Montipora losing color?

[GothFishKeeper]

I’ve only been in the hobby about a year and I’ve only kept softies and LPS up until recently when I added two montiporas, a red cap and another one but can’t remember the exact name (it’s supposed to be orange with purple polyps and it’s plating).

I’ve had them for about a month and a half now and they were doing quite well until about a week ago. Now I’m noticing algae growth on the orange one and they’re both losing color. The pictures provided under blue light are with the orphek orange lens on my camera so that’s actually how it looks to the human eye, not much florescence left while my lps are bright as can be. Is there a chance it’ll recover? I used a pipette to blow off some of the algae and I decreased my light a bit as of yesterday in case it was getting too much being at the top of my tank.

I have two Radion XR15 pros on the tank running 18700k at 65% (was 75% until yesterday) with an 8 hour main photoperiod on a 12/12 cycle with my 30g refugium (it’s a second sump).
90g DT
I have a sicce 5.0 as my return pump and an MP10 that I run at 80% on lagoon mode during the day and 70% at night
Nitrates stay at about 1ppm
0 ammonia of course
Calcium is kept between 440 and 480 througout each week
Alk was being kept at about 9 because it’s mainly a softie/LPS tank but bumped it to 10 yesterday

Could it be getting too much light? Too much flow? Too little flow?
Any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[tbrown]

The pictures didn't attach?

If it's growing algae it's got tissue recession.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

The pictures didn't attach?

If it's growing algae it's got tissue recession.

Oh crap sorry

 

[GothFishKeeper]

 

[tbrown]

Yeah, not looking good but it looks like there's still flesh left which is good.

Montis can handle flow and light so I'm not thinking it's bleaching.

Do you know what your phosphates are? A lot of SPS can start to suffer when alkalinity is above 9 and phosphates are not present. Also, nitrates at 1 is fairly low. Montis will pull nutrients from the water for food so it could be starving.

 

[tbrown]

Another possibility is pests. After the lights go out for the night, check around the edge/base of the Montis for little white nudibranches.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

What are you using to test your parameters?

 

[Uncle99]

Nitrates too low at 1ppm, no mention of phosphate so I lean to starving as this process takes some time before we notice.

Bump and hold nitrate 3-5ppm and phosphate at .1ppm for both corals and the system itself is being fed.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Nitrates too low at 1ppm, no mention of phosphate so I lean to starving as this process takes some time before we notice.

Bump and hold nitrate 3-5ppm and phosphate at .1ppm for both corals and the system itself is being fed.

I’m sorry, you’re right i forgot to mention phosphates. If I’m being honest I haven’t checked nutrient levels in a while, but I just did and nitrates are at 5ppm and phosphates are at .24ppm. Would that be too high? For montis?

What are you using to test your parameters?

I use the API test kits for everything except phosphates, for that I use a Hanna checker.

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Oh I forgot to add as well, my ph is someone low at least compared to what is defined as perfect to most people. Throughout the day it bounces between 7.9-8.1
Could this possibly be the issue if not nutrient related? I do have a co2 scrubber i can install if so.

 

[bluemon]

Oh I forgot to add as well, my ph is someone low at least compared to what is defined as perfect to most people. Throughout the day it bounces between 7.9-8.1
Could this possibly be the issue if not nutrient related? I do have a co2 scrubber i can install if so.

That range is perfectly fine.

Higher can be better, but I wouldn’t actively chase it

 

[exnisstech]

Sorry no help except to stay your pH is fine, my acro do fine in 7.7-7.9. Also my monticaps did great with NO3 20ppm + and PO4 0.3 - 0.5

 

[tbrown]

I’m sorry, you’re right i forgot to mention phosphates. If I’m being honest I haven’t checked nutrient levels in a while, but I just did and nitrates are at 5ppm and phosphates are at .24ppm. Would that be too high? For montis?


I use the API test kits for everything except phosphates, for that I use a Hanna checker.

Definitely not too high. 5 nitrates are good, 0.25 are higher than most people like to keep them but lower than most people keep them.

 

[Uncle99]

I’m sorry, you’re right i forgot to mention phosphates. If I’m being honest I haven’t checked nutrient levels in a while, but I just did and nitrates are at 5ppm and phosphates are at .24ppm. Would that be too high? For montis?


I use the API test kits for everything except phosphates, for that I use a Hanna checker.

Nope, that level is just fine, but no higher on phosphate.

I’d run phosphate at .1ppm to ensure even within tester margin of error, it’s available. Zero is a real bad number.