Monti RTN?

[BitReef]

What’s happening to my monti and what do I do about it? It wasn’t like this yesterday. It was completely green.

 

[BitReef]

I’m currently checking on all parameters to see if any has changed. Temp and PH look normal. I added a small chalice frag a couple of new snails a few weeks back. Otherwise nothing has changed.

 

[Dburr1014]

Does it blow off with a turkey baster? Looks like cyano.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Yikes that looks scary. Maybe an invasive sponge or bacterial growth? Maybe BJD because of its quick onset?

 

[BitReef]

Update: I fragged the monti and threw away the dead parts. I lost about 60% of it. I dipped the frags in KoralMD (only thing I had on hand). By the next day the frags all had spots of dead tissue, but so far it doesn’t seem to be spreading. It’s been a couple of days and the frags seem like they might be recovering.

Last night, after lights out, I saw my torch spewing brown stuff. I hope it’s not related. Otherwise, everything else in my tank seems fine.

 

[BitReef]

As far as the cause, I did find something interesting. My first suspicion was that the snails or chalice I recently added carried something in. That could still be the case, but the were all added a couple of weeks before this all started. So, I’m not sure. Also the chalice looks perfectly healthy. I would think it would show sings of distress if it was infected with something.

Here’s my new theory. I was reading about bjd and found someone on reef2reef claiming it’s caused by a sudden drop in phosphates. . Wait, what?! I was in the process of reducing my phosphates when this issue started. I added GFO and started running my skimmer 2 days before my monti started dying. I never run my skimmer because I have issues with excessively low nitrates when I do (causing dinos).

I think a sudden drop in phosphates (over 50%) may have triggered whatever happened to the coral. The timing fits perfectly and it’s the best theory I have.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Update: I fragged the monti and threw away the dead parts. I lost about 60% of it. I dipped the frags in KoralMD (only thing I had on hand). By the next day the frags all had spots of dead tissue, but so far it doesn’t seem to be spreading. It’s been a couple of days and the frags seem like they might be recovering.

Last night, after lights out, I saw my torch spewing brown stuff. I hope it’s not related. Otherwise, everything else in my tanks seems fine.

The brown stuff you observed was likely the torch expelling waste, though when corals bleach they also exhibit an almost identical behavior so keep an eye on it, though I wouldn't be too worried

 

[Troylee]

As far as the cause, I did find something interesting. My first suspicion was that the snails or chalice I recently added carried something in. That could still be the case, but the were all added a couple of weeks before this all started. So, I’m not sure. Also the chalice looks perfectly healthy. I would think it would show sings of distress if it was infected with something.

Here’s my new theory. I was reading about bjd and found someone on reef2reef claiming it’s caused by a sudden drop in phosphates. . Wait, what?! I was in the process of reducing my phosphates when this issue started. I added GFO and started running my skimmer 2 days before my monti started dying. I never run my skimmer because I have issues with excessively low nitrates when I do (causing dinos).

I think a sudden drop in phosphates (over 50%) may have triggered whatever happened to the coral. The timing fits perfectly and it’s the best theory I have.

Brown jelly doesn’t effect sps only LPs to the best of my knowledge… that looks cyano or something to me but that normally doesn’t kill fast.

 

[BitReef]

The brown stuff you observed was likely the torch expelling waste, though when corals bleach they also exhibit an almost identical behavior so keep an eye on it, though I wouldn't be too worried

Good news. The torch looks perfectly fine today.