Monti Help

[Riddler05]

Hey,

I have a frag of jedi mind trick montipora undata which I got about 6 months ago. When I first got the frag it was beautifully colored, however after about a month the coral started looking very "blah" with little to no color. It still has good polyp extension and it is encrusting (but very slowly). I have moved it all around my tank thinking it had to be the light but the color never really came back. I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions. Here are my parameters:

Phosphate: 0.02 ppm
Nitrate: 0.0 ppm
Alk: 8.4 dkH
Ca: 380 ppm
Mg: 1600 ppm (I was using Kent M to get rid of a bryopsis problem, but the coral had already lost coloration before I raised Mg)
Salinity: 1.025

I have a BML 10,000K light fixture at 100% for ~8hrs a day.

Here is a picture of what the monti looks like now:



Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[NobleSun27]

well your calcium is a little low compared to your mag and have you tried to add some extra trace elements. Once I started using red sea's reef colors (I think its called) I noticed some better color in my corals. And make sure you have good flow on it also. Good Luck

 

[Marquiseo]

Hey,

I have a frag of jedi mind trick montipora undata which I got about 6 months ago. When I first got the frag it was beautifully colored, however after about a month the coral started looking very "blah" with little to no color. It still has good polyp extension and it is encrusting (but very slowly). I have moved it all around my tank thinking it had to be the light but the color never really came back. I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions. Here are my parameters:

Phosphate: 0.02 ppm
Nitrate: 0.0 ppm
Alk: 8.4 dkH
Ca: 380 ppm
Mg: 1600 ppm (I was using Kent M to get rid of a bryopsis problem, but the coral had already lost coloration before I raised Mg)
Salinity: 1.025

I have a BML 10,000K light fixture at 100% for ~8hrs a day.

Here is a picture of what the monti looks like now:



Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

-If that's really your Nitrate and phosphate readings, then it is losing color due to Ultra low nutrients.
-Lighting is the next thing to cause bleaching.
-Colder temperature causes paling as well.
-Adding too much carbon at once can strip the water and bleach corals (found this out the hard way)


One of those is the cause.


It is one of those 4 to be the cause.

 

[tigerdragon]

Might look at adding more blue to your lighting

 

[jgalen0025]

When you have low nutrients and high par, your corals pale and/or bleach.

 

[Riddler05]

Thanks everyone for the help. So this may be a dumb questions but what is the best way to increase my nutrients without getting crazy algea growth. In the past I have had algae problems but I finally have it under control and while I do have a few patches of algae, overall I have a relatively low level of algae. My questions is how do I increase my nutrients without having another algae outbreak? Should I just feed more? Should I use a coral food product like Red Sea Reef Energy, Acropower, etc.? It took me so long to get rid of my last algae outbreak that I am afraid to overfeed my tank.

 

[leptang]

My monti was a little dull in color also, my water was way low in potassium, iron, and slightly low in iodine, i started supplementing and i noticed color coming back, i think its what zooxanthellae thrive off of. Also using a good food source also helps, i noticed using Red Sea reef energy A and B with great results.

 

[jgalen0025]

Its always a balance but especially when you carbon dose because your usually nitrate limited meaning that you have zero nitrates but phosphates never get to zero without gfo. This results in lots of phosphate, no nitrates, and lots of hair algae. If your not carbon dosing just add one extra frozen food feeding/day and start dosing aminos. Implement them slowly until you get optimum coloration and add gfo as necessary.