Montipora digi & cap issues

Silara79

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I have had my neon green Monti for almost 10 months and in the last 2 weeks it started to loose polyps. The green polyps are attached to the body but are becoming lose. Some polyps are not extending and the tips are staring to have algae on it.
It started with the brown stringy algae on the tips. Algae went away for awhile and is back again.

My nitrates are high at 25ppm. When I started to dose... I noticed the monti did not like it, but the nitrates went down for a bit and are back at 25ppm again.

Magnesium was at 1260 and Calcium at 445, so I dosed Mag
Magnesium is now 1410
Calcium is 435
Phosphate 0
Nitrate 25
Kh 10.5
PH 8.15

I also have a Monti cap, it was growing and now has brown algae all over with polyps still showing.

My tank is a 75g, 2 vipaspectra 165w, blues were at 55%, whites at 1%.
2 Jaebo wave makers. My old ones died on me.
I have a small hob refugium, skimmer and filter. Refugium is barely 1 month running

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If anyone could help me out with figuring out what my main issue is it would be great.

I thought maybe not enough filtration? Or too much feeding? Wrong flow?
 

Lavey29

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0 phosphate is bad, nitrates should be 10 alk is somewhat high also. Do you know what your light par is? Do you dose anything like red sea AB plus?
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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0 phosphate is bad, nitrates should be 10 alk is somewhat high also. Do you know what your light par is? Do you dose anything like red sea AB plus?
No I don't know the par.
I did dose RedSea NoPo-X to get Nitrates down, which worked but they went up again.

I'd like to find the cause.
 

Lavey29

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No I don't know the par.
I did dose RedSea NoPo-X to get Nitrates down, which worked but they went up again.

I'd like to find the cause.
Coral dosing along with overfeeding can raise both. With 0 phosphate you don't want to run nopox. I cut back my coral broadcast feeds to twice a week. You probably need 200 par minimum for acros with 350 ideal.

Did you do ICP water test for trace elements?
 

Lavey29

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What does your cleaner crew consist of? You can cut lights back to 8 hours to help rid nuisance algae to
 

moz71

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I had almost exactly same parameters as you and lost digi and almost most of monti cap. The issue was the no phosphate. Which also ended with me getting Dino’s. I started dosing phosphate to get readings but it took awhile since tank just seem to absorb it until stabilized it and no longer needed to dose. Monti grew back even with high nitrate. So that is why I’m suggesting the no phosphate is the issue. I have since been working at lowering the nitrate just because I did not want that high. (40 ppm at one time)
 

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Btw. I also have same lights as you! I have them now set at 100 percent blue and 5 percent white. But took several weeks to ramp up to this. Monti exploding with growth. My biggest lesson is just get things stabilized in good range parameters (doesn’t need to be perfect) I refused to add corals until I did this after losing so many
 

Lavey29

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So 25ppm nitrates is most liekly to be the issue here... how much are you feeding?
I would say your coral and fish food is a primary reason for your nitrates? Do you a skimmer? Good size water changes can bring nitrates down but 25 is not that high at all. Won't hurt fish. LPS would be fine but SPS prefer 10. As previously mentioned 0 phosphate is going to lead to tank problems.
 

sfin52

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I had almost exactly same parameters as you and lost digi and almost most of monti cap. The issue was the no phosphate. Which also ended with me getting Dino’s. I started dosing phosphate to get readings but it took awhile since tank just seem to absorb it until stabilized it and no longer needed to dose. Monti grew back even with high nitrate. So that is why I’m suggesting the no phosphate is the issue. I have since been working at lowering the nitrate just because I did not want that high. (40 ppm at one time)
I agree we won't talk about how high my nitrates are but they are high. All my troubles came with 0 phosphates. The algea in the coral tissue need nitrates and phosphates to grow and feed the coral. The algea in the coral is starving. Need to get phosphates up. If you want to dose seachem makes a nice phosphate additive. Remember sand and rock will absorb it till equilibrium is reached. I suggest small dose morning and evening and test to see progress.
I don't like up feeding it brings in other factors that are out of your control.
 
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sfin52

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Another note with phosphates being added you may see increase in algea growth. Increase cuc or give a place for macro to grow don't try to lower phosphates.
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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Coral dosing along with overfeeding can raise both. With 0 phosphate you don't want to run nopox. I cut back my coral broadcast feeds to twice a week. You probably need 200 par minimum for acros with 350 ideal.

Did you do ICP water test for trace elements?
No I have never done an ICP test before. I will get a test kit for it asap.
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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So 25ppm nitrates is most liekly to be the issue here... how much are you feeding?
Well I feed twice a day, frozen, thumb size and mixing it up every other day.
I don't feed all at once.
One day LRS, other day a mix of LRS and Hikari and so on.
- LRS herbivore, reef frenzy
- Hikari spirulina mysis shrimp
- Hikari spirulina brine shrimp
- reef plankton
- see weed green + purple switching

Sometimes I feed only once a day, it all depends.
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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I had almost exactly same parameters as you and lost digi and almost most of monti cap. The issue was the no phosphate. Which also ended with me getting Dino’s. I started dosing phosphate to get readings but it took awhile since tank just seem to absorb it until stabilized it and no longer needed to dose. Monti grew back even with high nitrate. So that is why I’m suggesting the no phosphate is the issue. I have since been working at lowering the nitrate just because I did not want that high. (40 ppm at one time)
That sounds very possible that, that's what it is. I also have annoying dinos, but at a minimum. I have some green hair algae growing but also at a minimum. I will have to check the Phosphates again, but the Salifert test is rather annoying. I can't tell if it's 0 or not. It always looks white to me. I guess I will have to get Hannah, like I got for Nitrates.
Thanks for your input. It's good to hear that I am not alone, even though I know, we all have our battles.
 
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Silara79

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Btw. I also have same lights as you! I have them now set at 100 percent blue and 5 percent white. But took several weeks to ramp up to this. Monti exploding with growth. My biggest lesson is just get things stabilized in good range parameters (doesn’t need to be perfect) I refused to add corals until I did this after losing so many
How high above the tank are they? Mine are at 8" and the brightest I had them was at 60%.
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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I would say your coral and fish food is a primary reason for your nitrates? Do you a skimmer? Good size water changes can bring nitrates down but 25 is not that high at all. Won't hurt fish. LPS would be fine but SPS prefer 10. As previously mentioned 0 phosphate is going to lead to tank problems.
I have a hob skimmer, not the best I assume. I do weekly 10gallon water changes. I will get at the phosphates. Thanks alot.
 
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Silara79

Silara79

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I agree we won't talk about how high my nitrates are but they are high. All my troubles came with 0 phosphates. The algea in the coral tissue need nitrates and phosphates to grow and feed the coral. The algea in the coral is starving. Need to get phosphates up. If you want to dose seachem makes a nice phosphate additive. Remember sand and rock will absorb it till equilibrium is reached. I suggest small dose morning and evening and test to see progress.
I don't like up feeding it brings in other factors that are out of your control.
Thank you for explaining it more in detail. I did not know that coral need phosphates. More to learn.
 

Lavey29

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I have a hob skimmer, not the best I assume. I do weekly 10gallon water changes. I will get at the phosphates. Thanks alot.
I had to double dose neophos daily for several weeks before I started seeing improvement in my phosphate numbers.
 
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Silara79

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I just wanted to say Thank you to all again. It is great and encouraging when you get advice and explanations on how things are connected and how each element relies on the other.

I was convinced it must have been the nitrates, and maybe bad nutrient export.

I will look into a new skimmer for Christmas and upgrade the cuc. I still have a lot of Ceriths and Nassarius snails, Hermit crabs, Emerald prob 1 or 2, Tuxedo urchin, serpent star and a blenny.

Fish are 5 clowns, 2 damsel, 1 Sailfin, 1 Fire Fish.
Could I add more in the future once everything is stable or should I stick to these little guys?
 

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