Sunset Monti Brown Slime?

[Scott07]

Hi Everyone,

Hoping someone can ID this patch of brown stuff on my sunset monti. You can see it pretty much right in the center of this pic, in the crevace at the side of the frag plug the monti is on. I origionally thought it was maybe a sinking pellet or something which had disolved there... but was unable to syphon it off during WC. It appears to be spreading slowly. Should I be worried? Is this a disease or potentially algae growth? What course of action should I take? Thanks in advance for your responses!

Parameters:

Salinity: 1.025
Ph: 7.9-8.1
Nitrate: 0
Alk: 8.5dkh
Calcium: 430-450
Phosphate: 0.08
Magnesium: 1350

 

[Tweaked]

Could be any number of things. I will say that coral looks either starved, stressed or too much light. The patch of brown stuff is more than likely from a dead spot on the coral that is now growing some sort of algae.

 

[Scott07]

Could be any number of things. I will say that coral looks either starved, stressed or too much light. The patch of brown stuff is more than likely from a dead spot on the coral that is now growing some sort of algae.

Thanks for the response... some things here I haven't considered. Starved: I feel my water is nutrient rich if anything... and have been using Phosguard to try and keep my phosphates down. Stressed: yea, quite possibly. My tank is only 7 or 8 months old, so things have not reached ideal stability yet... although I feel I'm pretty close. Too much light: I am running a 4 bulb T5 fixture on a 20 gallon long tank, however this monti has been doing great for a couple of months now, and if anything the area in question is recieving the lowest light of any of it due to shaddow.

I feel as though if I can confirm that this is not a disease or infection, I'd like to leave things as they are and let it sort its self out. The coral appears to still be growing and it's colors are still vibrant.

One more question: the only thing I have changed recently was relocating a MP10 to that side of the tank. This monti now gets almost direct flow, but from several inches away. Could this have any bearing on what's going on here?

Thanks again!

 

[markalot]

Howdy,

My 1 year old Sunset Monti will occasionally lose about 1/4 of it's skin every few months or so, then put on a growth spurt and more than make up for it. It doesn't like something but I have no idea what it is. I've simply stopped worrying about it.

Did you just add the phosguard to reduce nutrients? it can reduce Phosphate very fast and harm some corals? Did you rinse it well? Are you running it in a reactor where the aluminum oxide might be flaking off and irritating corals?

 

[Scott07]

Howdy,

My 1 year old Sunset Monti will occasionally lose about 1/4 of it's skin every few months or so, then put on a growth spurt and more than make up for it. It doesn't like something but I have no idea what it is. I've simply stopped worrying about it.

Did you just add the phosguard to reduce nutrients? it can reduce Phosphate very fast and harm some corals? Did you rinse it well? Are you running it in a reactor where the aluminum oxide might be flaking off and irritating corals?

Hi Mark,

Glad to hear it may be nothing huge to worry about. I started using the phosguard in a media bag 2 or 3 months ago, and have never had an issue. I have however had a hard time keeping my phospates much below .08 using a media bag, so I did go out this weekend and purchase a TLF Phosban reactor which I am now running the Phosguard in. This issue (the browning/algae on my monti) did start about a week or so before I switched from media bags to reactor. I'm also concerned about the Aluminum flaking off and harming corals, but have never observed even my leathers react badly, and always rinse it very very thoroughly before using.

Also, I've never used a media reactor before, but have done considerable research. I believe i've currently got a bit too much Phosguard in the reactor, as it is not tumbling at all even with the flow turned up to almost max. I am however only running the reactor w/ a MJ400. I'm not overly concerned with the media not tumbling as i can still observe flow through the reactor and feel it must be doing some good. Over the last two days my phosphates have gone from .08 to somewhere between .04 and .08. Was planning on chalking this reactor fill up to a learning experience and using less next time to achieve the slight simmer on the surface of the media which you're supposed to go for.