New Montipora Dying - Pics Inside

[Allenh427]

Hi Reef2Reef,

I just put this Dragonfruit Montipora in 2 days ago and it's already dying, like rapidly losing flesh. You can see the gel remnants of flesh are still attached.
I have other preexisting montiporas that are doing okay.

Tank params:
Alk 8.6 dkh
Nitrates 6ppm
Phosphates 0.02 ppm
~150 PAR - if we think it's a lighting issue, I'll bust out my PAR meter and measure.

 

[Lavey29]

My monti coral like that is in 250 par. How old is your tank? Do you have abundant visible coralline growth?

 

[Pod_01]

From my experience Montipora can be very sensitive to low or sinking PO4:

Phosphates 0.02 ppm

That is very low value. I prefer to be in the 0.1-0.2 range.
I do get nervous any time my PO4 drops to 0.01-0.05 range.

You mentioned the other montiporas are doing ok, any pictures?
Also decline 2 days after introduction, that is quite fast… Perhaps it was in rough shape when you got it?

Here is picture of my Montipora for reference:

 

[Allenh427]

Technically this tank is only 2 months old but I transferred over a ton of rocks and corals from my old tank. I dose kalk and all4reef daily and my params are staying steady. I don't think it's an issue with it being a new tank otherwise my other corals would have issues but they are fine.

I'm wondering if it's light shock causing what appears to be RTN. I can move it up to 250 PAR if needed but I may actually go lower for now?

 

[Lavey29]

Technically this tank is only 2 months old but I transferred over a ton of rocks and corals from my old tank. I dose kalk and all4reef daily and my params are staying steady. I don't think it's an issue with it being a new tank otherwise my other corals would have issues but they are fine.

I'm wondering if it's light shock causing what appears to be RTN. I can move it up to 250 PAR if needed but I may actually go lower for now?

Even though you transferred over stuff from an existing tank, the environment has changed. While it's good most of your corals weathered the move over your new tank still has a maturing process. It will be a lot shorter then starting from scratch but your overall biome needs to grow and balance again. SPS may prove difficult for some months yet.

 

[Allenh427]

I'm pretty confident it's not from a "new" tank - since I have not lost any corals and this one is rapidly deteriorating in front of my eyes (such as RTN). This is something drastically wrong, such as light shock is my best guess at this point. This doesn't look like anything a pest would do - does it?
Also - my birdsnest's and coralline is starting to take off.

 

[Pod_01]

I'm pretty confident it's not from a "new" tank - since I have not lost any corals and this one is rapidly deteriorating in front of my eyes (such as RTN). This is something drastically wrong, such as light shock is my best guess at this point. This doesn't look like anything a pest would do - does it?
Also - my birdsnest's and coralline is starting to take off.

So out of curiosity, can you zoom in and take closer picture of the red Montipora?

From the picture the polyps look retracted and the colour looks bit dull.

Here is my red Montipora for reference and zoomed in:

Number of years back I had one of those eye opening experiences, my coralline grew great but my SPS starved slowly due to low PO4 levels.

Some did ok but some just died:

Some people can make low nutrients especially PO4 work but I never had success with it.
These days my coralline doesn’t grow so well but at least SPS are doing better.

I suspect the new piece is just bad luck, sometimes new frags do pack it in.

Good luck,

 

[Allenh427]

The color is slightly dull since moving tanks but it's been coming back. This coral has never had polyps actually - even at the store they have tons of this and it hasn't had polyps. I just goolged red montipora and non of them have polyps either. Are they supposed to?


I thought .02 phosphates were like gold standard of phosphate levels, however not even tank works the same. I can definitely bump my phosphates up - not that it will save my problem montipora but I could see good gains over time.

 

[Lavey29]

I'm pretty confident it's not from a "new" tank - since I have not lost any corals and this one is rapidly deteriorating in front of my eyes (such as RTN). This is something drastically wrong, such as light shock is my best guess at this point. This doesn't look like anything a pest would do - does it?
Also - my birdsnest's and coralline is starting to take off.

Could just be one of those that just didn't transfer well between the vendor and your tank then. Happens occasionally especially if shipped in hot summer months.

 

[Lavey29]

The color is slightly dull since moving tanks but it's been coming back. This coral has never had polyps actually - even at the store they have tons of this and it hasn't had polyps. I just goolged red montipora and non of them have polyps either. Are they supposed to?


I thought .02 phosphates were like gold standard of phosphate levels, however not even tank works the same. I can definitely bump my phosphates up - not that it will save my problem montipora but I could see good gains over time.

Given the error range of test kits, .02 may actually be 0. My phosphate is .2 to .4 and my SPS thrive along with dozens of other corals too.

 

[Allenh427]

Could just be one of those that just didn't transfer well between the vendor and your tank then. Happens occasionally especially if shipped in hot summer months.

I appreciate the help so far - if nothing is glaringly obviously like a nudibranch eating it or anything.

Regardless I'll hold off on adding new corals for another couple months until things start to dial in.

 

[Lavey29]

I appreciate the help so far - if nothing is glaringly obviously like a nudibranch eating it or anything.

Regardless I'll hold off on adding new corals for another couple months until things start to dial in.

I know my CB nips my cyphastrea frags so also maybe watch your fish just in case.

 

[Pod_01]

I just goolged red montipora and non of them have polyps either. Are they supposed to?

As far as I know all montiporas have polyps including the red ones.

What I have has the white almost see through polyps.

There are ones with red polyps:

Also ones that have yellow polyps:

I suspect there are other morphs.

Hope that helps.

 

[Screwloose]

could be starving with that phos, and alk is high for such low phos can also cause issues, maybe 7-8 is better with l;ow nutrients.

maybe do an icp test to see if anything major is out of whack ?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Personally I would just move it into higher lighting position before changing any parameters. All my monti's are under bright MH lights and grow like weeds. Monti's might possibly survive at 150 par but not thrive IMO

 

[djf91]

Personally I would just move it into higher lighting position before changing any parameters. All my monti's are under bright MH lights and grow like weeds. Monti's might possibly survive at 150 par but not thrive IMO

Same with mine. Under metal halides and I keep lower nutrients but also feed heavy and dose trace elements. I think in these lower light displays, higher phosphate could be important.

 

[djf91]

The color is slightly dull since moving tanks but it's been coming back. This coral has never had polyps actually - even at the store they have tons of this and it hasn't had polyps. I just goolged red montipora and non of them have polyps either. Are they supposed to?


I thought .02 phosphates were like gold standard of phosphate levels, however not even tank works the same. I can definitely bump my phosphates up - not that it will save my problem montipora but I could see good gains over time.

You can see the green polyps in your picture.

 

[threebuoys]

Hi Reef2Reef,

I just put this Dragonfruit Montipora in 2 days ago and it's already dying, like rapidly losing flesh. You can see the gel remnants of flesh are still attached.
I have other preexisting montiporas that are doing okay.

Tank params:
Alk 8.6 dkh
Nitrates 6ppm
Phosphates 0.02 ppm
~150 PAR - if we think it's a lighting issue, I'll bust out my PAR meter and measure.

This looks like Brown Jelly Disease to me. (the translucent brown along the edge of the surviving part of the frag). BJD killed my 1-year-old 6-inch diameter green monti plate completely in 2 days. When it starts, it seems impossible to stop. However, I was lucky, the BJD did not move to a different coral afterwards. No idea where it came from originally.

Incorrect lighting, food, etc should not kill a monti frag in two days. Hope it survives.

 

[VDC]

Not a lighting issue

 

[Allenh427]

The coral was completely gone within about 3 hours after me making the original post. Hopefully it doesn't spread.