More monti help please

[Rscott]

Can someone tell me what this red spot is on my monti cap

Also seen on my digi

Both are not doing well although the cap I was nursing back to health and it was coloring up again

Last two days it went from returning to color to browning again and nothing has changed in the tank

#reefsquad

 

[Pdash]

Hard to tell from the pictures, could you get another picture which is focused a bit better? However I'd venture to guess its cyano, probably growing on portions of the coral which have already died. Could you post more details about your system/parameters?

 

[Rscott]

Sure thing

The tank is Is only three months old. It is a Redsea reefer 116 gallon

2 mp40’s

Red Sea 600 skimmer

Vectra m1


Kessil a360x lights 9 hours a day 80%

Numbers are as above

Phosphate a bit high at .2 but recently did a water change

Nitrate 10

Ph is low I dunno why
7.78

Dosing kalkwasser 60ml per day

 

[Rscott]

The coral is on the back wall so the pics suck trying to look through whole tank depth

Last week they were coming back , the cap started to get green again

The digi was all
Purple like 48 hours ago then got real brown real fast after I did a water change
Not sure why

 

[Pdash]

Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, salinity? Maybe burnt tips from high alkalinity?

 

[Rscott]

The levels are in the first picture

I have never had alk over 8.4

 

[jeffchapok]

That tank is awfully young for trying to grow SPS.

 

[Rscott]

WWC puts SPS in tanks immediately following the cycle and the tank is stable

I think duplicating what WWC says is possible is has merit

But if you have a suggestion please feel free instead of criticism

 

[Pdash]

I doubt it's just the age of the tank, I'd say too high alkalinity or not enough nutrients just looking at the pictures, like maybe burnt tips. But according to your readings that isn't the case. What happend with the water change, were salinity and temp matched? I would double check the calibration of your refractometer. What salt mix are you using. The low ph is also curious considering you are using kalkwasser, is your probe calibrated, is your house packed with people/animals and sealed up, if not could be some weirdness. What's your typical ph range?

 

[Rscott]

I doubt it's just the age of the tank, I'd say too high alkalinity or not enough nutrients just looking at the pictures, like maybe burnt tips. But according to your readings that isn't the case. What happend with the water change, were salinity and temp matched? I would double check the calibration of your refractometer. What salt mix are you using. The low ph is also curious considering you are using kalkwasser, is your probe calibrated, is your house packed with people/animals and sealed up, if not could be some weirdness. What's your typical ph range?

Nutrients were to high if anything
Phosphates at .2 and nitrates at 25 which is why I did the water change

I have an auto water change that does 1.5 gallons a night from my tanks in the basement
I did a big 30 gallon change to get ahead of the nitrate because it was high when I installed the new auto water change system. Now the AWC should
Keep the nitrate down

I just built a fuge today also.

Water is matched very well, also I use a Hannah salinity checker I calibrate often as well a my Apex. My refractometers are garbage

I am not sure what is going on with pH it normally sits at 7.8. I recently started the kalkwasser but I think my dosing pump is not actually going off which is why I have not seen a move up in pH

I just got a kamoer x1 but I don’t think it’s working right

Also, I just found some bad news
I am
Wondering if this is my problem.
I dip everything in coral RX and in revive and still got this little judis in my tank

 

[Pdash]

Thats what I mean I'd say burnt tips, but like you said nutrients aren't low, so you're right that's not the problem. So you wanted to dose 60ml of kalk a day, but you aren't yet? Do you know how much alkalinity your tank consumes per day, I wouldn't dose if I didn't have a handle on this. If you aren't dosing a ph of 7.8 might be normal, if a bit low. Your ph doesn't fluctuate based on the day night cycle?
If those are monti eating nudis that is likely your problem with your cap, but I doubt they browned out your digi, especially if there is still some of the cap left to eat. Dipping isnt enough with nudis, you have to prevent their eggs from entering your system, even if you can get all the adults which can also be resistant to dipping. At this point keeping your tank fallow of montipora is probably the easiest solution.

 

[Rscott]

Thanks for the info, I just took both the cap and the digi out and redipped

So very interesting
It turned purple again or atleast it
Looks less brown? What the heck is going on?

So the nudi won’t eat the digi?

I also redipped the cap tonaee if it improves with the dip. If so I guess I know the answer

I found a few strange spots on the digi
I can’t recall if they were there or not before
The pH was always 7.8 but was trying to get it up
But like I said I think the dosing pump for the kalkwasser isn’t running like it should

 

[Backreefing]

Man that sucks bro . Remove all them as best as you can . MEN are a top tier pest . Maybe some wrasses would help you out to .

 

[Rscott]

I am hoping it is not the case
Hoping others will chime in

 

[JCOLE]

Are you using any type of Phosphate remover such as Phosguard?

 

[Backreefing]

Many peps try there best but fail. I think they can always be beaten. Lots of dipping and basting and some preditors. A 6 line wrasse ( bully ) and or a yellow cois wrasse , or others . If you find a hole in the montipora as a have fill and cover it with super glue. Maybe even replace there plugs .

 

[Backreefing]

Oddly I don’t think chemicals such as bayer will help . Because if you search this or other forums you will find lots of reports of all dips being ineffective . For me a magnifying lens and basting, toothbrushing worked the best . Good luck

 

[Rscott]

Are you using any type of Phosphate remover such as Phosguard?

Nopox on occasion

 

[Rscott]

I only have 3 monti frags in the whole tank

Tank I might just throw them out if this is that serious

I just watched a video from BRS
This happened to them in the BRS160 video series

 

[JCOLE]

Nopox on occasion

Have you used it recently? I ask because I used Phosguard for 3 days. While very effective, it sucked the color from most my corals including my Montiporas immediately within the first couple days. My red cap went from a deep bright red to a pale grey color. I stopped Phosguard and the color came back within a couple days.