Montipora bleaching/receding :(

[chocolateblnt]

I recently got a small green monti cap about the size of a golf ball and the piece also had a bunch of yellow zoo's around it ... I brought it from the store and 2 days later the zoo's are perfect but the monti's 3/4's bleached white? Why ... water param's are good :| Does a monti cap actually have polyps that it can retract? Someone explain monti caps to me

 

[Wiskey]

could you state your lighting, flow, and perams, what you call good may not be good to us, and is not much help to us. Stonies are far more sensitave to some things than other corals.

By lighting and flow, I mean specifially where the coral is too, like if it is shadowed and what kind of current it gets.

Caps do have pylops, and they can retract but I have seen the same exact monti cap coral have all kinds of pylop sizes is diffrent tanks although all were visable.

Whiskey

 

[chocolateblnt]

Well the lighting is 250 Watt MH 20K ... location is dead center in my tank on the sand ... flow is good because it's near a Seio ... I have been dosing the tank with reef buffer, reef advantage calcium, and reef iodide all from sea chem as specified. I have 0 nitrates almost undetectable nitrites ph is 8.5 ... CA 400 Alk ?? not sure ran out of test stuff for it ...

It was under a 175 MH 20K at the store on the sand as well.

 

[chocolateblnt]

... i can't get any pics up, cuz my camera's busted, but it looks the same as any other monti cap whitening ...

 

[anathema]

Break off a small frag just in case, save a bit of it.

It's possible it was stressed in the store, or possible it just didn't like it's new spot. Good luck.

 

[johnvu713]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6798727#post6798727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by chocolateblnt
almost undetectable nitrites .

Did i read that correctly? Get that nitrite down to zero. Cap are generally hardy unless your nutrient level is off the chart. I'd also check for coral eating nudi or pest

 

[nemofish2217]

are you testing for iodine? If unchecked, iodine can be deadly in a reef tank... also, what are your magnesium levels?

 

[Wiskey]

What are your phospate levels?

I would try moving it to a diffrent spot and see how it does, or like mentioned frag off a healy peice and put that in a diffrent spot to see how it does.

Whiskey

 

[chocolateblnt]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6799074#post6799074 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johnvu713
Did i read that correctly? Get that nitrite down to zero. Cap are generally hardy unless your nutrient level is off the chart. I'd also check for coral eating nudi or pest

I just added an angler so that's why they aren't at 0 ...

 

[chocolateblnt]

I can't frag it because it's growing on top of a piece of rock with zoo's all around it ... I add Iodine for inverts about every 2 weeks and have no idea what my magnesium levels are at ... I will try to pick up a test kit for all this junk ... I had no idea monti's are sooo sensitive ... Well anyway thanks guys for all your help ... I guess I'm just gonna ride this out cuz it doesn't seem like there's a feasable quick solution

 

[chocolateblnt]

sonofab!tch! Well I found out my phosphate is way high I think the cap is dead ... I see no more color on it and some of the skeleton has started turning brownish at the tips. All my other corals seemed to do very well and then when my alveopora began shortening I knew something was up ... well since then I bought a bunch of phosphate removing pads and I was wondering if there is any chance of the monti coming back to life?!