Monti cap RTN!

[VR28man]

M cap started rtning last night after lights out. This is how it looks this am. Did not notice anything odd before lights out.

The only big changes i’ve done is introduce a (dipped, from a tank full of montis) acropora frag 28 hours before i first noticed this and added some metabsorb like 2 hours before to try to do something about Al (at this level fir over a year. Wcs don’t even help. Marinepure gone 6 months ago). I dose ati essentials in the am and pm, and two nights ago and last night accidentally dosed both in the pm (12ml ati essentials total dose per day, should change dkh in my tank by about .3dkh)

Metabsorb has been removed.

This m cap has been in the tank and grown well for months. It has occasionally suffered some odd small injuries, but then regrown very quickly.I moved it to this rock three weeks ago from a frag rack. Right before a different, new, m cap was in the tank for 2 weeks and rtn’d over 3 days (in a way that did not permit fraggging). I guesstimate it gets 200par or so, compared to 300 some before going on the rock.

Will post parameters tonight. I don’t think it’s much different from my last Icp test, sent in before Christmas and received a few days ago. Only big difference is that i’ve brought salinity down to 35ppt or so.

Iodine weirdness discussed in a seperate thread,not sure yet what, if anything to do about it
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/super-high-iodine-in-icp-results.328066/unread

And any thread is better with hiding cats

 

[Flippers4pups]

M cap started rtning last night after lights out. This is how it looks this am. Did not notice anything odd before lights out.

The only big changes i’ve done is introduce a (dipped, from a tank full of montis) acropora frag 28 hours before i first noticed this and added some metabsorb like 2 hours before to try to do something about Al. I dose in the am and pm, and two nights ago and last night accidentally dosed both in the pm (12ml ati essentials total dose per day, should change dkh in my tank by about .3dkh)

Metabsorb has been removed.

This m cap has been in the tank and grown well for months. It has occasionally suffered some odd small injuries, but then regrown very quickly.I moved it to this rock three weeks ago from a frag rack. Right before a different, new, m cap was in the tank for 2 weeks and rtn’d over 3 days (in a way that did not permit fraggging). I guesstimate it gets 200par or so, compared to 300 some before going on the rock.

Will post parameters tonight. I don’t think it’s much different from my last Icp test, sent in before Christmas and received a few days ago. Only big difference is that i’ve brought salinity down to 35ppt or so.

Confirm no pest is eating. Red light after lights out.

 

[VR28man]

Confirm no pest is eating. Red light after lights out.

Yup, definitely will do.

I would’ve thought that it would’ve gotten it earlier, though, if a pest existed in the tank

 

[RobZilla04]

I'd suspect Zinn and/or Aluminum being that high have irritated it.

How much flow is it getting?

 

[VR28man]

I'd suspect Zinn and/or Aluminum being that high have irritated it.

How much flow is it getting?

Yeah, but Zinc was a much bigger problem last ICP test (two months ago) and the coral was fine. Al as mentioned has been a long term problem, i assume from a marinepure I removed/did a big water change for six months ago.

It has always gotten a good amount of flow, by general reefer standanrds. 6-8 inches down and to the left of an MP40, going as high as 60% (30x13x18 inch tank) in tidal swell mode (another MP40 on the other side)

 

[VR28man]

Evening update.

I am going to frag it, and check for parameters and pests.

ETA: noticed it progressively RTNing all night. Tried to frag it in two, got three. One part is the part furthest from the white, which has been growing well. Parts two and three are the remainder, with the skeleton and parts bordering the skeleton removed. Dipped all in revive (no indication of any pests), and mounted Part 1 on one frag plug, 2 and 3 together on another plug mounted elsewhere in the aquarium. We'll see how they look tomorrow.

Parameters: alkalinity is 7.8 (seems I need to dose more daily and that my consumption has increased; two weeks ago it was 8.2. Dosing 8ml in AM and another in PM now, vice 6ml). Nitrate is 1ppm (started feeding corals last week; 2LF zoplan twice this week and planned for twice a week, and then 5ml acropower in the evening).

Also forgot to add, I've been dosing Dr. Tim's waste away to combat cyano, and ecobalance about once a week each for the past month (though I forgot last week). I'm not going to add them again anytime soon until I see the monti growing again.

The other corals (Acros mostly) are doing fairly decently. Maybe well, except that many of them are survivors of a tank crash two months ago and so progress is only relative.

 

[VR28man]

The frags are doing ok so far. Nothing more than angry monti syndrome on one frag. Hopefully they will all be ok, and the two will grow back into one.

 

[VR28man]

Unfortunately, the frag on the right in the second picture had whatever took the rest of the colony, and died. Once i saw it I promptly removed it from the frag plug. It looked like the coral skin was just dissolving; it would be full in one area, and then in the RTNing areas it was just fizzy, and then turned white.

Anyone with experience of such a thing happening before?

Anyway, the remaining two frags are fine. They *may* have grown a bit, but that's really hard to chart over the course of a week, and I frankly don't expect them to grow anytime in the next several weeks as they recover from stress.

 

[mhaley98]

Unfortunately, the frag on the right in the second picture had whatever took the rest of the colony, and died. Once i saw it I promptly removed it from the frag plug. It looked like the coral skin was just dissolving; it would be full in one area, and then in the RTNing areas it was just fizzy, and then turned white.

Anyone with experience of such a thing happening before?

Anyway, the remaining two frags are fine. They *may* have grown a bit, but that's really hard to chart over the course of a week, and I frankly don't expect them to grow anytime in the next several weeks as they recover from stress.

Hi VR28man,
I have an issue with Montis in my tank as well recently. I have no idea what went wrong, but I had the exact same issue as you; the flesh would get dull, then fuzzy, and then just peel off, leaving a white exposed skeleton underneath. The weird thing is that it would come off in small random sections, and it didn't really have a pattern.
Were you able to figure out what caused your issues for you? I had this monti in my tank for 6 months, it had encrusted onto my rock and was growing beautifully and then over night... disaster. I have bad luck with Montis specifically, I am wondering if I might have a monti specific bacterial issue in my tank or something similar...
Were you succesflu with the piece that you fragged off?
Thank you so much