Montipora (only) bleaching/STN

Velcro · Oct 28, 2016

This has been happening over the past few weeks. Everything non-montipora seems fine.

pH- 8-8.2
SG- 1.025 (had noticed it had slowly dropped to 1.022 a couple weeks ago, which I raised back to 1.025 slowly with saltwater in the ATO
Alk- 7.5-8.0
Ca-425
Mg- 1550
Temp- 79.2
Phos- 0.05
NO2- 12-16 (I usually run 10, but things are up a bit over the last month or so since I've been feeding a little heavier to raise phos after some GFO seemed to cause some issues a month ago)

Side note, I added some GFO and Rox about 3 weeks ago and noticed some stn at the base of some SPS after 3 days. I removed both the gfo and carbon and started feeding a bit heavier. As you can see, most SPS is good. This seems to be limited to the dang montipora.

cloak · Oct 28, 2016

Have you checked them for pests?

http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/captive_aquatics/2010/09/a-montipora-eating-nudibranch-primer.html

Velcro · Oct 28, 2016

Here's a closeup of the mystic sunset. Click the picture for a hi res zoom in.

Velcro · Oct 28, 2016

cloak said:
Have you checked them for pests?

http://blog.captive-aquatics.com/captive_aquatics/2010/09/a-montipora-eating-nudibranch-primer.html

Not as thoroughly as I should. I'll take a look though.

Trkz89 · Oct 28, 2016

Looks like low pottasium. check your pottasium level.

Or montipora eating nudi ?

Highgrade · Oct 28, 2016

I had a similar issue in my SPS only tank and it turned out to be MENs. I had to pull all the Monti's and QT them. Dipping every 3 days. Only half of my monti's have made it so far. Its been almost two weeks and for the ones left they seem to be doing better. Seems like a plague or MENs going around. Have you recently added any new corals/rock to the tank?

jsker · Oct 28, 2016

Try getting the Po'4 down to .02 and below and nitrates down to 3 to 5. I let my Po'4 get to high and lost 7 frags in the past two weeks. I am not working on bring down my Po's and most of my corals are happy again.

Velcro · Oct 28, 2016

I spotted something worm-like on the mystic sunset with my DSLR. I'll upload a video. It had anentanas, but not the sac looking things on its sides that MEN seem to have.

Psiber_Syn · Oct 28, 2016

The MEN I have in my tank are white and very small look kinda like porcupine they are tough to get rid of also I find them all the time but normally after they eat part of a monti

Velcro · Oct 28, 2016

Here's a video of what I found. It's the worm looking thing towards upper left of the screen.

Fourstars · Oct 28, 2016

I'm couriuos, how long has this tank been setup? I'm having some of the same issues.

Velcro · Oct 31, 2016

Found some little dudes on a monti tonight after lights out. At first I thought it was nudis, but I think it's just pods eating dead stuff based on the jumpy movement and not the sluggish movement that I've seen from videos of monti nudis.

mikebgator · Oct 31, 2016

Do you have chloramines in your water supply?

Triggreef · Oct 31, 2016

That first video might just be a spaghetti worm. Low potassium could be a good idea. What is your water change pattern. I had similar issues effecting only Monti, and some large water changes cleared it right up.

Triggreef · Oct 31, 2016

I've never had men’s but from what I understand they tend to eat from the edges in. So I would suspect some parameter issue.

rovster · Oct 31, 2016

Triggreef said:
I've never had men’s but from what I understand they tend to eat from the edges in. So I would suspect some parameter issue.

This is most likely a chemistry issue. Alk issue is first on my radar followed by potassium. MEN eat from the outer edges in and the coral can look relatively healthy until the damage is more advanced. When my alk spikes my montis look just like the ones you pictured. This could also have been caused by a blip that happened over a week or 2 ago and you are now seeing the damage.

scardall · Oct 31, 2016

Alk. abit low. 8.5-9.5ppm would be better and Nudi's maybe.
http://www.melevsreef.com/node/596

themcnertney · Oct 31, 2016

Alkalinity is my guess.

Paul B · Oct 31, 2016

That happened to about half of my monti's a few months ago. Nothing else was affected but my largest pieces died in a few days. It was 12" across. It started like this.

I did not test anything because if the rest of the corals are fine, it was most likely due to coral warfare. Since then, they all grew back better than before.