My First Monti Cap bleached overnight

[Jcon82]

Hi All,

I'm new and ordered a bunch of corals from @Tidal Gardens after having good luck with a duncan, acan, zoa and hammer for a few months. The tank is a 40B with a Tidal55 HOB and 2 AI Prime 16's running the Saxby profile.

PH 8.2, Cal 465, Mg 1450, Alk 9.6, temp 77f
I've tested Nitrate once and it showed 10ppm but I need to get better at reading the Salifert kit so it may be off.

My Phosphate kit just came in so I haven't tested yet.

I target feed the corals the night before a weekly 20% wc and then a few days after with a broadcast feed. I'm trying not to overfeed!

So I ordered two Monti caps, one encrusting monti, BoP, Slimer Acro, three chalices, two leptos and some favia. Everyone is doing fine other than the Acro that died within the first week, the green monti cap didn't survive being cracked in pieces after I manhandled it with epoxy on the rock.

But I have a red monti cap that was doing ok for the last three weeks until two nights ago I noticed it was bleaching at the base where it was attached to the rock. then the next day it was all white.

I lowered the light intensity by 15%. I thought this may have been it since the acclimation mode ended a few days prior.

Is there anything I should check before trying to grow them again? I'm debating adding chemi pure blue to bring nitrate and phosphate down (I'll test first) but see the other corals settling in nicely so I'm not sure.

 

[shakacuz]

how old is the tank? SPS tends to do better in more established tanks 6-8mo+. parameters seem fine but without knowing what the po4 is, we will have to assume the issue is elsewhere. bleaching can be caused with too much light as well.

 

[Jcon82]

how old is the tank? SPS tends to do better in more established tanks 6-8mo+. parameters seem fine but without knowing what the po4 is, we will have to assume the issue is elsewhere.

tank is about 5 months old

 

[shakacuz]

tank is about 5 months old

i would shy away from SPS for the time being for at least another two, three months to really hone in stability and your biodiversity. signs of coralline algae growth is a good indicator you may be ready for LPS/SPS(in this case, just SPS as your other corals are doing fine)

 

[Lavey29]

As you are discovering SPS corals are challenging especially in a tank less then a year old due to the lack of biodiversity in your reef ecosystem. Once you see coraline algae flourishing that is a good indicator that the tank is ready for SPS. I waited till about 10 or 11 months to try and out of over 20 SPS frags added to my tank only one loss so far due to shipping stress. Your numbers seem good and I'm sure you have checked your lights for par and flow needs too. Tank just needs time to ripen up for those corals in my opinion. People that start with real live ocean rock achieve this point sooner though also.

 

[Jcon82]

As you are discovering SPS corals are challenging especially in a tank less then a year old due to the lack of biodiversity in your reef ecosystem. Once you see coraline algae flourishing that is a good indicator that the tank is ready for SPS. I waited till about 10 or 11 months to try and out of over 20 SPS frags added to my tank only one loss so far due to shipping stress. Your numbers seem good and I'm sure you have checked your lights for par and flow needs too. Tank just needs time to ripen up for those corals in my opinion. People that start with real live ocean rock achieve this point sooner though also.

I've never checked with a par meter. I used the BRS guidelines for primes on a 40b and lowered the intensity a bit. My flow is pretty good though.

I'm starting to see coralline algae in a few spots but it grows very slowly.

 

[Sumo Reef]

Monti's are generally pretty hardy, so I wouldn't blame it on the tank age; it's most likely more about the lack of being in tune with the tank and your experience level.

Alk is a little on the higher side IMO. I would advise that you run secondary tests on each of those parameters listed with some other method or brand of tests. Check that they match and also check that they are stable.

 

[Jcon82]

i would shy away from SPS for the time being for at least another two, three months to really hone in stability and your biodiversity. signs of coralline algae growth is a good indicator you may be ready for LPS/SPS(in this case, just SPS as your other corals are doing fine)

Thanks, the Mystic sunset monti I got is looking good and starting to encrust over some exposed skeleton it came in with. My Leptos look great . I'm really hoping for that coraline to start taking over but so far is just in a few spots

 

[Tidal Gardens Verified Sponsor]

A lot can factor into why a coral does this. Has your alkalinity been stable? Try to keep it from ever swinging a half-point if possible. We keep our systems around 8.5 dkh. Light can also cause this. We always recommend starting corals off at the bottom of the tank and working them up to higher light. As others have mentioned, a newer system is harder to keep SPS corals alive and thriving than a more mature system. If you are just now starting to get coralline algae growing then I suggest waiting a few more months to get more SPS corals. Also, try to keep your Nitrates under 20 and Phosphate around the .02-.1 range.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

I would start with verifying nitrate and phosphate levels. None of that other stuff will matter if you have an unaddressed nutrient issue.

 

[Lavey29]

I've never checked with a par meter. I used the BRS guidelines for primes on a 40b and lowered the intensity a bit. My flow is pretty good though.

I'm starting to see coralline algae in a few spots but it grows very slowly.

I think you just need to stay the course then and focus on stability. See if the remaining frags do ok and slowly add more when your tank gets more mature and the coraline more abundant. I know right about the one year mark for me my tank evolved. Everything just seemed to become much more stable and predictable. I could visually tell if something was slightly off like rising phosphate just by looking at a couple corals. I could tell my tank was maturing and it made coral health easier to manage.

 

[Jcon82]

A lot can factor into why a coral does this. Has your alkalinity been stable? Try to keep it from ever swinging a half-point if possible. We keep our systems around 8.5 dkh. Light can also cause this. We always recommend starting corals off at the bottom of the tank and working them up to higher light. As others have mentioned, a newer system is harder to keep SPS corals alive and thriving than a more mature system. If you are just now starting to get coralline algae growing then I suggest waiting a few more months to get more SPS corals. Also, try to keep your Nitrates under 20 and Phosphate around the .02-.1 range.

I switched to IO Reef Crystals from standard IO a few weeks ago. So the Alk has been rising steadily with each WC. It was pretty low before I made the switch and was getting into the mid to low 7's between changes

 

[Jcon82]

I think you just need to stay the course then and focus on stability. See if the remaining frags do ok and slowly add more when your tank gets more mature and the coraline more abundant. I know right about the one year mark for me my tank evolved. Everything just seemed to become much more stable and predictable. I could visually tell if something was slightly off like rising phosphate just by looking at a couple corals. I could tell my tank was maturing and it made coral health easier to manage.

Stability is my goal! I got a years supply of reef crystals and wont be trying any other salts unless something goes terribly wrong.

I'm wondering I I should be running chemi pure blue. This is a low tech tank with no skimmer or nutrient export aside from the Hob and weekly water changes. I'm worried it may cause more issues though.

 

[Sumo Reef]

I switched to IO Reef Crystals from standard IO a few weeks ago. So the Alk has been rising steadily with each WC. It was pretty low before I made the switch and was getting into the mid to low 7's between changes

Stability is key to keeping corals! Stability in everything from maintenance, dosing, parameters, feeding, etc.

A change in salt in a newer tank, especially a smaller tank, is a big change in stability. I think the salt swap is your smoking gun. That would make alk, ph, calc, and mag swing.

Also, do you make new salt to the same salinity as the tank?

 

[Jcon82]

Stability is key to keeping corals! Stability in everything from maintenance, dosing, parameters, feeding, etc.

A change in salt in a newer tank, especially a smaller tank, is a big change in stability. I think the salt swap is your smoking gun. That would make alk, ph, calc, and mag swing.

Also, do you make new salt to the same salinity as the tank?

I mix the new water to 1.026. The last 3-4 times the old water had the same salinity but prior to that it would be slightly lower.

 

[gbru316]

If your nitrates are 10, and your phosphates are very low, your alk might be too high. Generally, the lower the nutrients, the lower the required alk. Otherwise, you run into alk burn.

I shoot for 0.02 ppm Po4 and <10 ppm No3. I keep my alk between 7.5 and 8. I found that going above 8.5 resulted in alk burn. Though, with everything in this hobby, ymmv.

 

[Jcon82]

If your nitrates are 10, and your phosphates are very low, your alk might be too high. Generally, the lower the nutrients, the lower the required alk. Otherwise, you run into alk burn.

I shoot for 0.02 ppm Po4 and <10 ppm No3. I keep my alk between 7.5 and 8. I found that going above 8.5 resulted in alk burn. Though, with everything in this hobby, ymmv.

hmmm, I've been following the redsea myrecipe site for parameter goals. I'm not chasing the numbers by any means but figured the suggested alk of 12 was what I wanted to work up to.

 

[gbru316]

hmmm, I've been following the redsea myrecipe site for parameter goals. I'm not chasing the numbers by any means but figured the suggested alk of 12 was what I wanted to work up to.

90% here keep their alk between 7 and 10

I've found there are 2 ways for me to easily nuke my SPS: 0 phosphate, or alk > 8.5

What's the recipe say for phosphate?

 

[Jcon82]

90% here keep their alk between 7 and 10

I've found there are 2 ways for me to easily nuke my SPS: 0 phosphate, or alk > 8.5

What's the recipe say for phosphate?

0.1ppm

 

[shakacuz]

0.1ppm

0.1, or 0.01? just to be sure