Digitata Strangeness

[VR28man]

I've had a monti digitata for about two months. It's grown at least double its original size in that time, and I've sort of ignored it. For a while it was brownish at its base, I thought that was due to bad lighting (it's on the bottom of the tank and I have nowhere to put it yet. Par is maybe 150 or so). I'm also struggling with GHA, and it goes off and on being covered with GHA.

I took the GHA off again yesterday, and found its condition to be much worse than normal. I thought maybe it's STN, but when I change the lighting from 0% color to 50% color on my Kessil it looks more brown (though there are some white parts). In many of those "brown" parts still seem to have open polyps.


Any thoughts on what's up, and what I should do, would be welcome. My plan is to finally move it to a spot with more light, keep GHA off it, and otherwise don't mess with it.

Pictures are worth 1000 words.

Other corals are growing decently-to-pretty well. A BTA has gone walking, out to under my mesh guarded gyre, and has disappeared just today (I thought it might have been splitting until today), but no smells or anything like that so I don't know if it's died. A few snails have died. Everything else is fine in that time period.

Parameters in past two months:
In the entire time, nitrates have been 0, save for a brief spike up to 7.5 when I was feeding the corals too much daily, at the beginning of August, which quickly corrected itself. I dose 15ml vinegar each day; more than that and I see white stringy stuff forming. Phosphates have been under ( eta 0.10 not 10) with the Hanna (not low range) checker; usually measured in the 0-0.05 range (i.e. always under its measurement threshold and usually a variancw within its margin of error)

Here's the alkalinity chart; note that I've taken out the days which I didn't take measurements. It first hit 8.0 on August 13th, in which time I've been taking nearly daily measurements. (and I've added nothing besides food and vinegar to the tank, save for metabsorb around 16 Aug)

For the past month, I've been trying to keep alk at 8.0 prior to starting ATI essentials.

Icp results here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-solution-to-my-chemistry-issues.429618/

I have done two pretty big water changes since that time (one unplanned), and I've put in metabsorb to get rid of the metals (just took it out).

 

[Reeferdood]

Lot of parameter changes her are likely part of your problem. I would get a Phosphorous checker and get an accurate reading and I would raise the nitrates to @10. I am not a fan of keeping zero nitrates with corals.

 

[YHSublime]

Like said above, lots of changes there, probably isn't loving it. That being said, out of all my SPS pieces, the forest fire digi was the one that let me know it wasn't pleased with my alk swings. I went from what looks like what you currently have, to a bleached base with bright red polyps, to a black base with gha and bright red polyps, and almost a year later, dark green base came back, with bright red polyps. Growing the entire time, and I've never seen anything like that before. Also, my alk went from 6dKH to 8.5, I was doing water changes but not dosing, and didn't realize I had hit a point of consumption.

That being said, I don't test for nitrates, or phosphates. I keep an eye on my alkalinity, and every now and then, calcium levels. But I know I'm nowhere near an ULN system, and overfeed like heck, with only 2 clowns in a 22 gallon tank.

 

[mtraylor]

I agree. There is nothing wrong with the coral, thus coral placement in your aquarium is not going to help anything. You will need to get all your parms in check and then steady. Those swings are killing you right now. SPS and GHA is not a good combination. I would start getting that in check as well. Alkalinity can play a big role with that as well as phosphates. Do you have a listing of all your parms? I would start testing them and get them under control. Then you can place that coral anywhere you like. I have it in like 2 places in my aquarium. Up high and down low. The higher it is, the more vibrant the red is.

Why are you dosing vinegar? Nitrates? That is the first thing I would stop. I would stop dosing everything and concentrate on water quality. Start off with a 25% water change depending on the size of your aquarium and then let things level out and rest. That is the most important thing. What size is your aquarium?

 

[VR28man]

Thanks folks.

First, it's good to know that people think the digi will be OK.

Second, I only measure alkalinity unless I think something is off. I occasionally do nitrate and phosphate, but almost always find that the numbers are generally the same (0 on the salifert nitrate, under truly detectable range by the Hanna Low Range 713 checker). Per the previous post, all my water parameters as of a month ago are here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-solution-to-my-chemistry-issues.429618/

(since I just finished Metabsorb on Sunday the 26th to get rid of the metal problems in that ICP, I sent out for a new one. the previous ICP numbers are in line with my hobby kit measurements)

Third, the alkalinity chart is deceptive: I have added nothing to boost alkalinity, besides deciding around August 1st to let alkalinity come down gradually by absorption for ATI essentials (recommends a DKH of 8.0 before starting). Measurements are with the Hanna checker, which (I believe much like all hobby grade checkers - unless salifert has a margin of error of, say, 0.1 dkh, I wouldn't say its objectively better) has a margin of error in the 0.3 dkh range. I take two tubes and make one correct measurements, and three measurements using a a tube with additive and a straight tube, and finally another correct measurement if something is off. Usually, the numbers sync.

Further, sometimes I do get random spikes - past five days results for instance, ending with last night: 8.7, 8.6, 8.3, 8.3, 8.7, 8.2 (almost all these results were consistent among the five daily measurements). In sum, I am confident that the Hanna chceker will definitely be within 1 dkh no matter what, I'm less confident its real accuracy will be in the .5dkh range, and it itself advertises it won't be more accurate than 0.3 dkh.



Anyway, I'm right now manuallly removing algae every few days. Prevalence is much much less, and I'm not inclined to do anything else besides further removal until prevalence is very low for a week or two. And importantly, most corals are growing well and have good color.

Though I'm tempted to cut back on vinegar (go from 15ml/day to 10ml). I don't know; I'm more inclined for stable low algae levels for a few weeks before messing with this.

 

[Reeferdood]

Thanks folks.

First, it's good to know that people think the digi will be OK.

Second, I only measure alkalinity unless I think something is off. I occasionally do nitrate and phosphate, but almost always find that the numbers are generally the same (0 on the salifert nitrate, under truly detectable range by the Hanna Low Range 713 checker). Per the previous post, all my water parameters as of a month ago are here:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/my-solution-to-my-chemistry-issues.429618/

(since I just finished Metabsorb on Sunday the 26th to get rid of the metal problems in that ICP, I sent out for a new one. the previous ICP numbers are in line with my hobby kit measurements)

Third, the alkalinity chart is deceptive: I have added nothing to boost alkalinity, besides deciding around August 1st to let alkalinity come down gradually by absorption for ATI essentials (recommends a DKH of 8.0 before starting). Measurements are with the Hanna checker, which (I believe much like all hobby grade checkers - unless salifert has a margin of error of, say, 0.1 dkh, I wouldn't say its objectively better) has a margin of error in the 0.3 dkh range. I take two tubes and make one correct measurements, and three measurements using a a tube with additive and a straight tube, and finally another correct measurement if something is off. Usually, the numbers sync.

Further, sometimes I do get random spikes - past five days results for instance, ending with last night: 8.7, 8.6, 8.3, 8.3, 8.7, 8.2 (almost all these results were consistent among the five daily measurements). In sum, I am confident that the Hanna chceker will definitely be within 1 dkh no matter what, I'm less confident its real accuracy will be in the .5dkh range, and it itself advertises it won't be more accurate than 0.3 dkh.



Anyway, I'm right now manuallly removing algae every few days. Prevalence is much much less, and I'm not inclined to do anything else besides further removal until prevalence is very low for a week or two. And importantly, most corals are growing well and have good color.

Though I'm tempted to cut back on vinegar (go from 15ml/day to 10ml). I don't know; I'm more inclined for stable low algae levels for a few weeks before messing with this.

The algae is likely coming from the phosphate in the water and the vinegar is not doing anything for that. Like @mtraylor said, backing off won't hurt anything. It could help actually by allowing your nitrates to come up a bit. If it is algae you are most concerned with, have you ever considered Vibrant?
IMHO every reefer should have a bottle available to them.. I swear by it and use it in every tank I service that had algae issues..

 

[VR28man]

The algae is likely coming from the phosphate in the water and the vinegar is not doing anything for that. Like @mtraylor said, backing off won't hurt anything. It could help actually by allowing your nitrates to come up a bit. If it is algae you are most concerned with, have you ever considered Vibrant?
IMHO every reefer should have a bottle available to them.. I swear by it and use it in every tank I service that had algae issues..

That there's something in the water feeding the algae (or, put another way, the algae is absorbing nutrients) is indisputable. But again, the phosphate reads well under what the Hanna checker can accurately measure, and the ATI ICP test stated that Phosphates were 0.05 several weeks ago. I did think about reducing vinegar, but I want to keep things stable for a few weeks, but I may go down to 10ml/day for a week or so and see what happens.

I've also considered Vibrant. As I understand, it's a bacteria mix that searches and destroys different forms of algae. I'd imagine it absorbs the nutrients, but they must go somewhere (removed by a water change afterward?). If so, it seems that it just efficiently does what manual removing would otherwise do. Once I'm more comfortable with the tank's stability, I may use it.

Finally, we had another supposed 0.3 dkh spike in the alkalinity reading for last night (consistent result over several measurements). Again, within the margin of error for the Hanna checker, so I'm not concerned at all.........