Red plating montipora issues

[new_world_disor]

I have had 3 small red monti frags for 6 months now. all three have pretty much trippled in size and were a brilliant deep red. The arent looking to good at all. they are loosing some colour and have started to get some algae grow on them. I have a few stylo frags which are doing fine, as well as a couple of green acro's and a large birds nest all doing fine and growing well as well as showing great colours and polyp extension.

Any ideas ? they have good lighting, good flow and get supplements regularly. water changes are done regularly so no issues there.

HELP:uhoh3:

 

[plyle02]

check magnesium and potassium.

 

[Reefvet]

Monti's will show the symptoms of an alkalinity spike or drop 10 days to a week after the event. The other SPS you have aren't nearly as sensitive.

Any water changes recently that could have bumped or diluted alkalinity ?

Or maybe a doser ran out and didn't run for a day or two ?

 

[new_world_disor]

Ill check alkalinity this evening, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened and ive never used dosers, i manually dose every other day

 

[new_world_disor]

Everything is fine levels wise. Seems odd theyve grown so well and all of a sudden taken a huge turn for the worse. Pi55ed off to be honest haha. May stick to easier corals in the future

 

[SammyL]

Any other corals close by that could be "stinging" it? I had a similar problem and had to move the monti.

 

[new_world_disor]

There is a large leather nearby. Brushes one of the three monti's sometimes. But all three are going downhill

 

[ghostman]

Alk is always my first guess as previously mentioned, but my montis are sensitive to magnesium and potassium depletion. I switched salts from Salinity to Tropic Marin Pro which has lower mag and my montis were the only ones to suffer. Acros looked great. Check mag and maybe potassium. Any temp swings recently?

 

[new_world_disor]

Alk is fine at the moment. And no temp swings that i know of. Mh birds nest is suffering now as well! Doing my head in

 

[Pife]

How about you list your parameters.

 

[plyle02]

I agree with the parameters, it would be useful to give us the following, and test kits used to make the determined results will hlep too.
1. Alk
2. Calcium
3. Mag
4. S.G.
5. Temp
6. NO3
7. PO4

Given that most of these thrive in good stable conditions, I would venture to think that the parameters are likely not stable. Most who have stable conditions do not feel like they can kill montis or birdsnest corals, FWIW... Hope everything turns around for you!

 

[domvert]

ALK swings affect monti- Don't worry they will color back up fast in my experience

 

[nogascans]

Worth asking the question.. Is your salinity accurately being measured? I have found that if it creeps up towards 1.30 montis start to bleach out and loose tissue.

Sincerely,

David

 

[new_world_disor]

Well i thought my sg. Was finem i have an ATU but just checked and its at 1.022 usually run 1.024 i will bring it up over the next week.

I will get a full list of tests tomorrow. Didn't have time today.

 

[kraftyforu]

have you checked to see if there are any pests? mine were doing fine and great then all of a sudden they started going downhill. checked one night after the lights went out and monti eating nudis going to town on them.

 

[new_world_disor]

I haven't seen anything sneaking around at night. I will check a few more times to see if i have missed anything.

 

[new_world_disor]

Ok.... So my params are as follows :

Sg - 1.023
Temp- 25.9'c
Ph - 8.2 (api test kit)
Nitrite - 0ppm (api test kit)
Nitrate - 0ppm (api test kit)
Ammonia - 0.25ppm (api test kit)
Calcium - 250 (salifert kit) bit low so added some coral grow (high in calcium)
Alk - 8.3 Dkh (salifert kit) . How do i adjust alk levels

 

[nuvuku]

Your calcium should at least be around 350, you can check out this thread on reef chemistry:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1379607

Scroll down to the second post and read through all of those. Montipora are amazing, I have several large colonies that are my favorite corals, they are sizes ranging from softballs to soccer balls. If you have any more questions please ask. Reef chemistry is very important. Understanding how different each element and ion works is easier than it seems also, just some good ol' time spent on youtube and the interwebs is all it takes. Asking helps a ton too!

 

[new_world_disor]

Seems Odd that they were all growing like mad when i 1st added them and brilliant colours and now the montis, acros and birds nest are all near enough dead. Im gutted. Maybe ivr just not been dosing the calcium supplement enough. But surely that would just slow /prevent growth rather than kill them?

Thanks for the link. Will have a read this eve

 

[nemodan]

Seems Odd that they were all growing like mad when i 1st added them and brilliant colours and now the montis, acros and birds nest are all near enough dead. Im gutted. Maybe ivr just not been dosing the calcium supplement enough. But surely that would just slow /prevent growth rather than kill them?

Thanks for the link. Will have a read this eve

I do not see Phosphate data When you posted your parameters

High nutrients can be another issue too.