Please help montipora digi bleaching.

[Arf82]

Please help my montipora digi is bleaching and quickly. It looks as if a brown algae is creeping up from the base but I'm sure it isn't algae or cyano. 2 small pieces are now completely white and the large part is now goin. It looks as if the polyps are still out but white, is this possible? if it's bleached will it recover?
I have no fish because I'm getting over ich, so it can't be nitrates I run phosphate reactor. And weekly water changes with reef crystal salt.
Any help to try and stop it progressing would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance.

 

[mcgyvr]

Bleaching can be from lights (too much light)..
Or just poor water quality..
And you don't guess if your nitrates/phosphates are right or not.. You test..
a phosphate reactor does nothing for nitrates and just because you don't have fish doesn't mean you don't have nitrates..

What size tank?
What type of lighting?
Location of monti in relation to lights?
Other corals doing fine?
How long have you had the monti?
Do you monitor cal/alk/mag? If so results of that and how stable have they been?
and many more potential questions..
I'd suspect its a goner and there is nothing you can do now to save it.. But answers to all the questions and any other details will help solidifying that statement..

 

[shadowmonster]

Have you checked it for pests?

http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/captive_aquatics/2010/09/a-montipora-eating-nudibranch-primer.html

 

[Arf82]

Sorry I didn't say I do check nitrates and phosphate levels there both undetectable. Tank is 21 gallon nano all other corals doing great and all look healthy. Montipora is sbout 6 inches from lights which are v2 iluminair leds. I've had the monti for about 2 months and it seemed to be doing well until yesterday. It was brown when I bought it but prior to bleaching it was a nice green. I do check alk and cal and mag they were all a little low around a month ago so i switched to reef crystals which is richer in these ingredients. So now they are at the low end of where they should be. Is the brown film on the polyps the colour leaving??

 

[Arf82]

I've checked for pest can't see any.thanks.

 

[mcgyvr]

So its RTN? (rapid tissue necrosis)
because it was fine yesterday and totally white today?
Whats coming off is the tissue of the coral?

 

[Arf82]

Two small pieces are totally white and the main piece it is slowly working it's way up the base. It does look like the polyps are still there and open just bright white.

 

[Arf82]

Sorry Mcgyvr you where right I got it out and it's dead. I fragged the piece that's left dipped it and mounted it away from its original place. Hopefully it won't die too. Thanks everyone for your help. Much appreciated.

 

[AboutAcans]

Picture would help. White polyps are just white polyps most the time. You might have some encrusting algae around the based where it likely has the least water movement. Hopefully you have a good amount of current around it. It's basically a tree. It doesn't move. It can sting some algae spores off, but not all. Also some algae eaters might help.