah186/ric167/20160424_032943_zpser0vkgdt.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 20160424_032943_zpser0vkgdt.jpg"/></a>

 

[jrp1588]

I don't know if mine quite looks like that. Nothing on the monti is white, and there's no sharp divide like that. It's just looking very pastel and sort of blotchy near the edges. Had the fish store run my tests just to confirm everything checked out. He tested phosphate at .03 on his Hanna, other than that, everything was about the same.

 

[ric167]

 

[ric167]

thats my sunset...c how pale it is

 

[ric167]

that one is not being eating up...at least not yet but I am treating all my monti's so that I don't take a chance that even one of the MEN's live. However I can't treat them as this forums recommends cuz they need recovery time...in a few days those eggs that hatch will become adults or rather old enough to start reproducing

 

[jrp1588]

Anyone have any thoughts? I'm fairly sure I don't have nudis. I haven't even added any coral in months.

 

[ca1ore]

If you can definitively eliminate pests, then the most obvious culprit is lighting. I recently moved on from 3-4 yr old reefbreeders lights. Didn't notice color losses, but they had dimmed a bit, which I compensated for by upping the levels about 10%. What is your lighting scheme? How deep the tank is, or how far below the surface you keep,the montis?

 

[jrp1588]

It's a standard 125 gal. The monti is about 1/3 up from the bottom. Program has been consistent for the past six months. I've got it at 60 blue 30 white from 10am to 9pm.

The monti was growing like gang busters a few weeks ago.

 

[jrp1588]

It occurs to me that I switched salt brands recently from IO to Aquaforest Sea salt. I made sure to match cal/alk/mag to what I was getting before, but I wonder if something I can't test for is way off.