Montipora(?) shrinking rapidly - help needed

[Hal3134]

I have a frag of a montipora that is shrinking rapidly. It's been in the tank about 2 weeks. Polyp extension is good, but for the last 3 days every day there are fewer polyps and tissue. Iosing about 10=15% of the tissue each day for the last 3 days. I'll attach pics separately.

Water chem from Mar 29 is Ca=435, Alk=8.15, Mag=1500, NO3=0.2, PO4=0.03, sal=35 ppt, temp=78ish with some swing. I think I've removed the last of the keyhole limpets yesterday, but I never observed any predation on the monti. Only on a stylophora that I have.

My skimmer is working fine, collecting dark green gunk. My last waterchange was Mar 22. Lights are Reefbreeders economy, blue channel is 100% and white channel is 75%. I dose about 12ml of vodka per day in maintenance mode to keep NO3 and PO4 low. I put a polyfilter in the sump yesterday but it doesn't show any colors on it other than browning due to the accumulation of crap on it.

Some of my other corals are trending downhill too. My green slimer has lost most of its color. It's only a 1/2 inch nub, so there's not much to see.

My water is 4 stage RO sourced. No DI currently. No chloromines in the source water. I also run a carbon reactor with ROx carbon.

The tank is about 18 months old (this time). It started growing coralline algae about 2 months ago.

I'm new to corals so I'm not sure what I'm missing.

 

[Hal3134]

Pic from yesterday

pic from today

 

[vetteguy53081]

Lets look at a few things.
What will cause this is:
High salinity
High Alk
Too much water flow
Lights too bright
Low Ph

What are your readings for all above and what is your light schedule. Also location of this frag in your tank?

 

[Hal3134]

Water chem is in second paragraph of my post. Light schedule is basically 12 hours on, 12 off. The Frag is about 16 inches below the waterline.

Flow is med to low. I have one MP40 on reef crest mode plus my return. Total flow is about 20x. The frag is about 3 feet from the MP40 and slightly sheltered by rock.

I don’t have a pH test.

 

[Hal3134]

I also have a toadstool leather for several months and never had any polyp extension. I moved it around a couple of time trying to find a good spot with no improvement.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Water chem is in second paragraph of my post. Light schedule is basically 12 hours on, 12 off. The Frag is about 16 inches below the waterline.

Flow is med to low. I have one MP40 on reef crest mode plus my return. Total flow is about 20x. The frag is about 3 feet from the MP40 and slightly sheltered by rock.

I don’t have a pH test.

Your water chem shows March 29. Curious on the last two days.
Do you have quiet flow by chance? Toadstool leather will not extend polyps if flow is inadequate. They will produce a film over their top that comes off with water flow. Try gentle blasting the cap on the toad stool and you should see some response overnight . If you see that film separating, increase flow over the crown of the toadstool.

 

[Hal3134]

Retested water chem just now. Same as before but sal is high: 39ppt or 1.029.

Toadstool is about 16 inches in front of MP40 but about 6 inches off center. It is getting good flow.

 

[Hal3134]

Correction, sal retests at 37 ppt. Still a little high.

 

[Hal3134]

#reefsquad ?

 

[Hydrored]

Salinity doesn’t help, how fast was the swing? I find the 2 montipora I have in my tank like for the polyps to move in flow and require a good amount of light. I would slowly try lowering your salinity. Do the polyps move in flow? How long have you had it?

 

[Hal3134]

Salinity doesn’t help, how fast was the swing? I find the 2 montipora I have in my tank like for the polyps to move in flow and require a good amount of light. I would slowly try lowering your salinity. Do the polyps move in flow? How long have you had it?

Salinity swing was slow, over weeks. The polyps are short, so I don’t see any swinging. There’s good flow around it though. I’ve had it about two weeks.

 

[Hydrored]

When was the last water change? Any idea on the PAR?

 

[Hal3134]

Last waterchange was 2 weeks ago. No idea on par. I have 3x Reefbreeders econo Led’s.

 

[SPR1968]

It might be helpful to post a set of test results over a period of say 4 weeks or preferably more to see if there are any swings in parameters.

Although the current results from 29th March are ok, what are they now and what were they previously

 

[nereefpat]

Pests? Like nudis?

 

[dwest]

I would stop the vodka dosing and observe for a couple of months. Nitrates and phosphates could be very close to zero looking at your numbers and knowing the precision with most of our test kits. I would also verify the amount of rox needed on the brs calculator.

 

[Hal3134]

Posted this in another thread on Mar 31. The “1 week ago” corresponds to Mar 21.

full history
Apr 9. Ca=460, Alk=8.0, mag=1500, NO3=0.02, PO4=0.03, sal=37ppt (drained 1 g water and replaced with RO after this)
Mar 29 Ca=435, Alk=8.15, mag=1500, NO3=0.2, PO4=0.03, sal=35 ppt
1 week ago. NO3=0.5, PO4=0.03 (did 15% waterchange after this), Ca=465, Alk=8.0, mag=1500
2 weeks ago, NO3=1.0, PO4=0.03. Ca=460, Alk=8.45, mag=1470, sal=36 ppt. Removed GFO from 7 weeks ago and added carbon in a reactor.
3 weeks about, NO3=25, PO4=0.03, Ca=455, Alk=8.9, mag=1440, sal=33 ppt (Did 15% waterchange after this)
4 weeks ago, NO3=25-50, PO4=0.1
5 weeks ago, same readings as 4 weeks ago
6 weeks ago, NO3=50, PO4=0.25
7 weeks ago, started using GFO in a reactor at half recommendEd dose
8 weeks ago, NO3=50-100, PO4=1.0
9 weeks ago, started vodka dosing
10 weeks ago, NO3=50-100, PO4=1.0

note that my monti was added about Mar 29 timeframe.

RoX is 1/2 recommended dosage per BRS calculator. My reactor can’t fit the 4 recommended cups.

The only pests are a few keyhole limpets which are nowhere near the monti, and travel slowly enough that I grab and remove them when they get near.

 

[Hal3134]

I cut the white channel of my lights to 50% and the blue to 75% yesterday And skipped my daily vodka dose. This morning, still more tissue and polyp loss. Any ideas?

 

[dwest]

I cut the white channel of my lights to 50% and the blue to 75% yesterday And skipped my daily vodka dose. This morning, still more tissue and polyp loss. Any ideas?

Unfortunately with corals, the changes you make now often won’t be realized for weeks. Looking at your history, I believe you are doing the right thing.

 

[Backreefing]

Bump , updates?