Montiporas bleaching/browning/dying

djmatteo · Mar 25, 2013

This problem started rearing its head at least a couple months ago. This problem started happening with ALL my montiporas digitata, I think 4 species effected:including digitata, spongode, danae and a plating type. The spongoede started bleaching at the base and slowly worked its way up, I fragged it quick and eventually that piece developed the same problem within 2 weeks or so. The ORA purple rim just browned out and died, the danae died off to about a 1/4" section but I believe is unrelated and more an issue with placement or lighting, and my digitata that are still hanging on are pictured below (dont mind my majano). They are brown and lack polyp extension. Both corals are in the exact same spot they have been for a year.

Tank info:
125 gallon + 55g sump
Flow:2 MP40s, half power
Filtration

rotein Skim, Algae Scrub, Phos reactor
Lighting Chinese LED on tank 6+ months, contain 4 violet/4 purple led all rest are blue/white
Dose:2 part, 1.1mil dosers x 60 min a day, I generally do not dose magnesium since my test usually puts mag where it should be in relation to my calcium
CUC:Scarlet, Sally Lightfoot, Blue hermits, left hand hermits, nerites, ceriths, nassarius, hitch hiker limphets.
Known Pests

yramid snails, majano
Recent additions Couple zoanthid, slimer and birds nest from a frag swap. All dipped as usual.
Feed:Flake daily, brine every other day, once in awhile i feed a home blend, other than particles that dont get ate I do not offer any food suppliment for my SPS.

Prior issues:
Around the 1 year mark (November-December) I developed a bloom of sorts, I called it algae but I believe it was a bacterial bloom. I did some things to try to fight it but I think it eventually just ran its course, I did water changes, cleaned my sump, skimmer and added a cleanup crew buff. Following the bloom going away, these corals looked fine (except the danae which i have been fighting with for awhile). All other SPS minus 1 bird nest which constantly was covered with strings seemed to do well. My LPS/Softies were all unaffected.

I did have issues awhile back with getting my alkalinity elevated pretty high, 13-15 but I was testing daily and noticed early and fixed it. This happened a couple times, but nowhere near the occurrence with these corals. My alk used to swing 1 full alk point daily, that issue was also resolved with a better timer. Now my alk via hanna checker (using ppm x 0.056 to calculate) runs 9.2-9.5 at any given time, its more stable than its ever been.

Air bubbles... I have them lots of them. My sump is in the basement and the water crashes hard, havent figured out how to fix that but I know some coral are irritated by bubbles, but with as long as this one has been in the tank I dont think its the issue, just want to lay it all out there.

Parims (generally)
ALK 9.2-9.5
Calcium 420 (dropped to 380 over a week which I thought was odd)
Mag 1300+ (and always where it should be vs my calcium)
PH 8.0
Nitrate-First detectable nitrate ever ~1 month ago, was at 10 ppm, now under 2 ppm
Salinity 1.025, calibrated meter 1 mo ago
Phos 0.02 at last test 1 mo ago

Thanks in advance, hope someone can help!

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djmatteo · Mar 25, 2013

Also note worthy, my corraline growth isnt that great.

PaulKreider · Mar 25, 2013

Are your LED's dimmable? Always the possibility of it being too bright, I know if I ran my Cree's at full blast I would kill everything in a day lol.

djmatteo · Mar 25, 2013

They are dimmable, I run blue at 100%, whites at roughly 75% and hang about 6" above the tank. Wouldnt polyps not extending indicate lack of light?

During my bacterial bloom I cut my lights down to 6 hours a day, and now have increased to a longer cycle. I did just move one frag of it down about 3-4 inches and put it in a little more direct flow to try to see whats going on.

While I wont discredit the idea, I think there is something else amis. These corals have been with me for ages, and in this example of my two surviving digitata one is mid tank and one is on the sand bed and both suffer from this problem in addition to the monti's that have already died which were at different locations in the tank as well.

One of my worries is that with a basement sump in a basement that isnt heated very much there may be some bacteria or molds which grow in the cold moist air which I probably help quite a bit by having a large sump with no lid.

RalphsReef · Mar 25, 2013

Check underneath your montis for monti eating nudibranches. On your second picture, I saw some white spots that look like they may have been caused by the little suckers. You will know them when you see them. They hide on the underside of the coral.

djmatteo · Mar 25, 2013

Ok this is going to sound like I am being a joker, but I really am not... how do i check under an encrusted coral? Would it just be on the rock or edges of the coral or underneath the entire rock?

Nevermind, did some googling about checking. Also read 6-line may be a predator and actually just ordered one today.

-IF- that is the issue, oh boy they dont sound fun... I will check and report back tomorrow if anyone has any other ideas please share!

djmatteo · Mar 25, 2013

I didnt see any Nudi's when I checked the orange encrusted monti.

I can add that around december I raised my salinity from 1.023 (was low due to miscalibrated refracto) to 1.025/26. I have been pretty good about keeping it where it belongs.

I thought about something else that may be amiss in my tank, may or may not be related. It seems my inverts are not molting as much as I would expect, I rarely see my cleaner shrimp molt stuck on my vortech anymore, and my sally lightfoot has had a dull grey appearance for a week+ which likely means he is ready to molt but hasnt. So, my first thought would be iodine i s low, but would this have any effect on SPS like I am seeing?

RalphsReef · Mar 25, 2013

If you are going to dose iodine, make sure you test for it. That is one powerful additive. A little goes a long ways.

djmatteo · Mar 26, 2013

After reading articles I decided to not dose it, and that it wouldnt help this specific situation at all.

My current course of action is lowering my salinity and alkalinity a bit. Hanna says 9 alk, api says 10, i have no reason to maintain it that high so i am going to lower it. Same with salinity, i was running it a bit lower before because my refracto was off, i am going to lower it just a bit and see if anything improves.