Monti overrun by GHA

[pseudorand]

Below is what's left of my red shelf monti. I dropped a crab pellet on it a few months ago and didn't realize for a few days. It started dieing off where the pellet was, then got GHA on the edges. I thought the other half would be fine, but it spread. Today I was going to cut off that part on the left that still looked reddish, but when I took it out it was clear it was all gone.

It was a $10, so I wasn't too worried about it, but now I have half a dozen montis in QT and I want to make sure I don't make the same mistakes.

Does the crab pellet seem like a good hypothesis for why it got algae? Other than not doing that again, more flow, and keeping params stable, any tricks for keeping algae off of montis?

 

[Nick Steele]

The pellet was probably what cause it to die where the pellet was and in turn let algae grow there once removed.

 

[pseudorand]

So what does one generally do if you get algae on an SPS. Just pitch the frag? I did scrap the GHA off the margins, but to no avail. I've read that hydrogen peroxide works for zoas, but SPS don't do so well with it.

 

[Nick Steele]

I’m not sure what others do but my cuc will take care of algae on frags and the frags themselves if happy will do it as well. I have a Superman digi that has been battling algae for months but it was making progress before I go Dino’s

 

[melanotaenia]

A healthy montipora should not succumb like this and if this "pellet" was not blown off or taken for food then you probably need to consider increasing flow; I would check these things out and verify no pests before introducing the other montis you have into your QT.

 

[eag]

I agree with @melanotaenia, and as you suggest in your original post, this likely comes down to flow IMO

Not a monti, but I received a cyphastrea once that had a rough trip through FedEx. When I received it, part of the frag was clearly dead and later grew some GHA. I put it at the bottom of the tank, and in time not only did the GHA go away but the dead spot was grown over/back to life. Dead spot no more.