white haze developing over montipora

[rck329]

hey guys,

I have some new SPS frags I've added to my tank recently (about 3 weeks ago). All were doing well until about a week ago.

The Sunset Monti frag is completely retracted and it's got a milky white haze over it. It doesn't brush or blow off but I don't think it's bleaching because it seems to cover the polyp holes.

It's under a Radion G4 - same light my LFS has it under only less intensity (40%). It's only about 150 PAR where it's located.

This tank is a 40B that's been up for a couple months, but was started from live rock from my 3 year old 90g.
Ca - 430
Alk - 8-8.3 and steady
Mg - 1350
NO3 - 2-5 ppm (I do have to dose KNO3 occasionally to keep it there)
PO4 - 0.01-0.04 (per Hanna ULR)

25% water changes biweekly.

I feed once a day - couple pinches of Seaweed Extreme and a 1 cm block of Larry Reef Frenzy.

I put a sugar sized sandbed in this tank against my better judgement because I really like the look. I will be taking it out next week and going BB.
That's also a question - could the super fine particles that get stirred up a lot from fishes and me blowing off rocks be cause it problems?

There is a lot of cyano on the sanded currently. I try to keep it off the rocks and corals, but it's nearly impossible to vacuum without sucking up huge amounts of sand.
Can certain strains of cyano produce toxins for corals? Or maybe there is so much of it that it's just sucking all the nutrients out and making the corals unhappy?


Pics:
new:

week ago:

today: it doesn't show up well with all the blue, but towards the middle you can. It's white
almost a powdery look to it.

FTS: cyano is covering 50-60% of sandbed

 

[Mattrg02]

Mine did that and then died after while. Never could figure it out. My best guess was high alkalinity and low nutrients.

There could be something in the water too. Do you run any activated carbon at all? Might want to incase something is in there.

 

[rck329]

I'm running 3 tbsp of Rox.

I gave it a Revive dip yesterday in case it was some microbe... maybe I should try a Bayer dip too...

I can't imagine it's light/nutes/flow... I could see it not being totally happy, but it's really deteriorating...

 

[DSC reef]

I had the same issue with sunset montipora. My guess is it's sensitive to alk swings. It would grow for a while then haze over, then come back strong. After a few times we just let it be and forgot about it. Just recently we found it growing back again so I just enjoy it while it's there. It never completely dies, just keeps coming back over it's previous die off. The alk swing is purely speculation but I can't figure anything else out. Montipora grows like crazy in this tank.

 

[Mattrg02]

Keep us updated. This also happened to me with a Jedi mind trick.

Super frustrating.

Edit: Just saw that you have a lot of cyano? That could be part of it. Whatever is fueling the cyano may be stressing the coral.

 

[Scurvy]

I also have had this happen to my mystic sunset. Realized my Alk was up near 12. brought it back down to 8.5/9 over a few days and it cleared.

 

[Mattrg02]

I also have had this happen to my mystic sunset. Realized my Alk was up near 12. brought it back down to 8.5/9 over a few days and it cleared.

Almost forgot about my mystic sunset. Did this too. My alkalinity was up over 12 as well.

So, any ideas what, exactly, is this hazing?

 

[Scurvy]

Its a film developed to protect itself as i understand it. Think of an LPS oozing slime when out of water.... a reaction to protect itself.

 

[rck329]

I have a mystic sunset frag right next to it. Its seems slightly affected but not as bad as the orange.

I'm gonna try vacuuming out a bunch of cyano today just using the hose part of my vac. I'm am going to convert to BB but I'm waiting on a piece of starboard to come it.

The sandbed is new but the rock is old. It just seemed to start developing cyano right away. The sand was mostly dry with one bag of Arag-alive mixed in - which I've never been that big on. I just figured I'd try it on this set-up. I've tried to stir and mix and vacuum but it just comes right back.

No more sand for me. Too much maintenance and it's just another variable.

Just looked at it now - seems a little better this morning. Some minor PE... still white in the middle.

 

[Mattrg02]

You may want to skip the starboard. I've read a lot of people complain about junk getting stuck in between the board and the glass that is difficult to clean.

I went BB with just glass and haven't had any issues. My LFS also is all BB without any board and doesn't have any issues. I use a scraping tool, once a week, to scrape the film off the bottom.

I also have been dosing peroxide once a day, at night, and have seen my tank become a lot cleaner.

Matt

 

[DSC reef]

Typically starboard you'll want to silicone the edges so nothing gets between the spaces and underneath. I just have a glass barebottom and love it. After a little time the uglies went away and corals, zoas and coralline algae have taken it's place.

 

[rck329]

Just realized I never updated this... the little fella made a full recovery. I don't know why, but after going BB all the polyps came back and he starting grow. I did lose a nice Digita frag to seemingly the same issue.
I do have him in some direct flow for whatever that is worth. Never had a hard alk swing. Drifted up to 10 over time and I gradually brought it down, but it was recovering the whole time.