Seano's 29G Reef

Is it a certainty that alk is the culprit? do you have other monti? ..just spit ball'n here...but I run my alk much higher than that and my monti..purple, green, orange..just wont stop..I get some bleaching once in awhile when a shroom gets up on'em..my orange bleached when it grew over the coral putty, then squared away...that's just so weird..and so fast....hope you figure this one out.

 

I am not certain. I was running alk at 9.2 dKH...coral growth was great. But I checked the motni for MEN eggs on several cases...never saw any. If not alk burns, any other ideas?

 

its so hard to say...especially in nano land...from what I would think, things do happen faster in the smaller environment..I don't know this , just seems logical to me that they would...but, jmo, calcium seems kinda low as well as mag..but not all tanks are equal..so this is just comparing to my params... you said everything else is fine? what the heck?

 

IMO you didn't have enough to even worry about dosing. I don't understand the huge drop in Alk and Calcium.
A fully loaded SPS 75 with Coralline going bonkers and a 7" crocea doesn't use that much in two weeks.
I haven't read your entire thread but a cap and a small frag aren't using that even in a small system.

 

agreed..its a head scratcher....13 days..that is a very significant drop...but what I find most odd is everything dropped...very odd...It really sux when you have to travel while having issues with the tank...much empathy sean.

 

Yeah this is a tough one.

 

Looks like die off to me. I went away for 10 days in November, and during that time my skimmer and HOB filter (carbon and GFO) stopped working, as well as a drop in alk (down from 9 to 7.5). The only thing affected by that was my Pink Monti Cap. When I got home, all of it was dull brown. Within a week most of it was turning white or getting very light in color. Over the next 10 days or so, 60% of the flesh died off. Stayed dull brown until mid January. At that time started turning dull pink and started to see minimal PE (polyp extension) for the first time since before I went away. By mid February all of it was neon pink again with full PE. Over the last 5 weeks or so, I've had (I would guess) about 25% growth. Not sure if the alk drop or the non-functioning filter and skimmer was the culprit, but getting the tank stable again (alk has remained between 8.5 and 9 ever since) and then waiting a long time was what worked for me. Now I swear I see daily growth from it.

 

Thanks all, for the replies. I have various zoas, and some LPS in the tank too. The only other thing I have noticed wrong is my slimer acro had some white on its base, so I fragged it and reglued it over 1 week ago.

Birdsnests do not do well in my tank, nor do favias. But softies, acans and most LPS seem to do just fine. As did the monti until just recently.

My Hydor NanoSkim protein skimmer has been running great since I purchased it 6 months ago. I empty it about once per week. I have a filter sock on my overflow (once it goes into the sump), but I need to wash it in the washer.

The only recent die off was of one dwarf hermit crab, I noticed last week. NO3 and PO4 levels are undetectable with API and Red Sea tests. I have some algae growth on the glass/rocks, but nothing out of control.

 

I think I have about 29 frags. The monti is the biggest, by far.