Montipora bleaching?

[Travisolson]

My Montipora appears to be bleaching. No recent changes to lightning, temperature, or fish..

 

[CodyRVA]

How old is the system.
How long have you had the monti.
What are your parameters?

 

[Travisolson]

20 gal, System is about 6 months old, this particular one has been in for 2-3 months. Had no issues, it was doing really well. Weekly water changes, ai pro light set to 8 hours with 2 hour ramp. Alkalinity is kind of high I think, at 13DKH.
Calcium 340-400
Ph 8.1
Temp 77-78

 

[CodyRVA]

ALK is high, what's your nutrient levels? Any swings or are you maintaining stability? What's your MG and salinity? Any other corals?

 

[Travisolson]

Don't have a test kit for mg. Fish store said salinity was good (can't remember the exact number they said), I have 5 or 6 zoa's and different mushrooms that are all doing well. I'm still a noob at this, not sure about nutrient levels..

 

[CodyRVA]

Makes it kind of hard to pinpoint the issue. You need to invest in some quality test kits, I prefer salifert. Low/High MG, too low or too high of nutrients: NO3, PO4 could be the issue as well; not to mention parameter swings. ALK swings will absolutely cause this issue, but you really need to obtain more info before making changes, otherwise you'll be chasing your tail.

 

[Ashish Patel]

MY guess is it never acclimated well to your system.. I had this happen to one of my monti and I attributed this to too strong lighting and too low nutrients (deadly combination)... Your ALK is high but if its been maintained at this for the past few months then I would nt assume its the Alk. However, if your alk went from 9-13DKH in a short time then it could be a factor.

Usually a coral will be fine if 2 our of 3 variables are fine.. Alk, lighting, nutrients - if 2 are out of wack then chances are the corals will be effected. Of course this is considering your temp, salinity, CA, Alk are stable.

 

[Travisolson]

Is there a certain test kit you guys would recommend? And anything I can do in the mean time? I don't notice any temp swings, and my light is set at about 30%, 10 inches above water level.

 

[CodyRVA]

Is there a certain test kit you guys would recommend? And anything I can do in the mean time? I don't notice any temp swings, and my light is set at about 30%, 10 inches above water level.

Honestly if you're not testing yourself its hard to imagine how stable your parameters are at all. I recommend Salifert; reliable and cost effective.

 

[XNavyDiver]

Is there a certain test kit you guys would recommend? And anything I can do in the mean time? I don't notice any temp swings, and my light is set at about 30%, 10 inches above water level.

I recommend the Hanna checker for alk and po4 (the ultra low reading unit), Salifert for Ca, Mg and Red Sea for NO3.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I would recommend starting with salifert for CA, Alk, & Nitrates. Test every other day your ALK and dose accordingly. Once you know your consumption dosing is simple. Getting their is a little bit of trial and error but you have to test religiously in the beginning.

My tank is new so I test below items.
Ca - Redsea /Salifert (weekly)
Alk - Hanna and Redsea (2 test every 48hrs)
MG - Redsea (every 2 weeks)
Nitrate - Salifert (every day right now)
Phosphates - Hanna ULR (every month or as needed)

 

[DSC reef]

Montipora are a good indicator of parameter issues. Hannah and salifert, worth the investment. Once you get a baseline of your parameters make sure you don't make changes to quickly. Slow and steady with stability being key.

 

[Travisolson]

I tested the magnesium which was 1410ppm. This is a tad bit high correct?

 

[CodyRVA]

I tested the magnesium which was 1410ppm. This is a tad bit high correct?

A tiny bit, but IME not enough to cause bleaching

 

[Travisolson]

So alk is slightly high as well as mg, calcium is 400~, constant temperature, no new additions..what now?

 

[CodyRVA]

Any change in flow? You should test your ALK every day for a week and see where it's at. IMO 13 dKH is high, but as mentioned how it got to 13 dKH is far more important. Your salinity is stable as well?

 

[SeanD]

I had some doing something a similar thing, come to find out I took them out and dipped them and had a nudi in the dip. So I dipped a couple more times and scrubbed well.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Could be too much light... Sometimes it is neccessary to move the corals - I bleached my monti and stylo by giving them 250-300 PAR. Which I thought was recommendation but with ULN its too much... I have started dosing flourish nitrogen and my nitrates yesterday where around 3-4PPM. Hopefully this helps bring my stylos and monti to life

 

[Travisolson]

Not sure what you mean by dipped? Alk has gone down to about 11.5dkh, 0 nitrites and nitrate about 1.25ppm

 

[CodyRVA]

Not sure what you mean by dipped? Alk has gone down to about 11.5dkh, 0 nitrites and nitrate about 1.25ppm

Dipping refers to a "coral dip" which is a treatment process for ridding corals of pests and hitch hikers; some of which are undesirable and cause damage/harm to various types of coral. As far as the lighting, it depends on the type of monti, some prefer more light than others. Have you seen any growth from this coral since you put it in your system or has it stayed the same size and now started to decline?

It hasn't been addressed yet, but your system is very young to be housing such corals, IMO. I'm leaning towards instability in your chemistry, something soft corals are much more forgiving of.

Did you intentionally drop the ALK to that level or did you test again and got 11.5 dKH? And was this a 24 hour transition from 13 dKH?