Monti STN?

[Grigs]

This spot appears to have increased in size over the last couple of days. Just discovered and addressed high phosphates this weekend. Went from 200ppb to 40ppb.

Alk 8.2
Cal 495 (not dosing... just Fritz RPM)
N03 2ppm


Monti sitting in approx 120 PAR with medium flow

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Did the spot appear after you addressed the Po4.
That’s quite a jump.

 

[Backreefing]

Is the montie new ?
What type of montie? Can’t tell with blue lights.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

How did you drop po4 to 40 from 200?

 

[Grigs]

Thx for the replies, all.

The Monti has been in system for about 2 months. Picked it up unnamed from a LFS. It is kind of like an inverse Super Man... Red with Blue Polyps, but the red in growth areas is more of a dark, vibrant pink.

There was a small bare spot that appeared about two weeks ago, that has now changed to the apparent growing white (I'm assuming skeleton)

Yes, I noticed the growing white around the same time that the PO3 dropped.

I lowered it by adding a bag with PhosGuard to the sump, dosed per manufacturer's recommendation. The drop occurred over 4 days, which is awfully fast.

The other corals seem super happy about it and I'm getting MUCH better PE... except where the polyps are receding...

Struggling to get NO3 up. Even sucked out some of the skimmate and returned it to sump today. Result was actually a LOWER reading tonight. Go figure... lol. I'm going to turn off refugium lights every other night. Had already backed it down along with the skimmer to 4 hrs/night

 

[Hemmdog]

Thx for the replies, all.

The Monti has been in system for about 2 months. Picked it up unnamed from a LFS. It is kind of like an inverse Super Man... Red with Blue Polyps, but the red in growth areas is more of a dark, vibrant pink.

There was a small bare spot that appeared about two weeks ago, that has now changed to the apparent growing white (I'm assuming skeleton)

Yes, I noticed the growing white around the same time that the PO3 dropped.

I lowered it by adding a bag with PhosGuard to the sump, dosed per manufacturer's recommendation. The drop occurred over 4 days, which is awfully fast.

The other corals seem super happy about it and I'm getting MUCH better PE... except where the polyps are receding...

Struggling to get NO3 up. Even sucked out some of the skimmate and returned it to sump today. Result was actually a LOWER reading tonight. Go figure... lol. I'm going to turn off refugium lights every other night. Had already backed it down along with the skimmer to 4 hrs/night

Most likely bacterial, this has happened to mine before for no rhyme or reason. They fully recover in a couple months as long as the rest of the colony has pe or shows growth. Hopefully it will bounce back for you that’s a nice monti!

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Thx for the replies, all.

The Monti has been in system for about 2 months. Picked it up unnamed from a LFS. It is kind of like an inverse Super Man... Red with Blue Polyps, but the red in growth areas is more of a dark, vibrant pink.

There was a small bare spot that appeared about two weeks ago, that has now changed to the apparent growing white (I'm assuming skeleton)

Yes, I noticed the growing white around the same time that the PO3 dropped.

I lowered it by adding a bag with PhosGuard to the sump, dosed per manufacturer's recommendation. The drop occurred over 4 days, which is awfully fast.

The other corals seem super happy about it and I'm getting MUCH better PE... except where the polyps are receding...

Struggling to get NO3 up. Even sucked out some of the skimmate and returned it to sump today. Result was actually a LOWER reading tonight. Go figure... lol. I'm going to turn off refugium lights every other night. Had already backed it down along with the skimmer to 4 hrs/night

Are any of the other corals sps? I had many battles with rtn/stn when I was “chasing” low nutrients with the use of nopox and gfo. My issues were only on sps. My lps and zoas were never effected by the gfo or nopox but I slowly lost 90% of my sps (lost 100% of the acros) chasing “ideal” numbers. All that stopped when I quit chasing low nutrients.

 

[Grigs]

Are any of the other corals sps? I had many battles with rtn/stn when I was “chasing” low nutrients with the use of nopox and gfo. My issues were only on sps. My lps and zoas were never effected by the gfo or nopox but I slowly lost 90% of my sps (lost 100% of the acros) chasing “ideal” numbers. All that stopped when I quit chasing low nutrients.

The only other coral in there that MIGHT be classified as SPS is Lepto, as it seems to be a toss up. The Lepto looks great, though. When I talked to the LFS today they advised me to expect the NO3 to recover very soon now that the PO3 is down and the balance shifts.

Thx for sharing your experience. I had a bit of an algae bloom and then the NO3 went to zero, likely due to the high PO3. I'm going to spend the next few weeks trying to balance it out and get my NO3 back up to 6-8. No good starving the coral. Already noticed a massive improvement in PE, so hopefully the trend continues. Skimmer is OFF and Refug lights, too, for the next couple of days

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

The only other coral in there that MIGHT be classified as SPS is Lepto, as it seems to be a toss up. The Lepto looks great, though. When I talked to the LFS today they advised me to expect the NO3 to recover very soon now that the PO3 is down and the balance shifts.

Thx for sharing your experience. I had a bit of an algae bloom and then the NO3 went to zero, likely due to the high PO3. I'm going to spend the next few weeks trying to balance it out and get my NO3 back up to 6-8. No good starving the coral. Already noticed a massive improvement in PE, so hopefully the trend continues. Skimmer is OFF and Refug lights, too, for the next couple of days

If you noticed the tissue reaction after the phosguard then it’s a safe bet that’s what did it. Sps do not like sudden drops in po4. 200ppb of phosphorus isn’t going to kill sps, especially a Monti. There’s an article here that claims no3 and po4 don’t even fuel algae, its ammonia spikes that feeds algae. The more you chase numbers the more imbalanced everything will be. I learned this the hard way. But a couple weeks after I stopped worrying about nutrients guess what happened. They started slowly falling. Now I don’t even have a skimmer because my no3 and po4 are barely detectable. The corals are filtering the water and whatever is left fuels my chaeto.
I believe your trying to hard.

 

[Grigs]

If you noticed the tissue reaction after the phosguard then it’s a safe bet that’s what did it. Sps do not like sudden drops in po4. 200ppb of phosphorus isn’t going to kill sps, especially a Monti. There’s an article here that claims no3 and po4 don’t even fuel algae, its ammonia spikes that feeds algae. The more you chase numbers the more imbalanced everything will be. I learned this the hard way. But a couple weeks after I stopped worrying about nutrients guess what happened. They started slowly falling. Now I don’t even have a skimmer because my no3 and po4 are barely detectable. The corals are filtering the water and whatever is left fuels my chaeto.
I believe your trying to hard.

Could be. Was noticing several LPS losing color, which is where I was prompted to check the PO3. They are improving. Will just be patient and run without the Skimmer and Refug for a couple of days to let No3 recover... never intended to run so low nutrient, but it got there after I ran the tank fallow due to Ich breakout... Ghost feeding just hasn't done it. Should have picked up on the PO3 earlier due to algae, but tank is new, so just figured it was the uglies. Still probably was... lol.

I understand chasing numbers can be futile, though... : )

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Could be. Was noticing several LPS losing color, which is where I was prompted to check the PO3. They are improving. Will just be patient and run without the Skimmer and Refug for a couple of days to let No3 recover... never intended to run so low nutrient, but it got there after I ran the tank fallow due to Ich breakout... Ghost feeding just hasn't done it. Should have picked up on the PO3 earlier due to algae, but tank is new, so just figured it was the uglies. Still probably was... lol.

I understand chasing numbers can be futile, though... : )

I have some sunset, digitata, and spongodes that have been in my tank for 12 years. 7-8 of those years the tank was completely neglected. The only thing I did was feed my clowns. I might of done a water change every 6-9 months but I don’t think it was that regular. I have no idea what parameters were. The monti’s were never stressed. The only time I’ve ever seen them stressed is when I caught the sps bug again and started chasing no3 and po4 numbers with nopox and gfo.

 

[Grigs]

I have some sunset, digitata, and spongodes that have been in my tank for 12 years. 7-8 of those years the tank was completely neglected. The only thing I did was feed my clowns. I might of done a water change every 6-9 months but I don’t think it was that regular. I have no idea what parameters were. The monti’s were never stressed. The only time I’ve ever seen them stressed is when I caught the sps bug again and started chasing no3 and po4 numbers with nopox and gfo.

That's certainly encouraging and may indicate some correlation if not causation for the recession. Hoping it will recover quickly. It's such a beautiful piece

 

[Sabellafella]

Is there any nearby residents? Such as possible corals with sweepers?

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

That's certainly encouraging and may indicate some correlation if not causation for the recession. Hoping it will recover quickly. It's such a beautiful piece

For now I would just make sure the spot doesn’t grow larger. If it looks like it’s spreading I would just cut it in half and throw away the side with the necrosis. Monti’s are pretty hardy though. I was fragging a bunch of mine awhile back and a couple hours later I noticed a good sized chunk had fallen under a table. So I just threw it back in the tank expecting it to be dead the next day but nope, it was still alive.

 

[Grigs]

Is there any nearby residents? Such as possible corals with sweepers?

Good thought, but nothing in the area

 

[Grigs]

For now I would just make sure the spot doesn’t grow larger. If it looks like it’s spreading I would just cut it in half and throw away the side with the necrosis. Monti’s are pretty hardy though. I was fragging a bunch of mine awhile back and a couple hours later I noticed a good sized chunk had fallen under a table. So I just threw it back in the tank expecting it to be dead the next day but nope, it was still alive.

Do you think scraping the damaged area with a small border with a razor would work? I guess I could just use a pair of diagonal cutters to snip it off if I had to

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Do you think scraping the damaged area with a small border with a razor would work? I guess I could just use a pair of diagonal cutters to snip it off if I had to

I would just snip that corner off. It’ll be healed in a couple weeks and start growing back.