Dead Monty

[Ballyhoo]

I don't know why, but I purchased a beautiful Monty. It was about 6 inches wide by 3 inches. And it didn't last a week. most all my other corals are doing good, except my leather won't sprout. I know my nitrates are a little high, probably like 30, and my phosphate are at .08. Is .08 too high of a level to maintain SPS corals? Otherwise I don't know why my Monty died. my tank is only eight months old. Perhaps the stability is just not there, but I'm not able to find any particular parameter that fluctuates to greatly except perhaps nitrates. I passed the ugly stage. And I had up until a couple weeks ago a big issue with red cyano. But then I put in a refugium in my sump and I no longer have cyano so at eight months I should have a stable enough tank for SPS. IDK what's going on. How long does it really take a 50 gallon system to become stable and mature for Sps? ? I would think since I have Coraline and I no longer have a micro algae issue I should be good to go. But then I do know that I have high nitrates. @30.

 

[FUNGI]

Monty Cap?
Whats the Lights? NOX at 30 shouldn't have killed it that quickly

 

[Ballyhoo]

well would lack of strong lighting kill it? I have a lighting program which steadily increases over the course of the day and then comes down kind of like the sun rises and then comes down. But I did notice that trocantus snail was riding over the Monty so I don't know if that would have anything to do with it. It was an encrusted Monty not a rocky one.

 

[FUNGI]

they love light and waterflow.....
whats the reading on the other stuff?

 

[FUNGI]

good quick read here:

Tidal Gardens - Montipora Coral Care

Montipora are arguably the second most popular small polyp stony coral behind Acropora. This is for good reason. Montipora possess both diverse color variations as well as a multitude of growth forms. With just a little bit of searching, a reef hobbyist can find plating, encrusting, or...

tidalgardens.com

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

You have all mainly low light low flow corals in your tank, monty likes high light and high flow.

 

[Ballyhoo]

i don't know how to measure flow though. and I set the red sea reef wave @ 40 % plus the main power head set at 55% I would think would be reasonable flow. i'm thinking maybe my mistake was not acclimating the crusted coral and i just brought it from LFS into my tank. IDK. not had much luck with SPS so far. i'm tempted to buy a smaller monti and try again. Maybe my method of slowly increasing in the light as the day goes on is not good. Maybe I need strong light all day. This is my current lighting program. I would rather not blast my tank all day and be high energy bill and tendency towards microalgae. also, I have a mini Nero which I keep at a pretty low level like 10%, but just for some additional flow on the other side of the tank

 

[FUNGI]

ahhh...so your tank is blue all day.....
IMO, you need to increase the light.....I dont think they will grow in just almost all blue

 

[Ballyhoo]

well, it's not just blue. I mean it's dominant blue but as you see, it's peaks out at about 45% white and 100% blue.

Also, when I bought the Monty, a lady at the LFS recommended Purple Up, a capful a day but i didn't use it every day bc i was afraid it would increase my calcium too much and actually, I just do it a few times, but then maybe the Monty didn't like it. I think using this purple up was a mistake because I don't really understand what it's doing to the chemistry of my aquarium.

 

[Ballyhoo]

would not acclimating a monti maybe cause it to die?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

would not acclimating a monti maybe cause it to die?

If the conditions were extremely different, then yes.

But if the systems are similar salinity, alk, calcium, lighting, flow, etc, then no acclimation needed. Personally I don't even acclimate corals anymore, I just put them in my tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

I say this all the time, keeping mixed reefs are tough. By mixed reefs I mean leathers and mushrooms with SPS. All the soft corals can release toxins and if you don't use gac all the time it really beats down on the sps.

 

[Ballyhoo]

what is gac?
anther Achro bit the dust. darn.

 

[Pod_01]

my phosphate are at .08. Is .08 too high of a level to maintain SPS corals?

Unlikely, my PO4 is 0.1-0.2 and even higher sometimes.
Montipora from my tank:

From my experience if corals die within a week something is off. Perhaps the piece was struggling before you got it or there is something not right with your water parameters like salinity, Alk, calcium etc…
Even improper light should take longer to kill coral.

I do run a mixed reef and am using GAC (granular activated carbon) to deal with coral warfare. I use ROX 0.8 carbon, about 2 tablespoons per 60gal and change it every 4 weeks, the carbon is in a bag in my sump.

Good luck,

 

[Dburr1014]

what is gac?

Granular Activated Carbon

 

[Ballyhoo]

Unlikely, my PO4 is 0.1-0.2 and even higher sometimes.
Montipora from my tank:

From my experience if corals die within a week something is off. Perhaps the piece was struggling before you got it or there is something not right with your water parameters like salinity, Alk, calcium etc…
Even improper light should take longer to kill coral.

I do run a mixed reef and am using GAC (granular activated carbon) to deal with coral warfare. I use ROX 0.8 carbon, about 2 tablespoons per 60gal and change it every 4 weeks, the carbon is in a bag in my sump.

Good luck,

well the only things i haven't recently checked but has been checked in the past is alk. i'm still wondering if my tank has more maturing potential. It's 8 months old with some coraline. i'm not sure if that means it's maxed out it's maturing capacity or not.

 

[exnisstech]

IME alk is one if the most important things to be tested when keeping coral. Coral can endure too high or too low NO3 and P04 but too high or too low alkalynity can be catastrophic as can rapid swings in alk.
I've kept monticaps in a tank With NO3 20 and PO4 0.65 and also in a tank with both barely detectable.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

well the only things i haven't recently checked but has been checked in the past is alk. i'm still wondering if my tank has more maturing potential. It's 8 months old with some coraline. i'm not sure if that means it's maxed out it's maturing capacity or not.

If you are growing coraline, then it is consuming alk and calcium to grow, so your alk & calcium might be low, along with other parameters, depending how often you change the water. As mentioned above, alk is the number one most important parameter for corals, especially for sps and acros.

Sounds like its time to start researching dosing methods to keep your parameters stable, I like all for reef personally.

 

[Pod_01]

well the only things i haven't recently checked but has been checked in the past is alk. i'm still wondering if my tank has more maturing potential. It's 8 months old with some coraline. i'm not sure if that means it's maxed out it's maturing capacity or not.

As mentioned Alk is critical and should be checked frequently. When I did manual testing I used to check it at minimum 3 times a week.

Following guidance helped me a lot and improved my reef keeping ability:

Also as mentioned TM AFR is wonderful product to maintain Alk, calcium and trace elements.

Good luck,

 

[Ballyhoo]

this is all great information and I appreciate the responses. But am I questioning about eight months in tank maturity, it's a 52 gallon system do I have more maturing potential out of my tank system or is it now just a matter of management? I try to do 20% water change weekly.

also, I do believe my ALK is high. I just tested it. It's measuring around 10. not sure how I would lower it though.

sal 1.26
temp 78 f
KH 9.9
Po3 .08
ph 8.0
N02 undetectable
N03 < 20