Monti lost color & polyps - looking for advice - Thanks

[Calpoly2103]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having a bit of trouble with my monti. I've had it for about a month and its gone from a nice bright orange to dull pale color. Polyps seem to be completely gone (before it had the nice dots on it). Tank currently has some green algae on rocks so nutrients are available.

Tank: IM40 Nuvo, 3 months old, fishless cycled, rock cured 6 weeks before put in tank.
Filtration: Seachem Matrix, Chemipure Elite, Purigen, filterfloss, IM DC Skimmer, 30lb rock
Flow: MP10, mighty jet 538
Light: Kessil 360X 95% intensity, almost fully blue for 8 hours a day.

SG: 1.025-1.026
ALK: 9-10
Cal: 440-460
mg: 1380 - 1410
N03: 3-10
Temp: 77.5-78.5
Phos: 0.00 or close (salifert)
Dosing: ESV B-Ionic to keep ALK/Cal/Mag stable
Feeding Sch: Fish 2x a day with either PE Mysis w/ Vita-Chem or frozen
Coral (Frogspawns, candy cane, acan, zoas, gsp): Reef Roids 2-3x a week.
Water Change: 20% every other week.

Not sure what i'm doing wrong here. Other Coral seem to be doing OK and Frogspawn has recently split into 2.

Tank also has green algae on rocks (not a ton, but its there) and on glass every few days or so, so i know there are nutrients.

Thanks for the advice, sorry for the long explanation but i know everyone will ask for it

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

Three months is still a young tank, even if it is "cycled", coral needs a bit more than good test values. Time will mature your tank. Do you have coraline algae yet? What lights are you running? Where is the monti in the tank?

 

[Saintnovakai]

0 phosphates did that to my Monti. Could be other factors such as light/ placement. We need more deets.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Kessil 360X is my light 8 hours a day 95% intensity and dial is almost to full blue. The picture below is my tank (1 month ago). For the first couple weeks i had it down there and it started losing color. Now its been where the Red Circle is for the last 2 weeks and it lost its polyps has not shown much improvement.

When I first got it:

Now:

 

[biecacka]

I think sometimes SPS are just finicky and we don’t know why, often because by the time they start to show enough for concern, the parameters might have changed or have that way for awhile. For example, I noticed some of my new Frags from a few weeks ago have yet to color up. They all look brown or light green in my tank right now. Did a check....n03 5-10, p04 is .07 and alk is 9.5. Nothing stands out crazily to me but I have no clue really. The only change in my setup in the last 45 days(other than new frags) has been I cleaned my ATS scrubber and replaced the screen but forgot to turn the water supply back on. So I fried my screen and it died. It’s growing again slowly and some light colored stuff but that’s he norm for a “new” screen.
I’m just as lost as you sometimes with the growth of sps

Corey

 

[biecacka]

I’m not sure about that situation. But it could be a bit too intense of lighting. I know LEDs can appear dim to our eyes and we naturally crank it up and that isn’t always the best thing.

Corey

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

The purigen and chemipure is stripping your water. Po4 won’t crash your tank but 0 po4 will. My po4 is 0.25-0.3 and my sps are growing like weeds. Get rid of that stuff. It’s not needed

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

And you should probably raise that light up to 12” above the water and let your alk drop to 8.5.

 

[Calpoly2103]

The purigen and chemipure is stripping your water. Po4 won’t crash your tank but 0 po4 will. My po4 is 0.25-0.3 and my sps are growing like weeds. Get rid of that stuff. It’s not needed

Thanks for responding. I'm curious what other filtration are you using to achieve such growth rates? If i removed those two, I would be left with seachem matrix, filter floss, skimmer as my only filtration for the tank. This would be sufficient?? Also, i assumed if I have some green algae then I must have some phosphates.

Regarding the light, If its 12" above water it leaks completely out into my living room lol (currently its at 6") What is your concern regarding the light? Too much PAR?

Thanks

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Thanks for responding. I'm curious what other filtration are you using to achieve such growth rates? If i removed those two, I would be left with seachem matrix, filter floss, skimmer as my only filtration for the tank. This would be sufficient?? Also, i assumed if I have some green algae then I must have some phosphates.

Regarding the light, If its 12" above water it leaks completely out into my living room lol (currently its at 6") What is your concern regarding the light? Too much PAR?

Thanks

I have just gone through the same issue over the last few months and lost all my montipora digitata and don't know why yet it went from.

to this

then all the flesh on it just got rtn and went bone white one colony at a time. So all sps gone now and more euphillias put in. I hope you find an issue as I'm struggling.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Too much par isn’t a concern as my hydras (16” above the water) are delivering more than 400 par to some of my monti’s. What is a concern with leds is hot spotting or led burn, which can happen with even lower par settings. I have a little ugly hair algae but my sps look amazing, so I don’t sweat it. What’s uglier? A little hair algae or dead sps? My tank was neglected for 8 years and monti’s always looked good. They didn’t grow much but they looked happy that entire time. When I got back into my tank and sps I started listening to all the low po4 chasers and started
using nopox and gfo to get ideal numbers. I had ideal parameters and dead acros and nearly killed my monti’s that we’re happy before I started chasing numbers. Sps are easy. They need a relatively stable big3, high quality blended light, firm pulsing flow and fish poop.

 

[biecacka]

Traditionally, a skimmer is more than enough. I also incorporate an ATS on my system but it’s not needed for all systems.
@Chaswood79, do you think .07 is a tad too low for my p04? Nitrates stay in the 5-10:range.

Corey

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Traditionally, a skimmer is more than enough. I also incorporate an ATS on my system but it’s not needed for all systems.
@Chaswood79, do you think .07 is a tad too low for my p04? Nitrates stay in the 5-10:range.

Corey

My sps growth went crazy the last 8 weeks when I started feeding more and my po4 went from 0.05 to 0.15-0.20. Most of the big name vendors keep like 0.08-0.10. If it works for them it should work for me.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/some-crazy-6-week-growth.598383/

 

[Calpoly2103]

Too much par isn’t a concern as my hydras (16” above the water) are delivering more than 400 par to some of my monti’s. What is a concern with leds is hot spotting or led burn, which can happen with even lower par settings. I have a little ugly hair algae but my sps look amazing, so I don’t sweat it. What’s uglier? A little hair algae or dead sps? My tank was neglected for 8 years and monti’s always looked good. They didn’t grow much but they looked happy that entire time. When I got back into my tank and sps I started listening to all the low po4 chasers and started
using nopox and gfo to get ideal numbers. I had ideal parameters and dead acros and nearly killed my monti’s that we’re happy before I started chasing numbers. Sps are easy. They need a relatively stable big3, high quality blended light, firm pulsing flow and fish poop.

Interesting thanks for the insight.......what is your filtration like? Mechanical / Bio / Chem ? Just curious if you're using anything specific. Thanks.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Interesting thanks for the insight.......what is your filtration like? Mechanical / Bio / Chem ? Just curious if you're using anything specific. Thanks.

Chaeto, live rock, mesh filter socks, and corals.

 

[biecacka]

I have been feeding more. I'm up to 5 times a day with an auto feeder and 1 frozen cube. Plus reef roids. I am thinking about increasing it more. Maybe adding 10-15 more fish too.
Who knows.
Is a fickle game we play....

Corey

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I have been feeding more. I'm up to 5 times a day with an auto feeder and 1 frozen cube. Plus reef roids. I am thinking about increasing it more. Maybe adding 10-15 more fish too.
Who knows.
Is a fickle game we play....

Corey

What is your export filtration?

 

[Calpoly2103]

Chaeto, live rock, mesh filter socks, and corals.

I see I see.....Do you still perform any water changes? If so, how often and what %. Thank you

 

[Calpoly2103]

I have been feeding more. I'm up to 5 times a day with an auto feeder and 1 frozen cube. Plus reef roids. I am thinking about increasing it more. Maybe adding 10-15 more fish too.
Who knows.
Is a fickle game we play....

Corey

Dang....that is a lot of feeding !!! What size tank do you have? I only have 2 clowns and a small goby.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I see I see.....Do you still perform any water changes? If so, how often and what %. Thank you

I do but they’re fairly random. Probably 15% a month