Montipora Bleaching Problems

[Trenton Henderson]

I have had two Montipora frags. The first was a red Cap and it bleached due to an Alk fluctuation a while back. I recently acquired a slow burn monti frag that I haven’t mounted because I wanted it to acclimate. It’s on a frag rack in a region of 150-170 PAR so that I didn’t shock it in the new tank setting. Even still, I noticed some pale coloration and little tissue on some regions. I have been feeding aminos, but it still looks a bit rough.

My parameters have been stable at:

Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 8.7 dKH
Ca: 420-430 ppm
Mg: 1350-1425 ppm
pH: 7.9-8.1
Nitrate: 3-5 ppm (though I am raising it towards 10, and it has dropped pretty low a couple times)
Phosphate: 0.03-0.07 ppm

The only issue I can think of is that I’ve had a return of Dinos, which have been noticeably coating the frag in a thin layer daily. I try and keep up with blowing it off, but they still come back. Part of the reason I’m elevating nutrients is to get rid of the Dinos. I am trying to determine if the Dinos are growing on dead skeleton, or if they are causing the poor tissue health.

Any thoughts or experience here would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Trenton Henderson]

Also, I did send off an ICP test last weekend to ATI, so we’ll see if anything sticks out there.