Montipora Bleaching?

FraginReeferHead

FraginReeferHead

New member
I got 3 types of Montipora in my tank 2 of them are doing great bu in the last 2 days I noticed one has a big chunk of white in the center of it even tho the polyps are out on the rest of it.

View attachment 11878

What could be the cause of this and if it gets worse tomorrow after I get home from work im gonna frag the healthy off so if anyone close wants it hit me up. unkown monti also have a sunset monti and a purple edged unkown monti. If I cant get it under control those will be up for grabs as well.
 
That looks like the work of a pest. My first guess is check the coral for Nudi's. They might be hanging out on the bottom side.
Typically STN or RTN on SPS happens from the inside out or outside in. It would work its way down a branch or across a colony. STN or RTN could be (but not limited to) low Alk or incorrect salinity. I recommend posting your parameters as it is the best way for for others to help diagnose your problem.

A couple of other tips would be to move the colony to better lighted area (it looks brown) and away from the leather (allelopathy)

Good luck!
 
As far as I have seen there is no pests, the Toad stool is about 4 inches away so it cant even flop over to reach it and as for lighting I have a T5 across the front half of tank and a metal halide across that back corner (directly above this monti) so I dont think lighting is the issue either. Alk or salinity might be the issue.

Salinity is 1.021 and no clue on the alk will bring some water to the lfs tomorrow for a test. Is 1.021 way low for sps?

Ty for your feed back.

Edit. In the picture I did not have my halide turned on so it did appear dark in that corner.
 
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Just got back from the LFS he didnt have his test kit on him so I didnt get my parameters checked. However he did have Tropic Marin KH Alkalinity test kit so we ran a test on that. It came out at 14 (Yikes!)

We checked his water as well and he came back at between 8 and 9 so we tested properly.

Any idea how I can lower my levels manually or by dosing with something?
 
There isn't any dosing that can lower the level. Do you dose anything now? or just rely on WC to devlier your ALK needs? If only doing WC, it'll be hard to drop the level is your salt has a high alk level.
 
About a month ago I was sitting at like 9 on ALK only thing I have dosed since then was Seachem brand Reef Zoo Plankton.

However I did a 15 gallon water change after the last test and lowered my salinity from 1.026 to 1.021 since all I had was fish and Nems. After the 15 gallon change I have done a 5 gallon change 3 times once a week pretty much.

Here is a question for you. My brother gave me some salt, Reef Crystals unopened bag from a box he bought his SPS has all died off since then and i did my water changes all with the bag he gave me. Is it possible a bad batch of salt?
 
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So I have still been researching how to lower my Alkalinity level and I ran across a few things saying if I dose calcium it could lower my Alkalinity.

Would this be something worth trying?

On a side note as well I had the day off yesterday and was shopping around and found something Im interested in wondering if anyone has done business with them? ( Reef Raft USA )

View attachment 11960

Very pricey Nem but man it looks cool as hell.
 
I would just let you alk drop by itself. I would be interested in what your ph, mag, and cal levels are.
It is a possibility that the salt you got was a bad batch. But in order to get your alk down to 8-11 I would just let it go down itself. Trying to get it down other way may cause different problems and huge swings in alk can have devastating effects. But in order to really assess your tank, going to need to know your other parameters as I mentioned. I would also recommend keeping your salinity level at 1.025. If your dropped your salinity level from .026 to .021 in one-day that is a huge swing.



I personally try to keep all my levels at natural ocean water. And I have had great success all doing it in a 14gallon tank.

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reefaddiction said:
I would just let you alk drop by itself. I would be interested in what your ph, mag, and cal levels are.
It is a possibility that the salt you got was a bad batch. But in order to get your alk down to 8-11 I would just let it go down itself. Trying to get it down other way may cause different problems and huge swings in alk can have devastating effects. But in order to really assess your tank, going to need to know your other parameters as I mentioned. I would also recommend keeping your salinity level at 1.025. If your dropped your salinity level from .026 to .021 in one-day that is a huge swing.

When I originally lowered my salt level I only had fish in the tank and possibly Nems but I did it in one big dose, However since then I did all those water changes and thats when my alk sky rocketed.

Last saturday or sunday I did bump my salinity up to .023, I plan on bumping it up to .024 or 025 this weekend. I didnt want to jump it that high right away since all my softies are doing great.

Will try and hit the LFS tomorrow and see if he can test my water and get back to you.
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