Montis (only) are Looking Bad

[sawdonkey]

All of my acros are looking fine, but over the last few weeks, all of my Montis, both plating and digis, are looking bad. The caps look like the have almost a white film on them and my digis have random patches of what seems to be STN. Like I said, all of my acros, and I have many, are looking fine. I grow Montis in my DT and have a few in my sump too. They look the same in both places. Thoughts?

By the way, my PO4 was at .05 until I changed my GFO recently, but my monti issue started well before that.

I did a 40 gal (out of about 250) water change tonight.

 

[bif24701]

All of my acros are looking fine, but over the last few weeks, all of my Montis, both plating and digis, are looking bad. The caps look like the have almost a white film on them and my digis have random patches of what seems to be STN. Like I said, all of my acros, and I have many, are looking fine. I grow Montis in my DT and have a few in my sump too. They look the same in both places. Thoughts?

By the way, my PO4 was at .05 until I changed my GFO recently, but my monti issue started well before that.

I did a 40 gal (out of about 250) water change tonight.

Have you inspected closely for Monti eating Nudi?

 

[sawdonkey]

Have you inspected closely for Monti eating Nudi?

No, but I haven't added a monti in years, no new live rock in years. Not sure how I could have picked up nudis. I haven't even bought an acro frag since about May, and I Bayer dip everything.

I've had all of these for a long time. It's more of a paling of the whole thing in the caps, but random dead patches on the digis.

 

[Macdaddynick1]

0 phosphates if that isn't a problem then check your potassium. If you're using IO then it's going to be about 350

 

[bif24701]

Have you increased your lighting intensity? That did it for me.

 

[sawdonkey]

Have you increased your lighting intensity? That did it for me.

No, but I did just turn them down a hair and shortened the photoperiod by 45 minutes. Although if been using the same lights at around the same intensity for about two years, so I don't know what might have changed.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Hmm. Interesting. I'd have to guess a nutrient or mineral depletion.
Do you do any trace element supplementing ?

 

[fragit]

Sounds like it could be some kind of bacterial infection. Have you added anything to the tank recently? Are you dosing anything?

 

[Wiz]

I just had the same problem. Then I moved my tank and I wound up doing about a 50% water addition. All the montis have stopped dying since that. It's the only thing I did different. So I'm assuning it was a chemical missing or built up. Do you do regular water changes? I don't. So ive decided to do a 50% change every 6 months to a year. Took 2 years for a problem to happen. All the montis have stopped dying now.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/montipora-trouble.261900/

 

[themcnertney]

In my experience I have lost very big Monti colonies to new lighting (MH to LED's) and to low alk.

 

[sawdonkey]

Thanks everyone. No real lighting changes. I do a 15% water change every 4-6 weeks. I dose acropower from time to time, but not very consistently.

I don't test for K, but the one time I did a triton test, is was slightly low. Every now and then, I dump in a few ml of Red Sea colors (the potassium one).

No new additions to the tank since about May, long before I started having monti issues.

 

[therman]

Check for black bugs too. Parasitic copepod like "red bug" but only affects Montipora. Had them in a tank once about 9 years ago.

 

[rovster]

Any chance you've upped your dosing recently? I see your alk is in ppm, are you using the Hanna checker? If so may want to cross check your alk test. Maybe your alk is higher than you think? Every time my tank goes into a funk due to alk (which has been a lot in the last year) my montis are the first to show signs. The caps get a dull almost grey tone and digis get patchy STN.


Oh, are you carbon dosing by chance? If so I my tank any time my alk went above 150 I'd see these issues. I know it sounds weird but my tank is weird.

 

[Ike]

Montis can really suffer from low nutrients. What's your PO4 measured with? If it's really around zero I would first suspect that. Red cap is like a canary coral for me, if it starts to pale I know nutrients are too low or it's time got a big water change. The water change probably bumped up PO4 and nitrogen a bit or perhaps there was some element being too high or low at play as well. In short, do some bigger and more frequent water changes than usual.

 

[Steviereefs]

Take some good pics so we can see

 

[erk]

I'm having a similar issue myself. For me, it has to do with Mg. I normally keep it around 1400 ppm. It has dropped to 1320 ppm and since it has been steadily dropping, my monti are getting worse. This isn't the first time this has happened either. Every time it happens, bringing the Mg levels back to "normal" stops the STN. This is also true if I raise Mg too high. Dealt with that before. Any monti that have grown at the lower Mg level is doing OK. Anything grown at 1400 ppm is unhappy. Another clue is my coraline growth. It has slowed/stopped. Not sure what your Mg levels used to be at, but if they have steadily dropped from levels the montipora originally grew at, this could be the issue.

 

[Steviereefs]

I'm having a similar issue myself. For me, it has to do with Mg. I normally keep it around 1400 ppm. It has dropped to 1320 ppm and since it has been steadily dropping, my monti are getting worse. This isn't the first time this has happened either. Every time it happens, bringing the Mg levels back to "normal" stops the STN. This is also true if I raise Mg too high. Dealt with that before. Any monti that have grown at the lower Mg level is doing OK. Anything grown at 1400 ppm is unhappy. Another clue is my coraline growth. It has slowed/stopped. Not sure what your Mg levels used to be at, but if they have steadily dropped from levels the montipora originally grew at, this could be the issue.

How long has you setup been running ?

 

[Steviereefs]

All of my acros are looking fine, but over the last few weeks, all of my Montis, both plating and digis, are looking bad. The caps look like the have almost a white film on them and my digis have random patches of what seems to be STN. Like I said, all of my acros, and I have many, are looking fine. I grow Montis in my DT and have a few in my sump too. They look the same in both places. Thoughts?

By the way, my PO4 was at .05 until I changed my GFO recently, but my monti issue started well before that.

I did a 40 gal (out of about 250) water change tonight.

How long has your tank been running.

 

[sawdonkey]

How long has you setup been running ?

Since 2012.

 

[sawdonkey]

Any chance you've upped your dosing recently? I see your alk is in ppm, are you using the Hanna checker? If so may want to cross check your alk test. Maybe your alk is higher than you think? Every time my tank goes into a funk due to alk (which has been a lot in the last year) my montis are the first to show signs. The caps get a dull almost grey tone and digis get patchy STN.


Oh, are you carbon dosing by chance? If so I my tank any time my alk went above 150 I'd see these issues. I know it sounds weird but my tank is weird.

Thanks, yes, I run biopellets and have for 2-3 years.

With alk, I do use Hannah, and I'm well aware of their reagent issues. I also check with Salifert from Time to time. One of my torts did have some burnt tips recently, so maybe you're on to something.