montipora hirsuta turning white

[nolifer]

Hi there looking for some advice on a problem I'm having. My friend give me a few frags of his montipora hirsuta which was fine for two days but now there not opening up and looks like they are turning a bit on the pale side. tank has been running for 9 months. tank is a reefer 170.
nitrate is about 25ppm but using nopox this past week at 1ml per day phosphate 0.02
alk 10.4 ca 440 mg 1400 i'm slowly bring my alk up to around 11.5 as my salt mix is around this mark coral pro. I use the red sea reef recipe sa 1.024-1.025 everything else in the tank seems happy. My friends tank runs at 1.026 temp 25.4-25.8ish levels for alk ca and mag are around same nitrate 3 po4 0.01 could this be the reason for them not opening up? or could it be too much light par level is around 200-240ish my light is radion xr15 G4 running at 70% on lps/softie profile with diffuser, flow in the tank is 2x mp10 running at 33% on both pumps using reef crest and constant speed which rotate every few hours , tank temp is 25.7c to 26c .3 degree swing always. can't really think of anything else what would be the problem. first time I've tried to keep sps. anyone with any idea's ??

 

[P-Dub]

Whew. That all sounds right in the ballpark of where things should be. I wouldn't necessarily raise ALK above what you have. High alk and high light have been known to adversely affect sps's. I would continue to lower the nitrates as they are out of bounds, imho. Can you share a picture?

 

[nolifer]

one frag next to the sunny d zoa and other where the wrasse is

 

[P-Dub]

Tough to see. Nice tank BTW!

 

[nolifer]

Tough to see. Nice tank BTW!

I'll try to take some snaps tomorrow when tank wakes up 5am here atm. i can defo see a pale white ish colour to the frags.

 

[nolifer]

this one seems to be out today, I did do a 20L water change last night and added a little carbon. only problem is the nem has moved up meaning it probable wants more light so will need to move this as there is like Millimetres between them. the lower down still has not opened up and is looking a bit on the pale side on one half of him. here is some pictures of this.

anyone got any idea as to why it maybe looking a bit on the sad side?

 

[davocean]

Did nem touch and sting it?

 

[nolifer]

Did nem touch and sting it?

nothing , I do have a bicolour blenny which has been nipping at my purple monti plate. I had to remove the red one to where it is now but I think both are done for. both montipora hirsuta
opened up today however the top one was opened full today but the other half opened on one side. is this normal ? as in there adjusting to the tank. I do still think one side of it is pale which was the side what never opened up.

 

[P-Dub]

It does look like it is hitting a speed bump. At this point, I would stay the course and get your nitrates lower. Then, wait and see.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Continue carbon and do normal water changes to battle the nitrates. Light does play a role and 80-90% blue and 30% white should suffice while this monti tries to heal
Do not chase levels/readings as it will do more harm than good.

 

[nolifer]

Continue carbon and do normal water changes to battle the nitrates. Light does play a role and 80-90% blue and 30% white should suffice while this monti tries to heal
Do not chase levels/readings as it will do more harm than good.

It does look like it is hitting a speed bump. At this point, I would stay the course and get your nitrates lower. Then, wait and see.

I'll definitely continue to keep the nitrate down as this was becoming a problem. I think this may have been due to my skimmer not being tuned in correctly as it has been very finicky where one min I have a good foam and the next it's just water. On the plus side the monti where both opened up today even on the side which I think was looking pale in colour. You say about not chasing numbers but my salt has high alk ca and mg should I not be trying to match this for when I'm doing a water change any ways? or should I now be looking to change my brand of salt as coral pro from red sea has very high elevated levels and it's never stable in terms every mix differs. I only do about 5.2G (20L) water changes weekly, at the moment doing two to bring the nitrates down as well as dosing nopox. Currently dosing about 6ml red sea calcium and 5ml alk per day and this seems to hold the tank stable at 440ca and 10.4 dkh my magnesium is still a bit of a pain to get right I used the randy homes calculator based the tank off 135L my mg was 1320ppm at the time and said in order to hit 1350ppm to dos 40.5ml which I did all in one hit as I'm under the 100ppm per day and test next day it was 1480ppm so still trying to work this out. what would you recommend switch salts now? or stick with the coral pro I've never used any other salt before other than red sea coral pro.

 

[vetteguy53081]

IF your salt has high kalk/mag, you may want to consider a test......................... buy a 25 gal package of another brand such as reef crystals, seachem or Fritz pro and see if things pan out. Also if mag/Kalk is high, pull off dosing a couple of days until the levels drop off.

 

[MnFish1]

I'll definitely continue to keep the nitrate down as this was becoming a problem. I think this may have been due to my skimmer not being tuned in correctly as it has been very finicky where one min I have a good foam and the next it's just water. On the plus side the monti where both opened up today even on the side which I think was looking pale in colour. You say about not chasing numbers but my salt has high alk ca and mg should I not be trying to match this for when I'm doing a water change any ways? or should I now be looking to change my brand of salt as coral pro from red sea has very high elevated levels and it's never stable in terms every mix differs. I only do about 5.2G (20L) water changes weekly, at the moment doing two to bring the nitrates down as well as dosing nopox. Currently dosing about 6ml red sea calcium and 5ml alk per day and this seems to hold the tank stable at 440ca and 10.4 dkh my magnesium is still a bit of a pain to get right I used the randy homes calculator based the tank off 135L my mg was 1320ppm at the time and said in order to hit 1350ppm to dos 40.5ml which I did all in one hit as I'm under the 100ppm per day and test next day it was 1480ppm so still trying to work this out. what would you recommend switch salts now? or stick with the coral pro I've never used any other salt before other than red sea coral pro.

I think the key thing is 'what was the par level in the tank you took the coral from - and what is it at now?' The second question is what was the alk in both tanks. Many corals do really well with an alk of 7-8. In fact all do. I recently had an issue where my alk rose to 11 - and my GSP - which are over 10 years old stopped opening. Light Alk and Flow are all related. The higher the light and alk - the higher the flow needs to be.

 

[nolifer]

I think the key thing is 'what was the par level in the tank you took the coral from - and what is it at now?' The second question is what was the alk in both tanks. Many corals do really well with an alk of 7-8. In fact all do. I recently had an issue where my alk rose to 11 - and my GSP - which are over 10 years old stopped opening. Light Alk and Flow are all related. The higher the light and alk - the higher the flow needs to be.

I have no idea what the par level is from my friends tank , he runs g3 xr15 over his tank at around 65% which is not as bright as the G4 he's on the same lps/softies profile, he has been having problems with his alk since the move over to ati essentials though. I did test his tank for him about 2 week ago prior and his alk was around 11.7 so could also be the reason why one of them was looking a bit pale in my tank. My alk sits happy at 10.4. I've since had to move the top frag lower down due to my anemone pushing up. I believe the par level where I have them both placed is around 200 par. I will be looking into another brand of salt after the holidays is there anything I would need to watch out for when moving salts over? is it best to go smaller on the water changes or just stay with the amount of size I'm doing now? the salt I've been looking at is the Fritz ProAquatics Reef Pro Mix.

 

[MnFish1]

I have no idea what the par level is from my friends tank , he runs g3 xr15 over his tank at around 65% which is not as bright as the G4 he's on the same lps/softies profile, he has been having problems with his alk since the move over to ati essentials though. I did test his tank for him about 2 week ago prior and his alk was around 11.7 so could also be the reason why one of them was looking a bit pale in my tank. My alk sits happy at 10.4. I've since had to move the top frag lower down due to my anemone pushing up. I believe the par level where I have them both placed is around 200 par. I will be looking into another brand of salt after the holidays is there anything I would need to watch out for when moving salts over? is it best to go smaller on the water changes or just stay with the amount of size I'm doing now? the salt I've been looking at is the Fritz ProAquatics Reef Pro Mix.

Would just make small changes. Also a change in alk from 11 to 10 also shouldn't have created much of a problem I guess.

 

[O'l Salty]

I think your nitrates are fine. Have you inspected the coral for pests? Possibly montipora nudibranchs?

 

[nolifer]

I think your nitrates are fine. Have you inspected the coral for pests? Possibly montipora nudibranchs?

no pests, both are opening up fine now think it could just be a matter of adjusting to my tank as there polyps always seem to be out. Still not 100% sure on the nitrates been doing x2 water changes per week skimmer is tuned in dosing 1ml nopox per day still no change in the nitrates po4 levels are low around 0.02-0.03 ish with red sea test kit. maybe I need to do bigger water changes than 5.2G (20L)