Losing montis

[scotty333]

Guys
About 3 weeks ago I noticed one encrusting monti losing a bit of flesh , 2 days later the whole colony stripped
I’ve just had a look at my corals through the magnifier and my orange digis are showing branches of no polyps down to skeleton
I’ve basted them to see if any bugs come of and there’s nothing
I’ve not added anything for 4-5 months
These are all colony’s a year or more old

Help!
Yes I will post a pic when the polyps come back out

 

[JTP424]

What are your parameters?
It sounds similar to a situation I had a few weeks back, I was not replenishing my Calcium, Alk or Magnesium and was starving them out.

 

[scotty333]

What are your parameters?
It sounds similar to a situation I had a few weeks back, I was not replenishing my Calcium, Alk or Magnesium and was starving them out.

Params are rock solid in range mate
Can’t see any issues with my plates yet?
I’ve got big acros, hystrix, stylo all growing and healthy
Weird!

 

[Pod_01]

Params are rock solid in range mate
Can’t see any issues with my plates yet?
I’ve got big acros, hystrix, stylo all growing and healthy
Weird!

Out of curiosity how is your PO4?
Montiporas can be sensitive to sinking PO4 especially when below 0.05 ppm and going down.

From my experience SPS start to RTN when something is not right. Are any trace elements elevated, that caused RTN in my reef tank on few occasions.

 

[Lavey29]

How can we provide any suggestions without complete parameters, pics of the tank, affected corals, etc... have you done a recent ICP test? Do you do weekly water changes? Have you made any changes to your tank recently? Are you running carbon in case a contaminant got in there?

 

[scotty333]

Out of curiosity how is your PO4?
Montiporas can be sensitive to sinking PO4 especially when below 0.05 ppm and going down.

From my experience SPS start to RTN when something is not right. Are any trace elements elevated, that caused RTN in my reef tank on few occasions.

Po4 .09
No3 10
Kh 9.1
Mag 1400
Calcium 420
Sg 1.25
Temp 26
Ph 8.4
Orp 400

Last icp was 3 months ago and had elevated strontium

I dose afr and a and k trace which brings the trace inline for my usage
I don’t water change unless icp suggests it
No carbon , I dose LC for po4 or it raises fast
I dose nitrates

Pics coming soon

 

[Pod_01]

Po4 .09
No3 10
Kh 9.1
Mag 1400
Calcium 420
Sg 1.25
Temp 26
Ph 8.4
Orp 400

Last icp was 3 months ago and had elevated strontium

I dose afr and a and k trace which brings the trace inline for my usage
I don’t water change unless icp suggests it
No carbon , I dose LC for po4 or it raises fast
I dose nitrates

Pics coming soon

Values look good, I am assuming Sg of 1.25 is referring to relative density and I suspect you have a typo. Preferred value is 1.0262, 1.025 is getting on the low end of salinity.

Depending on your AFR dose you may be overdosing traces and accumulating if you also add A and K and elevated Sr can be indicator. With your combination monthly ICP tests are good idea or weekly water changes to re- balance ions and slow down accumulation.

Use of LC can swing your PO4 so that could also be contributing factor. I never had luck with SPS when using LC and PO4 was below 0.2ppm.

Good luck,

 

[scotty333]

Tank shots and monti damage

 

[Lavey29]

Do you have any possible coral nipping fish or crabs? Or is that big BTA getting them?

 

[scotty333]

Do you have any possible coral nipping fish or crabs? Or is that big BTA getting them?

Not fish no
The bra has been touching the sides for a long time and doesn’t affect the rest of the coral
It wasn’t touching the encrusting either so can’t be that but thanks

 

[Lavey29]

Not fish no
The bra has been touching the sides for a long time and doesn’t affect the rest of the coral
It wasn’t touching the encrusting either so can’t be that but thanks

Ok, just thinking BTA have very long stinging tentacles and the random dead areas on your coral may indicate these tentacles swaying in the flow and touching different parts of the coral randomly especially since you have large pieces in there and turf battle may begin.

 

[Pod_01]

That is nice mixed reef, I like the GSP.

I believe you mentioned no GAC or water changes…
It could be coral warfare… I have mixed reef and I loose random SPS. When I tried no water changes and reduced GAC the frequency increased now I am going the other way…
Mixed reef and SPS can be frustrating…

 

[scotty333]

Still no idea what’s wrong but it’s not related to losing the encrusting because that was damaged on 1 side first then the next day dead
This is strange because the dead spots are dotted around the whole coral , the bta only touches the sides of both digi colony’s and there’s no same looking damage it’s literally where it’s touching there’s some bare branches

I’m thinking maybe monti eating bugs of nudis but I wonder how they got in there since it’s been months since adding my last coral so they wouldn’t have survived that long to then be able to destroy a colony in 1 day

Hmmmmm , head scratcher for sure

 

[JGT]

Have you looked for MEN?

 

[JTP424]

I know your parameters are solid, but when was the last time you upped your dosages?

 

[scotty333]

Have you looked for MEN?

Only during the day with a Baster , don’t they have a really short lifespan though ?

 

[scotty333]

I know your parameters are solid, but when was the last time you upped your dosages?

I’ve upped my afr a few ml since I added a clam, it grows fast!

 

[JGT]

Only during the day with a Baster , don’t they have a really short lifespan though ?

Doesn’t matter. They multiply like crazy. Virtually impossible to totally get rid of them.

 

[Aquadude1]

If it is MEN. A myster wrasse, 6 line, or possum wrasse may help

 

[scotty333]

If it is MEN. A myster wrasse, 6 line, or possum wrasse may help

I have a Melanurus but I’ve never saw him near any coral or pecking close to

It can’t be men because it’s not like they target one coral then move onto the next

Jeez this is detective work at its best