Montipora losing color, but not dying

[ninjamyst]

Any near by coral stinging it? Can you take a month out and dip just to rule out pests that you can't easily see?

 

[Schramstein]

Hi yes, i dipped some if them, same problem.
Now each morning i see more polyps but during the day they lose all again. The rest is growing like never before only my lovely montis.

 

[Schramstein]

Well a few weeks have passed and some montis look happy again, except a red plate and a few red digitata. Especially the red ones dont like something in the water, or are missing something. The second picture and 4 th picture are from the same coral in about 2 weeke from red with a few spots “purple/brown” to complete purple brown.

 

[MamaMolo]

SO this is just my experience. I had my montis grey out and go pale because my potassium levels dropped to 360. I started dosing potassium 2x a week. If you already have high potassium I can only add that I also dose iodine and strontium 2x a week. (small amounts like 1ml) to my 55 gallon. Been doing this for 6 months now. Since I started dosing strontium I noticed a big difference in the green montipora. I do icp tests every 3 months to make sure I do not over dose.
I aim for:
Alk 7.5-7.8
Calcium 420-450
Nitrates 10-16
Phosphate .05-.1
Potassium 410-420
Mag 1350-1410
Par 130-260 6 bulb t5 9.5 hours 100% rap down and up for one hour

Not sure if this helps but I have had a lot of success

 

[artieg1]

Phosphates too high, that was my issue. 0.20 and my montis revolted. Fixed it. Coming back now.

 

[LeBon]

I have a large beach bum monti that's been there for >1 yr. Awesome growth... I have about 16 montis in my tank, all with good growth.
I started dosing Strontium thinking that I needed to replace what was low on the ICP test, and started at 5 ml daily (300g total volume) ... well, in about 2 week,s it started to STN, bleach out, and recede. It was the only one in the tank that showed this reaction...
I stopped dosing and in 3 weeks, it started to regrow, polyps are fully extended, and color is vibrant.

Why do I share this? It could be a supplement that you are dosing that may be causing the issue... This one slipped by and I'm glad I thought through what I started/stopped doing several weeks ago.

adding one element changes the balance of the tank in some ways, we just dont often know how. so yep, id be more inclined to keep water changes consistent presuming its a goodsalt. Similarly if one element is out of whack.. already i see coral dips, strontium, add other... multiple parametres continually trying to find equalibrium. "thought was low so did this" ifc corals were doing fine then it suggests it wasnt low for your particular tank

 

[Schramstein]

Hi there, again a few weeks later still having some issues with the montipora , but it slowly is getting better. Something i noticed is that in the morning they are more happy than during the day. So they start happy and end a bit more sober in the evening. What can it be, which parameters are higher during the morning?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Hi there, again a few weeks later still having some issues with the montipora , but it slowly is getting better. Something i noticed is that in the morning they are more happy than during the day. So they start happy and end a bit more sober in the evening. What can it be, which parameters are higher during the morning?

Not lighting related?

 

[Wasabiroot]

That was my thought as well. Maybe the lights are too intense?

 

[Schramstein]

I may not complain at all, but i want it to be perfect or i need at least to know what is going on. Lights i dont think it has to be a toxin or water supplement. As when it was light not 2 different tanks had that problem.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I may not complain at all, but i want it to be perfect or i need at least to know what is going on. Lights i dont think it has to be a toxin or water supplement. As when it was light not 2 different tanks had that problem.

I'm not sure what your seeing that concerns you? Do you have a better description other than in the morning it looks happier, im not sure what that means. Does it have polyp extension? Does it have some discoloration? Do you have pictures in white lights of it happy, and some of them in white lights not so happy, its hard to understand?

 

[Schramstein]

I'm not sure what your seeing that concerns you? Do you have a better description other than in the morning it looks happier, im not sure what that means. Does it have polyp extension? Does it have some discoloration? Do you have pictures in white lights of it happy, and some of them in white lights not so happy, its hard to understand?

Hi ,

sorry for my late reply, yes indeed the polyp extension is less (not happy) during the day. But now again i have another test. New montipora grow well, i added a few new ones about a month ago and those still show great polyp extension. So whatever has caused this problem, it is “gone” for now and the old ones still seem to be recovering. Or someone any other thoughts?

 

[Schramstein]

The story continues, i bought some new branching and plate montipora, and these actually keep growing. So now i really do not understand what went wrong with the others which are still not back to normal. They ahow still less polyp extension and their growth have been very slow.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

The story continues, i bought some new branching and plate montipora, and these actually keep growing. So now i really do not understand what went wrong with the others which are still not back to normal. They ahow still less polyp extension and their growth have been very slow.

Thats good , you may see them start to recover now