Bleaching Monti

[Alittlefishy]

I have 2 monti caps. I picked up a green one a week ago, and I got a purple/red yesterday. Both are starting to bleach out. The green is about 10% bleached and the purple is starting to bleach on the edge. The kicker is that they are under PC lighting. To be specific they are about 6-7 inches under 1-96W 50/50, 1-32W 6700/10K, and 1-32W Dual Actinic. This is on an AP24. I've got a lot of LPS and a couple of polyp corals. I didn't think that I would be bleaching anything. What do ya'll think. Are there anyother reasons that monti would bleach?

[ScruffyRubicon]

What are your water parameters? Phosphates, Salinity, pH, Nitrates, Nitrates, Ammonia, etc.? How old are the bulbs? While PC will do OK for monti's, to some extent, they are a bit on the week side.

[hng]

I would be most interested in what your alk level is at. It is a bit unusual to have a monti bleach on the edges and not over the entire coral. Montis grow from their edge and the growth tips are typically a lighter color or even white, could that be what you are seeing?

[ScruffyRubicon]

Pics would be very helpful here as well.

[Alittlefishy]

I don't have a Calc or Alk kit yet, but I will get them tested today or tomorrow.
Currently I have
1.025 sal with a IO Hydrometer that has been confirmed by refractometer.

Red Sea Kits
0 No2
0 No3...due to my new skimmer!
0 NH4

Sera Test Kit
Between 8.0-8.5 pH

In the meantime, here a a pair of pics.
Green Monti


Red Monti-I'm looking at the right side of the coral...the left side is where I broke it. You can see the lighter areas of growth, but then there are the much lighter spots.

[hng]

OK, the pics help a bit. It definitely looks like tissue recession with bare skeleton seen on the red monti instead of bleaching from too much light. At this point, it could be a few different things. First, they are both small frags, and frags can have a tough time recovering from the fragging and being introduced into a brand new system. More likely, though, is a water problem. If the tank is relatively new, it may still have some problems with tiny ammonia spikes which can kill an sps like montipora. Also, if your alk or calcium levels are off, a stony coral like a monti will also start to decline. If you have good coralline algae grwoth in the tank then that's a pretty fair indicator that your calcium and alk are adequate.

[Alittlefishy]

I guess you could say that it is new...It finished cycling at the end of Jan. I just got over a major case of hair algae and cyano. The tank has been doing well though. My other corals are doing great. This is my first foray into SPS. Is there anything that I should be doing. I'm skimming wet, running carbon and GFO, weekly 8gal water changes, and regular vacuuming of the d*** sandbed. Any suggestions?

[cronamator]

that coral looks stung not bleached.

[Alittlefishy]

I'm not sure what would've stung it...Both are far from any sweeping corals. The "bleaching" has not progressed any further that I can see. Hopefully the green one will come back, and the red one won't get any worse. I guess we'll see.

[hng]

Sometimes sps will not do well in a "new" tank and sometimes it will, so that may be the cause of the tissue death. A recent algae problem indicates a phosphate problem which could also cause tissue death and inhibit calcification.

[Alittlefishy]

I know that I'm still leaching some amount of phos, because certain rocks and parts of the sand still have some cyano. Overall, it is getting better. The Caps do not look any worse...maybe that is a good sign.

[aquawolf]

Hopefully things wioll straighten out on their own for you and the caps will fully recover. Best of luck with them.

[ScruffyRubicon]

Originally Posted by hng

Sometimes sps will not do well in a "new" tank and sometimes it will, so that may be the cause of the tissue death. A recent algae problem indicates a phosphate problem which could also cause tissue death and inhibit calcification.

I agree with that! I have had tons of montis and many do less than great after first being introduced.

[Alittlefishy]

The red one is doing pretty well, ,but the green one hasn't gotten any better. They will be moving to a new tank with better lighting pretty soon. I think they will both be fine.

[Loverotties]

I hope it gets better for you!