Before and after biopellet photos. How do I bring my montipora back to life?

whatcaneyedo · #1 03-22-2012, 12:11 AM

I checked my records from 2010 and 2011. The first time I tried the pellets in 2011 my KH was at about 11dkh and the second time in early 2011 it was 8-9dkh. However I usually keep it up at about 10dkh as it helps to keep the systems pH a little bit higher. ~8.1 in the summer and ~7.9 in the winter.

I haven't tried potassium yet but I think I'll give it a shot. My other two Montipora colonies are still a bit light in colour but at least they continue to grow.

I have several fish with eating disorders so I need to ensure that they are well fed. My CBB will experiment by nipping at new coral if it doesn't get 3 feedings a day. The powder blue tang will consume soft corals if it doesn't have a constant supply of nori. And the snowflake moray gets a little too adventurous if it isn't sated three times a week.

Reefer Rob · #2 03-22-2012, 03:04 AM

I don't think it's still the bio-pellets. The orange monti you brought me is doing well. I don't really want to say Nudis, but could it be possible?

If your colony doesn't perk up in 6 months you could break a piece off mine.

Bblinks · #3 03-22-2012, 04:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I checked my records from 2010 and 2011. The first time I tried the pellets in 2011 my KH was at about 11dkh and the second time in early 2011 it was 8-9dkh. However I usually keep it up at about 10dkh as it helps to keep the systems pH a little bit higher. ~8.1 in the summer and ~7.9 in the winter.

I haven't tried potassium yet but I think I'll give it a shot. My other two Montipora colonies are still a bit light in colour but at least they continue to grow.

I have several fish with eating disorders so I need to ensure that they are well fed. My CBB will experiment by nipping at new coral if it doesn't get 3 feedings a day. The powder blue tang will consume soft corals if it doesn't have a constant supply of nori. And the snowflake moray gets a little too adventurous if it isn't sated three times a week.

Hmmmm intersting, so are you still running pellets or not? If you are why don't you try to lower the alk to 7-8 and leave it for a bit and see what happens. Potassium level and iodine both can be measured, as much as we like it is only speculation if we don't test. With amount of fish and your feeding schedule I don't think you have any issue of producing nitrate and phosphate but I am still convinced it has some thing to do with mass nutrience reduction and elevated alk level.

freezetyle · #4 03-22-2012, 04:17 AM

what kind of reactor are you running the pellets in?

aside from lowering your alk like Bblinks suggested, you could lessen the amount of pellets in your reactor. I think i remember reading your tank journal a while back and you liked to tinker/DIY things. you could always repurpose an old calcium reactor or mod a tlf reactor to function like a recirculating biopellet reactor

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2140954

whatcaneyedo · #5 03-22-2012, 04:31 AM

I stopped using the pellets last March (2011) when things started to decline. It took several months for my sinularia and sarcophyton to recover but these montipora continued to worsen to the point that they are now.

I haven't seen any nudibranches. My other two montipora colonies while faded, continue to grow and have not recessed. They received slightly less intense light which I attribute to their survival.

Coleus · #6 03-22-2012, 04:37 AM

i experienced that when alk is high the montipora does bleach fast. However, only the purple but not the red and green

Madreefer · #7 03-22-2012, 10:04 PM

I did a tank reno about a month ago and gave some red monti away and threw alot out. It's doing pretty good in my tank and growing well and if you want you can have a chunk. Let me know

1eyedjyde · #8 03-24-2012, 06:50 AM

If you do another reno and are just tossing out some of that monti just let me know and i'd be glad to take some of your hands.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madreefer

I did a tank reno about a month ago and gave some red monti away and threw alot out. It's doing pretty good in my tank and growing well and if you want you can have a chunk. Let me know

whatcaneyedo · #9 05-09-2012, 12:59 AM

Heres a little update. Things have improved more in the last month than they did in the year preceding it. I'm getting noticeable growth in my green and orange montiporas again. The green with purple rim has improved in colour (more vibrant) as has the purple polyp montipora (not pictured because I'm lazy).

What I did: I lowered my alkalinity to 9 dkh from 10, I set my temperature to a steady 78F and I began dosing 1-2 drops of Lugol's Solution each day. I used to use the seasonal temperature variation function on my neptune controller which allowed the tank to peak at 82F in the summer and drop to 76F in the winter. Although it wouldn't fluctuate by more than 1 degree F in a day I suspect that the winter low was adversely effecting my corals recovery. With regards to Lugol's, I used to use this product for several years but stopped about 2 years ago after reading some of Randy's articles. I'm not sure if my tank was necessarily deficient in potassium or iodide but dosing it does seem to be helping. Or maybe its just coincidence, I don't know.

This is one of the small frags that I salvaged. I believe it was one of the ones pictured on page 1.

In this older picture you could see how pale the green with purple rim montipora was versus how it looks now.