Issues with birdnest and montis only

PghReef

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So for about a year now I've been unable to keep birdnest, poccis, and montis alive and I cant figure out why. Been a journey and the tank is close to 18 months old now. Parameters remain stable-
Sg 1.026
Ca 450
Alk 8.1
Mag 1360
Phos .08
Nitrate 20
Icp testing never shows anything unusual. Lps,softies, and other sps do well. The corals in question always lose their skin but maintain good PE and define over weeks. Only thing I've never tested is PAR, need to rent a meter one of these days.

Picture of a birdnest I recently tried showing the missing skin. Followed my a Monti Cap which is missing the skin in the center.
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Photos of some corals growing and doing well. Zoas, frogspawn, ora red goni, green slimer, acroberry, purple stylo, and other assorted acros. Just look at that healthy skin on the Oregon blue tort and ora red planet, added less then a month ago and encrusting nicely.
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MnFish1

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This is a situation I'm well acquainted with. I think it has to do with toxins released by neighboring corals - or the extended polyps that can sting.

I would suggest - activated carbon. But - you're right - I literally could not grow birds nest - I removed a leather coral - and they were growing all over the tank. IMHO - it can be extremely difficult to grow certain corals in a given tank - while at the same time - others seem to thrive
 
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PghReef

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No corals are close enough to sting. No leathers or noxious softies. Run carbon on a reactor since day 1 to try and prevent any chemical warfare just in case. When the issues first started a year ago my acros also stopped growing but didn't die. They did start growing again, not sure if the dieing corals released things causing a cascade effect. Removing the dead or almost dead corals helped.

Once I didn't see any decline and my remaining corals started to grow again I thought I was out of the woods. I lost the majority of my purple stylo and chopped off the top as it was covered in algae, the huge encrusted area on the rocks still had polyps but no skin. Over weeks the skin grew back and I saw new encrusting growth. Figured I was finally over whatever was wrong so ordere a ton of frags. Once again every single monti and birds looked terrible and just declined but my new acro frags are growing and encrusting.

Some tanks just can't grow certain corals and it may be montis and birds will be my Achilles heel. Just dumbfounded as when I first started the tank they grew like I fed them steroids. Only thing out of whack is nitrates at 20, higher then I'd like but not all that bad. I grow coralline algae like noones business, scrape the glass every few days for the film algae, and leave the rest alone. I have minimal algae on the rocks except for a few places the fish cant reach. Only problem algae wise is the cyano on the sandbed, never on rocks or corals only on the sand.
 

MnFish1

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No corals are close enough to sting. No leathers or noxious softies. Run carbon on a reactor since day 1 to try and prevent any chemical warfare just in case. When the issues first started a year ago my acros also stopped growing but didn't die. They did start growing again, not sure if the dieing corals released things causing a cascade effect. Removing the dead or almost dead corals helped.

Once I didn't see any decline and my remaining corals started to grow again I thought I was out of the woods. I lost the majority of my purple stylo and chopped off the top as it was covered in algae, the huge encrusted area on the rocks still had polyps but no skin. Over weeks the skin grew back and I saw new encrusting growth. Figured I was finally over whatever was wrong so ordere s ton of frags. Once again every single monti and birds looks terrible and just declines but my new acro f frag are growing and encrusting.

Some tanks just can't grow certain corals and it may be montis and birds will be ny Achilles heel. Just dumbfounded as when I first started the tank they grew like I fed them steroids. Only thing out of whack is nitrates at 20 is higher then I'd like but not all that bad. I grow coralline algae like noones business, scrape the glass every few days for the film algae, and leave the rest alone. I have minimal algae on the rocks except for a few places the fish cant reach. Only problem algae wise is the cyano on the sandbed, never on rocks or corals only on the sand.
IMHO - This is another good point. When you get your new corals - are you getting them - and matching the parameters in the tank they came from? Or are you just assuming that the water they come from is 'ok'.

Every coral releases chemicals (as far as I know) - that serve to prevent other corals of a different species from growing near it.

Do you use activated carbon - if not - I would. (sorry - I meant to add a high quality activated carbon chemipure, etc)
 
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PghReef

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I run rocks carbon in a reactor. 10T changed every 2 weeks on a 120gallonish total water volume system.

New frags are from vendors on this site. Same shipment as the acros and others and listed parameter are close to what I run.
 

MnFish1

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I run rocks carbon in a reactor. 10T changed every 2 weeks on a 120gallonish total water volume system.

New frags are from vendors on this site. Same shipment as the acros and others and listed parameter are close to what I run.
Yea - right - its weird. I literally had the same problem. I do tend to run a lower pH - due to air conditioning in the summer - and heat in the winter (i.e. the windows are closed
 

MnFish1

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So for about a year now I've been unable to keep birdnest, poccis, and montis alive and I cant figure out why. Been a journey and the tank is close to 18 months old now. Parameters remain stable-
Sg 1.026
Ca 450
Alk 8.1
Mag 1360
Phos .08
Nitrate 20
Icp testing never shows anything unusual. Lps,softies, and other sps do well. The corals in question always lose their skin but maintain good PE and define over weeks. Only thing I've never tested is PAR, need to rent a meter one of these days.

Picture of a birdnest I recently tried showing the missing skin. Followed my a Monti Cap which is missing the skin in the center.
20220212_132204.jpg
20220212_132315.jpg


Photos of some corals growing and doing well. Zoas, frogspawn, ora red goni, green slimer, acroberry, purple stylo, and other assorted acros. Just look at that healthy skin on the Oregon blue tort and ora red planet, added less then a month ago and encrusting nicely.
20220212_132334.jpg
20220212_132325.jpg
20220212_132306.jpg
20220212_132259.jpg
20220212_132245.jpg
20220212_132236.jpg
20220212_132229.jpg
20220205_102514.jpg
20220205_102549.jpg
PS - meant to ask what fish you have
 
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PghReef

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I have 2 clowns, a Melanarus Wrasse, small blue Hippo tank, tomini Tang, and a potters angel. No nipping ever observed.

I've long believed a coral disease to be the culprit. Never seen a coral pest or dish nipping. Wish I could test for a coral disease and I was tempted to treat the entire tank with an antibiotic but didn't want to make things worse.
 

A Young Reefer

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In my previous tank I couldn’t keep chalices. In this tank I can’t keep Xenia, a blessing in disguise?
 

damsels are not mean

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How many did you try? Could it be bad luck? Also, it could be some invisible disease or pest that has spread from one to the other and for some reason cannot infect other genera OR was brought in on a frag and spread to other frags as they were stressed and new but older colonies were unaffected...
 
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PghReef

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How many did you try? Could it be bad luck? Also, it could be some invisible disease or pest that has spread from one to the other and for some reason cannot infect other genera OR was brought in on a frag and spread to other frags as they were stressed and new but older colonies were unaffected...
I've tried 3 poccis, 2 Forest Fire digis, 2 encrusting montis, 2 plating montis, 2 birds. Same result. After the poccies and encrusting Monti looked close to dead I moved them to a basement tank and they've slowly been recovering with PE again but no color to their skin. Ib the meantime I also added 15 acros of which only 1 didn't make it and 2 anacropora which looked rough from the start but have been recovering. Of the 14 acros that made it they all have good PE and about half of them have starting encrusting. 2 of them had some tissue recession at the tips I had to trim off.
 

damsels are not mean

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I've tried 3 poccis, 2 Forest Fire digis, 2 encrusting montis, 2 plating montis, 2 birds. Same result. After the poccies and encrusting Monti looked close to dead I moved them to a basement tank and they've slowly been recovering with PE again but no color to their skin. Ib the meantime I also added 15 acros of which only 1 didn't make it and 2 anacropora which looked rough from the start but have been recovering. Of the 14 acros that made it they all have good PE and about half of them have starting encrusting. 2 of them had some tissue recession at the tips I had to trim off.
That is odd...
 

MnFish1

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I have 2 clowns, a Melanarus Wrasse, small blue Hippo tank, tomini Tang, and a potters angel. No nipping ever observed.

I've long believed a coral disease to be the culprit. Never seen a coral pest or dish nipping. Wish I could test for a coral disease and I was tempted to treat the entire tank with an antibiotic but didn't want to make things worse.
If I were going to bet - I would bet its the potters angel. A quick recommendation - when you have a length of time 2-3 hours - sit and watch the tank (If you havent already)
 
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PghReef

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If I were going to bet - I would bet its the potters angel. A quick recommendation - when you have a length of time 2-3 hours - sit and watch the tank (If you havent already)
I have wat he'd very closely, havnt seen a nip. My dwarf angel before the potters was a problem and within hours of bring introduced was a nipper. Took 3 days to catch and during that time I had almost no polyp extention. After I removed PE slowly returned.

On that note aftwr introducing the lemonpeel last March that is when the downhill started. Even after removing the forest fire digi never returned to normal and slowly declined until it parishes followed by other pieces. Also thought the nipping introduced some coral disease to the stressed out corals. Just shocked after a year I still csnt introduce a Monti or birdnest
 

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In mu experience, when a coral is sick, it's slime (coral holobiont) will change dramatically. If you were to pull out a sick (not dead) coral, the smell of the slime is quite distinct.

There were researches talking about pathogenic bacteria taking over the coral holobiont before the coral finally succumb. I believe it is likely that as the coral finally dies, or due to the action of waves, some of these bacteria may be transferred from one colony to the next.

Perhaps some of the corals have good resistance against these pathogens, and others, don't.
 

MnFish1

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I have wat he'd very closely, havnt seen a nip. My dwarf angel before the potters was a problem and within hours of bring introduced was a nipper. Took 3 days to catch and during that time I had almost no polyp extention. After I removed PE slowly returned.

On that note aftwr introducing the lemonpeel last March that is when the downhill started. Even after removing the forest fire digi never returned to normal and slowly declined until it parishes followed by other pieces. Also thought the nipping introduced some coral disease to the stressed out corals. Just shocked after a year I still csnt introduce a Monti or birdnest
OHHHHHH I didnt know you had a lemon peel - must have missed it. A lemon peel can be an absolute coral disaster - I've posted about my trek with one at least a couple times. The week it took for me to get it out of the tank - it basically destroyed multiple coral colonies
 
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PghReef

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OHHHHHH I didnt know you had a lemon peel - must have missed it. A lemon peel can be an absolute coral disaster - I've posted about my trek with one at least a couple times. The week it took for me to get it out of the tank - it basically destroyed multiple coral colonies
I didn't mention it because he was in the tank 3 days back in March 2021. I transfered him from my other tank to my reef and he was a terror. Took 3 days of baiting and trapping standing in front of my tank holding a string until caught him. He known lives in my basement,beautiful fish but never again.

During those 3 days zoas were closed, trumpets and lps shriveled, all sps no polyp extention. Within 24 hours of removal corals started to go back to normal snd it took weeks for most to fully open and regain PE. The digi never looked right again, then the Duncan's declined over months, birdnests and other montis declined over the following 6 months or so. I have 2 leptos, 1 jack o lantern and 1 24k gold. The jack receded to nothing and the 24k kept on growing.
 

MnFish1

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I didn't mention it because he was in the tank 3 days back in March 2021. I transfered him from my other tank to my reef and he was a terror. Took 3 days of baiting and trapping standing in front of my tank holding a string until caught him. He known lives in my basement,beautiful fish but never again.

During those 3 days zoas were closed, trumpets and lps shriveled, all sps no polyp extention. Within 24 hours of removal corals started to go back to normal snd it took weeks for most to fully open and regain PE. The digi never looked right again, then the Duncan's declined over months, birdnests and other montis declined over the following 6 months or so. I have 2 leptos, 1 jack o lantern and 1 24k gold. The jack receded to nothing and the 24k kept on growing.
This is actually very similar to what happened to me - after the lemon-peel
 

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