Help with my monti?

adhoc

adhoc

Member
My montipora has recently started to turn white at its edge and looks to be disintegrating slowly (the damage shown in the picture is 3 days worth). It's not bleaching. When I first saw it, I thought a crab had knocked it into a piece of LR or something, it looks like it's been physically grinded. Where it turns white the coral seems to fall away in tiny pieces. I can't think of a thing that has changed in my tank in the past week, other than a partial waterchange on Monday.
Any ideas on what it's doing, why, and how can I stop it?
The frag is located directly under a 96W PC 10,000K and a 96W PC True Actinic. There is additional PC lighting on the tank but I don't think it reaches this coral.
Here are the tank conditions as of the time of the photo:
Temp: 80
Specific Gravity: between 1.023 & 1.024
Ca: 520 mg/L
KH: 110 mg/L
Nitrates: 5 mg/L
Nitrites: <0.1 mg/L
Ammonia: 0
pH: I have a hard time color-matching the chart, definitely 7.5-8.5, I think it's closest to 8.0
I buffer with Bionic 2-part calcium buffer. I also have another monti, a colt, leather toadstool, pagoda, and frogspawn in the tank that seem to be thriving. I have had a small bag of carbon in the sump for about a week now.
Thanks for any ideas. I love this piece, don't want to see it damaged!
 
S

spsaddict

Guest
first iff all sps njeed more than pc lighting , vho or mh are needed. upgrade your lighting if you wish to keep sps
 
reefer44

reefer44

Member
yea that lighting is not strong enough......inless you add alot(i mean like 200 more watts) more pc bulbs over it, it won't be healthy......i would add a VHO bulb or too, or get rid of the coral
 
adhoc

adhoc

Member
Is the lighting levels the cause of the damage to the coral? I only ask because I have another monti in the tank, same elevation, not exhibiting any problems, and have had an acropora and monti in a previous setup that survived well.
 
birdy

birdy

Active Member
I agree that most sps need MH to thrive, I have seen monti do okay under PC, but you are even low in the PC dept. But I am not sure that lighting is what is causing your problem. I would think STN (slow tissue necrosis) not sure what causes it exactly but you probably need to take a pair of wire cutters and trim along the coral until all the infected parts are cut away and the good coral is left. Now I hope someone who has a bit more experience with sps (I have only been into them for a few months now) will speak up but that is what it looks like to me.
The other question I have is your Ca and KH levels is the 110meg/L suppose to be 11meq/L? If so I have heard some theorys of STN being caused by high KH and Ca, normal sea level is Ca 420 and KH 8-9. This is nothing I have seen myself only heard from other sps keepers. I myself keep my levels at 420 and 9DKH
 
dburr

dburr

Active Member
KH: 110 mg/L
This # is in question. 110 ppm CaCO3 maybe? that would be about 5.7 dKH or 2.0 meq/l. You need to back up and find out what scale you are using. If the #'s I just gave you are right, you are low on alk. That "could" be a problem. And it may make the skeleton brittle. How is your coraline growth?
Also, have you ever checked out the tank in the middle of the night? Just thinking a critter or something.
HTH
 
adhoc

adhoc

Member
Hmmmmm... good questions. I am using a Hagan KH test kit... and reading it now, yes it says:
"carbonate hardness in mg/L (ppm) as calcium carbonate (CaCO3)."
The booklet with the kit says 105-125 is "ideal range", so I never really thought twice about the levels.
I have coraline growing, but I don't have anything to compare it to so I don't know if it's growing slowly or not. It's not overtaking my tank, that's for sure.
What alkalinity should I be aiming for? How can I take those KH readings and translate them to alk? And any advice on how to get there? Also, suggestions for lowering the Ca? I don't know if the BIonic buffer raises it, lowers it, or "magically" aims for a neutral value... so I don't know if I should buffer more or less often.
Many thanks!
 
adhoc

adhoc

Member
Oh, I forgot -- re: lighting. I total about 260 W of PC lighting in the tank. This piece is directly below the two 96 W lights I mentioned in the first post, and maybe 5 inches off center from a 55W 10,000K. It's down 6 inches below the lights (highest point in my tank). I've been debating a conversion to MH, but until this week things looked ok and the monti in question was actually slowly growing. I'm hoping it's a water quality issue that I can correct...
Again, thanks for any thoughts.
 
adhoc

adhoc

Member
Wow, that's substantially different than the test kit. I wonder if the kit mistakenly suggested values for freshwater?
Do you think I should use some baking soda to raise the KH? I'm assuming I shouldn't use more BIonic until my Ca gets back in line.
For filtration, I don't have too much.
I have a sump that I am thinking about making a fuge, deciding between a cryptic or lighted (kinda went along with the conversion to MH... would I have spare lights lying around or not?). Right now it has some filter pad material upstream of the pump, bioballs and a bag of carbon in the downflow (sees 500 gph).
I have a CPR hob skimmer that's pulling a full collection cup roughly every 10 days.
My substrate is currently CC, I have some downsouth sand "curing" right now. That was going to be next weekend's project. I have about 40 lbs of LR in the tank, no longer remember the exact weight but it's in that ballpark.
 
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