Im freakin out (Monti digi issue)

This is one of my first SPS frags. Got it from LFS Sep 2011. It had been growing, encrusting, and healthy.

But I just noticed that it has skeleton (?) showing at the bottom of the right branch. It looks like shady part is losing its flesh? PE is good only at the top.


Here are the params:
PO4=0
NO3=0
Cal=500
Alk=7
Mag=1200
Light: Mostly Cree LED. Placed about 22" from the light.

What do I do??

 

Really..? what do I do??

 

You're running pellets aren't you?

 

Yes, I am.. Are they related?

 

If this is true and your running Bio Pellets, you might not have enough nutrient in the water column. Montis tend to like a little bit more mucky water then most sps IMO and if its too clean, montis will be the first to go down hill. If running pellets I would be feeding my tank nightly with some form of phytoplankton/oyster eggs. I ran pellets for about a month and did notice my coral had lost a lot of color because I was not feeding the tank enough. :-/

 

I'm going to put a bunch of pics I took for an article I wrote for reefs.com.

It's what happened to some of my sps when running pellets.

It's my theory that the water becomes to clean if pellets aren't really needed and the corals begin to kill off the shaded areas because it wastes energy to keep alive what was fed by food in the water column.

I'm not saying or implying that pellets are bad in anyway. But folks need to know for sure that they need them.

 

There's more shots in the yaya album on my page.

I saw improvement within a few days and flesh began to regrow.

 

Thanks guys!!

So, I target feed them? Is it one of the solutions?
I have been looking into feeding them with the OysterFeast. The LFS started to carry the Reef Nutrition products!

 

I was broadcast feeding at the time. Trying to save some gorgs and zoo's that were withering.
I only saw improvement in my SPS after I pulled the plug on the pellets.

I only took them off line when pH began to crash. The condition of the SPS coral wasn't connected in my mind, to the pellets until a week after I'd pulled the reactor and the SPS began to improve/regrow dead tissue.