what casues random dead spots on encursting montis

[rsantangelo3@co]

Forever All my encrusting montis get random dead spots. Ive seen pepperment shrimp nipping at them, what casues this? The coral I am specifically talking about is a reverse sunset and has lighten up in color since I went to halides

 

[davelinks]

random dead spots are usually from coral warfare or monti eating nudibranches. theres lots of threads about them on here. start lookin for the feathery little white nudis on the underside of your montis. they are tiny.

 

[rsantangelo3@co]

deff. not them... just dead spots not munch spots

 

[Aimforever]

I've noticed similar random 'dead' looking spots tend to show up on my sunset monti whenever my Mg gets a little low. Even though the spots look dead (bleached and no PE), they color right back up within a few days once I get my Mg back in line. It kinda scared me the first few times, but once I figured it out it's been helpful as a warning sign. I would check your Mg levels.

 

[rsantangelo3@co]

1250- to low?

 

[Aimforever]

It isn't dangerously low or anything, but in my experience that could be it. I normally keep my Mg on the high side (around 1400-1500) and the sunset monti would always start to look bad when I got bad about testing my Mg and it slipped down to the 1100-1200 range. You certainly could stand to slowly bring it up to at least 1350 or so and see if your monti improves.

 

[rsantangelo3@co]

what about acros that get dead spots in the deeply shaded areas around thier bases?

 

[fcmatt]

what about acros that get dead spots in the deeply shaded areas around thier bases?

if you have plenty of light and have that happening i would first look at water
movement as the issue.

I notice SPS do better at the base when water is really moving past the coral
and light is not able to reach it. But eventually, as I think happens in nature,
new growth eventually kills off corals below it and thus the reef grows.

 

[fraggin]

its most likely nudis, i'd say. the monti nudis look like white "tank dirt" along the rim of the dead spots. i had them took a few weeks to get them all.

 

[Frick]

Check the Alk day to day. Encrusting montis will be the first to tell you your alkalinity is off. Keeping a high stable Mg will help. My Purple Haze Monti is my alk alarm. If it gets white spots I can bet money my alk is low for what ever reason.

 

[mcoomer]

The only times that I've seen random spots on montis is when I get off my maintenance schedule. If I get lazy and don't do water changes as I'm supposed to I've seen random white spots that clear up after I've done a few moderate changes. When I've tested the water it's never bad, just not quite right.

Mike

 

[phenom5]

Check the Alk day to day. Encrusting montis will be the first to tell you your alkalinity is off. Keeping a high stable Mg will help. My Purple Haze Monti is my alk alarm. If it gets white spots I can bet money my alk is low for what ever reason.

That's what I was going to suggest. My rainbow monti is the first thing in my tank to show stress if my alk swings.

 

[psteeleb]

Listed in order of what I would suspect based on my experience:

1) Rule out predators - sounds like you did this

2) detritus or other solids like GFO or GAC that land on horizontal surfaces (plates and encrusting). I try to dust mine off with a turkey baster every so often. If it's GFO you may pick up a slight brown coloration as it dies.

3) low Mg - I've consistently seen issues start on montes before any other corals and it can be very sporadic as to location

4) Alk swing or burn but generally this usually happens to acropora first.

5) increase in lighting intensity, like changing bulbs - but it will expel zooxanthellae then die, not just die

Side note there is also sponge, or something like a sponge, that I've had show up only on Montes. I haven't seen it actually kill off an area as it seems to coincide with the monte but will show up as small deep purple blotches.

 

[rsantangelo3@co]

alk is down to 6dkh

 

[Chyendra]

Yup! My purple encrusting monti gets "dead" spots when my Alk falls to quickly or goes too low. Glad you figured out what it was.