Help! Digitata falling apart!

[msuengin]

Does any have suggestions on how to save this digitata frag of mine? I noticed his polyps just started to fall off the skeleton on Saturday. Is he getting bleached or is this something else that's causing it? It was in my tank for about a week before I moved him a little higher although he seemed fine until a couple days after I started running carbon.

Here are my recent parameters and changes I've made to the tank. I'm stirring up a new 10gal water change for today that I'll do shortly. I know my nitrates are high, but I've been doing a 5gal water change every week for the past month and been trying to feed much less and only every 2-3 days.

The tanks is a 58gal with 22gal sump. It's been running about 2.5 months. I do not have a skimmer on the tank yet, but I've had two big handfuls of cheato and caulerpa in my fuge. I only have two firefish, quite a few frags of zoos, two cap frags, two trumpet frags, and some anthelia, and two small frags of montipora digitata. Everything looks really healthy except this frag...

6/27
PH= 8.1-8.2
Alk= 8.0dKH
Nitrate ~ 10-15ppm

6/30
Added 1/3 cup of Kent Marine Reef Carbon in sump (first time for tank running carbon and I used less than the 1/2 cup recommended).

7/2
First noticed problems with the frag
Did a 5gal water change
Pulled out the carbon I was running
PH = 8.1-8.2
Alk = 9.3dKH (1hr after water change)
Nitrate ~10-15ppm
Phos = 0ppm

7/3
Just tested for Alk today
Alk = 8.6dKH

[Reef69]

..RTN maybe?

[msuengin]

..RTN maybe?

Hmm, good call. That might just be it. I didn't see it ealier but looked up RTN and SDR (Shut-down reaction) in my book and it looks like that could be what's happening...

I did recently epoxy two other pieces of digitata montipora so maybe they released something in the water when I moved them and that stressed it out enough... I did that the same day I started carbon...

I'll try fragging off the really bad piece and maybe throwing the rest of it in quarantine for a week or so. Thanks guys!

[Reef69]

well, dont feel bad, i bought a really nice acro 2 days ago and it came down with SDR..the tissue just falls off like if it was shedding skin..im very ****ed off but...thats the way the game goes, you win some you lose some..

[Tim Marvin]

It's not RTN, because it started 7 days ago. RTN would have taken it in a day or two at most. Something else is going on. Do you have good water flow? What is making current? Lighting? Alk was a little low, but that probably wasn't the problem... Nitrates should be zero or at least undetectable. Try some plants in the tank or a refugium.

[NaCl_H2O]

I would bet on Nitrates being your problem, then again, Digi's just like to do poorly now & then for no apparent reason I can tell! I suspect my Black Clown Gobie sleeping in my Digi's doesn't help :angry

Agree with above, RTN would have resulted in a perfect white stalk by now!

Are you using RO/DI water? If so, have you checked the TDS lately. With Macro in your fuge, your Nitrates SHOULD be lower? Something is keeping them up, or you are pouring them in?

[Reef69]

yeah , sorry, RTN would have taken it overnight..if not quicker..

[Richard]

Got any ticked off Sarcophytums(toadstool/mushroom leathers) in the tank? Monti's don't like that too much.

[msuengin]

Hey Tim,
Well it didn't start 7 days ago, the 6/23 pic was just the last time I had taken a picture of it while it was still healthy. I actually didn't notice it happening until this Sat and by today the one side is almost completely white. I am trying to slowly bring up alk to 10-11 by adding buffer but I don't want to do it too fast. I'm pushing about 13x for water flow. I have a split lockline from my sump return running on a Mag 7 and then a MaxiJet 1200 in the tank. Lighting is four T5's, 2-6500K, 2-Actincs.

Hey Steve,
Yeah, I'm using RO/DI. TDS got as high as 6-8 but back to 0-1 now. Nitrates have consistantly been around 10 though. That might have caused the stress, but it seems weird that it was fine for a few weeks and then deteriorated so rapidly. I guess I need some more cheato in the sump... ;)

[msuengin]

Got any ticked off Sarcophytums(toadstool/mushroom leathers) in the tank? Monti's don't like that too much.

Nope, everything I mentioned in the original thread are all the frags I have. I do remember the orange digitata montipora releasing some slime after I moved him in the tank and epoxied him to his new home. (I used gloves, but had to grab him pretty firmly and hold him for awhile so that he'd stick) Maybe whatever he released was enough to stress out this coral...?

I'm thinking it was that, the fact that I started running carbon, or has anyone seen anything funny in their tank after using underwater curing epoxies? This is the one I used: http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TL1611

[brewercm]

I've used that epoxy for a long time without any problems.