Help! White stuff in bleaching Montipora

[azreefer93]

Hello Reef2Reef Family!

Does anyone know what is this white stuff on my Montipora? I found that this stuff only appear on the spot that bleaching on all of my Monti, not Acro. The reason for bleaching I guess because of my Phosphate is too high (0.13 for low flow and low light).

My tank params:
Phosphate 0.13 Hanna
Nitrate 15-20 Salifert
Alkalinity 8.3
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: Never test
PH: 8.3

The recent change I did is doing water change with new Instant Ocean salt mix. Since this IO salt mix has a higher Alk so I am using Sodium Bisulfate to lower Alk to 8.5 before doing water change.

Thank you.

 

[Rocks reef]

Your phosphates aren't bad, they are actually in line with your nitrates. As far as bleaching, the corals themselves look browned out. Those bleaching areas appear to be tissue death. The white growths at the bottom of the one... I have no idea.

If I were you, I'd take those out and cut off the dead ends with those growths on it.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

.13 of phosphate it fine for corals, thats not the issue.

Do you mean the coral is in low light and low flow? It should be in higher light and flow.

But I agree with above, I would frag the healthy part off.

 

[BlueBayouReefHTX]

Is it possible these are montipora eating nudibranches/eggs? This looks similar to what happened to mine. Suckers were literally eating it from the outside in.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

montipora eating nudibranch :-(

Those bustards can be hard to deal with. There are a few wrasses that can help to control their population, I have always had good luck with, yellow coris wrasses, leopard wrasses and even Springeri Damselsm

if you have any other montipora in your tank I would inspect that and look for sings. You will usual find them on the underside of the coral, during the day

 

[azreefer93]

Your phosphates aren't bad, they are actually in line with your nitrates. As far as bleaching, the corals themselves look browned out. Those bleaching areas appear to be tissue death. The white growths at the bottom of the one... I have no idea.

If I were you, I'd take those out and cut off the dead ends with those growths on it.

.13 of phosphate it fine for corals, thats not the issue.

Do you mean the coral is in low light and low flow? It should be in higher light and flow.

But I agree with above, I would frag the healthy part off.

Thank you both. I will cut off the dead ends and mount them again :)

 

[BlueBayouReefHTX]

Thank you both. I will cut off the dead ends and mount them again :)

You may want to trash this whole piece. Sounds extreme but these are extremely difficult to deal with.

 

[azreefer93]

Is it possible these are montipora eating nudibranches/eggs? This looks similar to what happened to mine. Suckers were literally eating it from the outside in.

montipora eating nudibranch :-(

Those bustards can be hard to deal with. There are a few wrasses that can help to control their population, I have always had good luck with, yellow coris wrasses, leopard wrasses and even Springeri Damselsm

if you have nay other montipora in your tank I would inspect that and look for sings. You will usual find them on the underside of he coral, during the day

Thank you so much y'all !!!!! Let me do some research on how to get rid of them. My LFS having yellow coris and leopard ready. Will get them if needed :)

 

[azreefer93]

You may want to trash this whole piece. Sounds extreme but these are extremely difficult to deal with.

Understood! This is my second tank, nothing too crazy in here so I'm ready to trash the whole piece:)

 

[Rocks reef]

.13 of phosphate it fine for corals, thats not the issue.

Do you mean the coral is in low light and low flow? It should be in higher light and flow.

But I agree with above, I would frag the healthy part off.

That was my question too Mojo about the low light and low flow. Browning is a sure sign of not enough light especially for SPS.

**nevermind** I just read VCA response about the nudibranchs.

 

[MoshJosh]

I agree with others, looking like montipora eating nudibranchs. I would remove and dip all montipora if possible and introduce a natural predator if possible.

 

[X-37B]

Yea those are nudis. Cutting the frag and remounting works but with that many you have eggs somewhere and dips don't kill the eggs.
Do you have other montis?

 

[Catawba_Valley_Reef]

OP, toss the piece. Check your other montis if you have them.

These things are a nightmare. I would say worse than AEFW.

 

[Rocks reef]

Also, I'd recommend not purchasing from the place you bought these from and start dipping EVERYTHING that gets introduced to your tank.

 

[bluemon]

Also might be wise to stay away from montis for a good while to make sure that when any remaining eggs hatch, that they don’t have montis to chomp on.

 

[azreefer93]

Also, I'd recommend not purchasing from the place you bought these from and start dipping EVERYTHING that gets introduced to your tank.

I dip everything before put them into my tank, I’m using Seachem Dip. Look at my below picture, somehow even in the DIP, those nudis not completely dead. Also do you think dip impact the eggs at all?

 

[azreefer93]

Update: I ended up with tossed all of the monti away since there are lot of eggs laying around and really hard to see. I think a clean start will be better.

Thank you’all for all of your help. Love this community.

 

[bluemon]

Update: I ended up with tossed all of the monti away since there are lot of eggs laying around and really hard to see. I think a clean start will be better.

Thank you’all for all of your help. Love this community.

Eggs don’t die with dips which is why it’s really hard to battle these.

You made the right call.

At least montis are on the cheap side of things!