Montipora Digitata Small patches of polyps not opening

[csd99]

Hello all, these past couple of days I have noticed a couple of small patches of polyps on my forest fire digitata not opening. Two of the patches are on some of the tips and I figured those could be potentially due to growth as I do see white tips forming, but one is on the side of a branch in a roughly rectangular shape about 5 polyps long and 2 polyps wide. The monti is still vibrantly colored red and green and I have been seeing visible growth. It is of note that these regions are also located where my clownfish frequently brush against them while begging for food. All other polyps are fully extended and all other corals in the tank show no visual oddities.

Placement: 215ish PAR, med-high flow, no aggressive corals nearby. been here for about a month

Cal: 430
Mag: 1440
Alk: 7.3-7.6 <--- lower than I would like but has been consistent
Nitrate: 5
Phos: less than 0.03

Feed AB+ every other day

Just wondering if this is normal or not as I am fairly new to SPS and still lack knowledge on troubleshooting problems with them. Thank you!

 

[shakacuz]

pictures under white would help. my guess it is the clowns, but visually seeing the pattern could aide in final decision.

 

[csd99]

pictures under white would help. my guess it is the clowns, but visually seeing the pattern could aide in final decision.

I'll take some pics when I get back from work tonight

 

[csd99]

pictures under white would help. my guess it is the clowns, but visually seeing the pattern could aide in final decision.

These potential culprits make it hard to take pictures! They pretty much host the underside of the arch these frags are on and hang right in between the frags any time I get close.

 

[shakacuz]

do these patches seem to get bigger?

 

[csd99]

do these patches seem to get bigger?

I would say they’ve remained roughly the same size for a few days

 

[csd99]

I’d like to bump this thread and say that over the past couple of days it seems the larger frag on the right is even less happy. Most polyps are not open and the ones that are open seem to be scattered randomly. Not sure if this is just extreme annoyance from being constantly brushed by the clownfish or something else. I will say those clownfish are probably brushing it more than half the time. It’s like they hosted it. No white patches forming and nothing else in the tank is having issues. Hammer and torch corals splitting like crazy, stylophora and several playing and encrusting Montis are full color and extension, even the smaller digi frag just an inch or so away is totally fine now.

Don’t wanna panic or make huge changes when I have 12 other corals rapidly growing but I do wanna learn and understand so I can eventually be confident adding acropora to this tank. Thanks for any advice!