Montipora problems

[Hockeypunk1]

Lately I've been having issues with algae or dinoflagellates growing on health montipora tissue and killing parts of my frags. It's only affecting a couple montis but of course it's on 2 of my favorites. They are all smaller sized frags as this is a young tank. I'm currently battling dinos and I believe this is the reason I've had slow growth on some sps. I finally have the dino somewhat under control but could use some help or input on what I should do as a course of action. Params are
Dkh-8.5, Cal-450,Mag-1380,NO3-3,PO4-0.01,Temp-77,Sg-1.026 all have been rock solid for months (tank is only 1 year old)

 

[Hockeypunk1]

I have not seen any pests other than dinoflagellates

 

[Coastie Reefer]

#reefsquad

 

[Sabellafella]

Lately I've been having issues with algae or dinoflagellates growing on health montipora tissue and killing parts of my frags. It's only affecting a couple montis but of course it's on 2 of my favorites. They are all smaller sized frags as this is a young tank. I'm currently battling dinos and I believe this is the reason I've had slow growth on some sps. I finally have the dino somewhat under control but could use some help or input on what I should do as a course of action. Params are
Dkh-8.5, Cal-450,Mag-1380,NO3-3,PO4-0.01,Temp-77,Sg-1.026 all have been rock solid for months (tank is only 1 year old)

The tissue has to die first before algae will start to grow. Id look into water quality and dipping.

If your parameters have been solid, and everything else in your tank is fine. I would give the monti some extensive dipping just incase.

 

[ahiggins]

The tissue has to die first before algae will start to grow. Id look into water quality and dipping.

If your parameters have been solid, and everything else in your tank is fine. I would give the monti some extensive dipping just incase.

correct on the algae. It looks like you have a pest (I hate to say monti nudi) but thats what it looks like to me. Any new frags introduced within the past 2-3 months?

 

[Hockeypunk1]

The tissue has to die first before algae will start to grow. Id look into water quality and dipping.

If your parameters have been solid, and everything else in your tank is fine. I would give the monti some extensive dipping just incase.

Parameters have been solid and everything else is doing good including another plating orange digi that the beat up one came from. What I find strange is the algae appears to attach itself to healthy flesh and then the coral goes downhill. I wasn't sure if this is something that dinoflagellates do.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

L

correct on the algae. It looks like you have a pest (I hate to say monti nudi) but thats what it looks like to me. Any new frags introduced within the past 2-3 months?

Let's hope not on the nudi. I did add about 5 acros and a acan on January 22. I am a freek about my tank, and I would think that if their were nudis I would have seen them, but who knows. I will definitely be on high alert the next few nights

 

[ahiggins]

Parameters have been solid and everything else is doing good including another plating orange digi that the beat up one came from. What I find strange is the algae appears to attach itself to healthy flesh and then the coral goes downhill. I wasn't sure if this is something that dinoflagellates do.

No but that's what cyano does. Or any bacteria for that matter

 

[Hockeypunk1]

No but that's what cyano does. Or any bacteria for that matter

What can be done to fix this? I have about as much flow as my hammer can take. I suppose I could try to redirect. I have a jebao rw20 at 60% pulse and a jebao cross flow 25 at 50% gyre mode. My tank is a 55 corner tank which makes flow a bit difficult to get right.

 

[ahiggins]

Do you have pics of the suspect algae?

 

[ahiggins]

If it's cyano, it wont go away without chemical intervention

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Do you have pics of the suspect algae?

At the moment it's impossible to see. The lights are off and that's why I suspect dino. It seems to attach to the encrusted edges of all my coral. This happened to those montis

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Again impossible to see in the pic. Around the bottom edge of this monti the same thing is happening

 

[LostInTheDark]

Montis are usually very susceptible to ALK spikes. It causes burns which start in the middle and work there way out. That gives the algae a foot hold. Anything like that lately?

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Montis are usually very susceptible to ALK spikes. It causes burns which start in the middle and work there way out. That gives the algae a foot hold. Anything like that lately?

No more than about 0.7 dkh. I added some acros and the alk dropped from 8.5 to 7.8 and I slowly added brs 2 part to bring it back

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Here's a fts. As you can see everything else is happy. I did have a birdsnest stn about a month ago that seemed to move from that to the montis

 

[LostInTheDark]

I did have a birdsnest stn about a month ago

Thats another ALK swing indicator. I learned the hard way when I killed my birdsnest during water changes. He was right in the return flow and I used to pour my water into the sump. Do you match your change water to the tank?

 

[McMullen]

Maybe Alk.....but I'm not convinced you don't have a pest. It is possible to not see evidence of MENs for months. They'll feed on the underside of tissue first. They're population will explode and seemingly within a couple days destroy frags. I also agree with @Sabellafella that the algae is attaching to dead or dying tissue/skeleton.

The birdsnest may or may not be related. I sneezed once and lots a birdsnest colony.

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Thats another ALK swing indicator. I learned the hard way when I killed my birdsnest during water changes. He was right in the return flow and I used to pour my water into the sump. Do you match your change water to the tank?

I don't match parameters but I also don't do a lot of water changes. Maybe 5% every 2-3 weeks. I check alk with a hanna checker almost every day. I did lower my alk from 10 over a 2 month period. My acros were pale so I lowered alk but I also had 0 no3. I raised nitrates using stump remover while lowering my alk and photo period. Before doing that I had a huge algae bloom and I lost most of my copepods and amphipods as well as having a corraline die off. That's when I stopped doing weekly 10% wc. My birdsnest was the only coral that did good having 0 nitrates

 

[Hockeypunk1]

Maybe Alk.....but I'm not convinced you don't have a pest. It is possible to not see evidence of MENs for months. They'll feed on the underside of tissue first. They're population will explode and seemingly within a couple days destroy frags. I also agree with @Sabellafella that the algae is attaching to dead or dying tissue/skeleton.

The birdsnest may or may not be related. I sneezed once and lots a birdsnest colony.

I hope not lol. But that would explain a lot. I've been watching for them starting last night and this morning. It seems to be just in the center of the tank