Montipora spongodes help!

[Turbomark]

Just picked up a frag of spongodes this weekend and its already dying. I can't figure out why but I can never keep montipora alive.

Alk 8.3
Ca 430
Phos. .03
Nitrate 2.5
Temp 78
Sal 1.026
Reefbreeders photon v2, turned down to 20% on blue 12% white.

What am I doing wrong! Is this frag a goner?

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[karimwassef]

I would refrag it immediately. It's dead as is so there's no additional risk but small frags have a way of powering through without the pressure of the massive die off around it.

Others may disagree but that's what I would do... 10% chance of recovery.

Why? Usually- Alk change. It may have been used to a high Alk environment and you just dropped it down to 8.3 ... do you know what the original conditions were?

 

[Turbomark]

Not sure of original conditions, there was a small piece that broke off when I glued it down. That piece still looks healthy and the whole bottom side of the main piece also looks good. Just the upper visible portion is damaged. I'll break it off this evening.

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[karimwassef]

Could also be sudden change in light.

I would put the frags in multiple locations and depths.

 

[WLachnit]

IME with both STN and RTN, M. spongodes can recover pretty well. I agree with the other posters regarding light and flow, multiple locations.

 

[Geeray]

To me it seems like your light is set way way too low.

 

[Turbomark]

Light is low for acclimation purposes is being increased by the day

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[Randy27]

I agree, alk seeing likely did it. If it were an issue with lighting, we'd see some differing necrosis patterns.

 

[Turbomark]

How do I keep this from happening in the future? Will a drip acclimation keep this from happening? I have had no issues with any other corals, all the acros are fine, just these montis give me issues.

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[WLachnit]

I try to match temp, salinity, and alkalinity as much as possible. Whenever I've had issues similar to this, I usually trace it back to alkalinity.


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