Montipora Orange Cap -- Stressed? Dying?

[Jake]

Background: I have been raising my Alk and CA through the use of the 2 part recipe 1 solution. I brought up my alk from 5.8 to 8.5 and CA from 375 to 400 over 3 days. I added the solution slowly but in hindsight I did see a white cloud over the orange cap area during one of the additions. I have since gone to adding into the sump return area to better dissipate.

Issue: My orange cap (2 large colonies about 1 ft long each) are turning white from the center core and going out towards the ends, white extending more each day. Guessing it is stressed and dying? (Curr parameters: CA 400, Alk 8.5, pH 8.0, 1.025, 82 degrees).

Can this recover? Break off the white sections? Break off a good orange section before it spreads to it? Leave alone? Just not sure how this works. If the white is dying will it pollute the tank?

 

[twoclowns]

I would leave it alone sounds like you stressed it and its bleaching. In my experience they don't like salinity change very much and with your elevated temp 82F I think they stress easier. Your chemical addition near them is probably what caused the bleaching, you don't want to stress it any more then it is so I would leave it alone and maybe try to get your temp down a little, lower o2 level to higher o2 levels. How large is you tank? Hope this helps good luck -keith

 

[Jake]

Tank is 75 gal and additional detail in signature. So if it is bleaching... is it dead? or does it come back sometimes? Does this polute the water and other corals die?

 

[twoclowns]

I have had montipora bleach and come back but the color wasn't the same as the original color. Can you see the polyps still?

 

[Rick wieger]

I have a SPS dominated tank and to raise the alk from 5.8 to 8.5 in that short amount of time is to fast and the monti is more then likely bleached if the white starts to have any algae growth then it is gone and you mite wont to removve it . I have had good luck with leaving it and the coral s new growth covering it in time .

 

[cbrownfish]

Raising your Alkalinity by 1 dKH a day is within an acceptable range and is not likely to cause this situation. However, if you are dosing a significant amount at one time and spiking the pH to high, that could cause stress in fish or corals.

I wouldn't freak out at this point but keep a close eye on it. This sounds like STN (slow tissue necrosis) but it is difficult to say what caused it. Water changes are always a safe and sensible recourse. Are you certain that the bleaching is uniform? Are there any white patches in other areas on the coral? Montipora Eating Nudibranchs are always a possibility if you have added any new plating montipora lately.

 

[Jake]

Well I did a water change yesterday. At this point, I have lost at least 1/3 of each colony and it looks like it is still slowly advancing. I will try to post a picture tomorrow. Some of the white has like brownish stuff on it that the fish are picking off. rrrrrrr.... Hopefully I will not loose too much more. I have stopped adding two part solution until it settles down. Thanks for the advise.

 

[seafansar]

Frag off some pieces, cause there's a good chance it will all die. I had a cap do this and lost all but the pieces I fragged, some of them died too. I dunno if it was brown jelly or what, but it started happening out of no where. I also dipped it in iodine and that seemed to slow down the disease.

 

[Jake]

Well I can't watch it die anymore. I am cutting each in half back to an area that is not bleaching...... hope most of it makes it.... this has been a easy coral for me to grow in the past. Just place it on a rock and off it goes....

 

[Jake]

The deed is done.... wow there is some white rock under there. I was able to pull off the whole top section on one colony but the other one broke up into much smaller pieces. Threw out about a few pounds of bleached coral. There still are some white bleached sections that are fused to some of the rock. How long until these are no longer a danger to the good pieces?

 

[seafansar]

I think as long as the dead coral looks clean white and has no brown stuff (bacteria I think) then it should be fine to put the live coral near it again. From what I've seen, as long as it's finished dying it won't spread anymore.

 

[Jake]

Update: Interesting to note that any piece that was connected to the section that was dieing, it kept spreading until it consumed it all. Any of the good looking pieces that I broke off and moved, all lived fine. Thanks everyone for the replies.

 

[PureDezigner]

Same thing is happening to my cap, I think I will just cut it off tomorrow.