Montipora help!

[AWildZacR]

So I recently got this Jedi mind trick monti frag at a local swap. Looked great and extended at the show, and upon entering my tank, after short dip, it has not extended the polyps at all and is darkening slightly in color. A little bit of tissue loss(seen from top down picture) is happening also. Any ideas? All my other coral is happy as usual, except one small sunset monti has begun to bleach a bit. Two other montis are great!

 

[AWildZacR]

Forgot to post parameters:
Calc-390
Kh-8
Nitrate/phosphate <1
Salinity- 1.025
No ammonia

 

[AWildZacR]

This is the sunset monti that is bleaching

 

[Cherub]

if my kh was 8 I would raise it slowly. I keep mine between 9.5-10.5 roughly

 

[AWildZacR]

I'll try that first, thanks

 

[Cherub]

good luck! Hopefully that's all it is

 

[mtraylor]

Dkh of 8 is just fine. Don't start messing with it if I were you. Do you have a calc reactor?

 

[AWildZacR]

No I do not have a calc reactor. Very minimal set up on this tank. 30gal, live rock and small mechanical filter is all I'm using. Considering a small protein skimmer but that's for another thread

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[madweazl]

Agreed, changing the alkalinity is not the appropriate course of action to take here. Have there been any changes to lighting in the last couple weeks?

 

[AWildZacR]

Lighting was been increased by 3% on radion x15 about 3 weeks ago. Both montis have spent roughly a week in different tank locations in an attempt to account for this. The bleaching sunset monti has started to heal in lower light, but the Jedi mind trick is still in rough shape

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[madweazl]

3% is a pretty minor change in and of itself; what led to increasing intensity?

 

[MaiReef]

I would say a boost in Nitrates to 2-5 would be a good start. Flow would be something else to look at.

 

[madweazl]

I would say a boost in Nitrates to 2-5 would be a good start. Flow would be something else to look at.

Flow is a possibility but nitrate levels are an unlikely cause.

 

[AWildZacR]

While moving it around the tank, I did not notice any difference in different levels of flow. Think it would take longer than a week to respond to changes in flow and light? (Am I moving it too quickly?)

 

[Leadfooted]

So I recently got this Jedi mind trick monti frag at a local swap. Looked great and extended at the show, and upon entering my tank, after short dip, it has not extended the polyps at all and is darkening slightly in color. A little bit of tissue loss(seen from top down picture) is happening also. Any ideas? All my other coral is happy as usual, except one small sunset monti has begun to bleach a bit. Two other montis are great!

I got a sunset monti that's looked just like yours for nearly a year now. I have other monti's doing just fine as my other corals are too . I've found sometimes some corals just don't like a new habitat and it's best to write off a new frag than mess with a system that's stable and growing other and similar corals. Best of luck

 

[madweazl]

While moving it around the tank, I did not notice any difference in different levels of flow. Think it would take longer than a week to respond to changes in flow and light? (Am I moving it too quickly?)

Can we go back to lighting briefly? You mentioned increasing intensity; why was this done? If anything, I'd go the other direction (reduction of +/- 20%).

 

[Dana Riddle]

Corals fail to extend polyps for several reasons. I'll hazard to say that insufficient flow is the probable cause (if your sand bed isn't moving around, it's doubtful too much flow is the reason.) Another reason could be too much light, and the polyps have withdrawn in order to self-shade. A third reason could be the coral is on the losing end of competition with another coral.

 

[AWildZacR]

Can we go back to lighting briefly? You mentioned increasing intensity; why was this done? If anything, I'd go the other direction (reduction of +/- 20%).

I switched from a kessil a80 to this radion15 and have been increasing intensity extremely slowly in hopes of keeping more sps with higher requirements. My acros and birdsnest are loving the increase, and nothing else(besides these two montis) seem to show any negative response.

 

[madweazl]

I switched from a kessil a80 to this radion15 and have been increasing intensity extremely slowly in hopes of keeping more sps with higher requirements. My acros and birdsnest are loving the increase, and nothing else(besides these two montis) seem to show any negative response.

So there could have be a large shift in regard to intensity. You wont hurt the acropora or birdnest by reducing overall intensity by a good margin so that is where I'd start at this point. What is your overall intensity on the XR15(s) now? Was the A80 at 100%?

 

[AWildZacR]

The a80 was at 100, the radion is currently set at 45%, outputting 31% max