Rainbow Monti Still Alive? What going on?

[aruckus9]

I am in the process of rebuilding my 30 gal tank. I have never had much luck with sps and I think I've finally attributed this to the 500$+ led lighting system I've been running for years. I've diligently checked water parameters and kept up religiously with tank maintenance to rule out water chemistry.

Changing to t5 lighting and redoing plumbing, new, bigger skimmer, new aquascape, sand, etc.. Anyhow, Still have a few frags of only a couple months old of a rainbow monti. Here are the pics of it currently. Anybody ever seen this before? Is it still alive? I could never figure out if I had my lighting set to high or low (it is dimmable). But generally the theme is that sps does fine for a week or two then starts to go pale and then recede slowly. And at some point it will typically decide to lose all it's flesh and turn white and die.

Tanks Info:

30 gal cube
mp 10
small skimmer

Water Parameters:

Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: 8-9 ---check a few times a week
Mag/Ca: water changes typically suffice since tank has very light load currently.

 

[Mark426]

Your monti looks like it might not make it....but...they are amazingly resilient. I would move it to a shaded area with low to moderate flow and then leave it alone. No moving, etc.

p.s. while your at it, gently remove that bubble algae. dont pop it.

 

[aruckus9]

Thanks for you comment on my rainbow Monti frag. You mentioned shading it. Would you say that it appears to be getting too much light?

That is one thing I could never quite figure out...deciding too much or too little light and how bright the LEDs should be. All the soft coral eg. Mushrooms don't seem to care how intense or low the lights are set at as they always appear open and happy, so it is hard to judge.