Problem with sunset Monti?

[BriDroid]

My sunset monti started to lose polyps and turn dark around and peel up one of the edges that has been growing pretty good.

It's a small frag that has been doing really good, I've experienced a lot of growth and new polyps around the outer edge and it was starting to spread.

Other SPS are doing great, I have some forest fire digi that is looking good and some goldenrod anacropora that is looking OK as well.

Any ideas what this could be and why it started showing up Wednesday out of the blue? In the pic from the 30th, I can see some dark colors where this seems to have progressed. Maybe that was a sign of things to come?

My parameters are pretty stable except for PO4, I'm adding NeoPhos every other day to keep it up:
Salinity 1.026
NO3 around 5ppm
PO4 less than 0.02
Ca 430
Mg 1350
dKH 9.0
pH around 7.8-8.0

Pic from today:

Pic from 9/30:

Pic from 9/26:

 

[Dburr1014]

PO4 less than 0.02 is a strong indicator.

How long like that? Not really out of the blue.
Do you happen to know par?
IME, those are really slow growers.
You didn't say how long it has been in your possession.

 

[BriDroid]

PO4 less than 0.02 is a strong indicator.

How long like that?

Forever. That is how I've been keeping it. Does it need to be higher? I tried to keep less than 0.1, but it seems to have settled in on around 0.02 to 0. I have to add NeoPhos to get it back to 0.02 and within 2 days it is back at 0. It's still a new system.

 

[Dburr1014]

Forever. That is how I've been keeping it. Does it need to be higher? I tried to keep less than 0.1, but it seems to have settled in on around 0.02 to 0. I have to add NeoPhos to get it back to 0.02 and within 2 days it is back at 0. It's still a new system.

I updated my 1st reply if you care to take a look.

 

[BriDroid]

I updated my 1st reply if you care to take a look.

I've only had it since 9/11. It added a ton of green polyps around the outside edge since then and has been doing really good. Then on Wednesday I noticed that a lot of the polyps were small and almost looked like they were gone (just shrunken). Today is when I noticed the dark edge that appears to be pulling up. I don't think there are any pests in the tank, just a ton of copepods. No fish, just some tiny blue legged hermits that have spent a lot of time picking around the edge of that Monti the last few days. Maybe they have caused it with their picking????

It's sitting in about 250-275 PAR. The same place that it has been.

 

[Dburr1014]

I've only had it since 9/11. It added a ton of green polyps around the outside edge since then and has been doing really good. Then on Wednesday I noticed that a lot of the polyps were small and almost looked like they were gone (just shrunken). Today is when I noticed the dark edge that appears to be pulling up. I don't think there are any pests in the tank, just a ton of copepods. No fish, just some tiny blue legged hermits that have spent a lot of time picking around the edge of that Monti the last few days. Maybe they have caused it with their picking????

It's sitting in about 250-275 PAR. The same place that it has been.

Crabs are just that, cuc. They are doing cleanup because it's dying. Free meal for them.

I have mine in the same PAR.

I really think it's the po4 this time and possibly no3, Er, well technically, the lack of ammonium.

No fish, no food. That's my camp.

Randy Holmes-Farley has an article on dosing ammonium. You should maybe read that and decide if it's for you.

Thread 'DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/

 

[BriDroid]

Crabs are just that, cuc. They are doing cleanup because it's dying. Free meal for them.

I have mine in the same PAR.

I really think it's the po4 this time and possibly no3, Er, well technically, the lack of ammonium.

No fish, no food. That's my camp.

Randy Holmes-Farley has an article on dosing ammonium. You should maybe read that and decide if it's for you.

Thread 'DIY Ammonia dosing for low nitrate systems' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-ammonia-dosing-for-low-nitrate-systems.987087/

Yeah, I really need to add some fish. I'm getting tired of testing and adding PO4 and NO3 every day/every other day.

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

 

[doca]

in my experience, sunset monti its a very sensitive coral that can go from sky to the floor in a few days with no reason

I have mine since 2010, growing and thriving for months, nice polyps extention, beautiful colors, expanding over the rocks, and suddenly every time to time, its turning dark, loose 90% of tissue and after a few weeks, began to rise again from the ashes.

you can take this advice or not, but if you got another SPS in your tank, and they are pretty fine, its useless to lose your mind looking for an answer for your sunset issue, and even worst, try to do someting that changes the stability of your Other Corals and puts it in risk….as hobbiyist we must no forget that Corals are living organism, and like people, there are stronger and weaker individuals, its imposible to have the 100% of our Corals thriving in one tank for long period, and stability its crucial for them, dont compromise it for a “no reason lack of one coral”

 

[BriDroid]

in my experience, sunset monti its a very sensitive coral that can go from sky to the floor in a few days with no reason

I have mine since 2010, growing and thriving for months, nice polyps extention, beautiful colors, expanding over the rocks, and suddenly every time to time, its turning dark, loose 90% of tissue and after a few weeks, began to rise again from the ashes.

you can take this advice or not, but if you got another SPS in your tank, and they are pretty fine, its useless to lose your mind looking for an answer for your sunset issue, and even worst, try to do someting that changes the stability of your Other Corals and puts it in risk….as hobbiyist we must no forget that Corals are living organism, and like people, there are stronger and weaker individuals, its imposible to have the 100% of our Corals thriving in one tank for long period, and stability its crucial for them, dont compromise it for a “no reason lack of one coral”

Thank you! That makes me feel much better. I have other SPS and they all do fine. My sunset Monti acts exactly like yours. It does fine, then looses some tissue and then comes back. It's so weird, but I guess "normal".