I've seen this too many times :-(

IMO BP's should only be used if Nitrates and Phos are to high. The number 1 rule in BP use is slowwwwwwww. Start it slow...looks like that's what you did. I would start at 1/4 but 1/3 aint bad.

Something else is happening here...hmm odd.

Hey dude, I had the same thing happen to me a while back due to a spike in alk. I went from 7-8 dkh to 11dkh and right of way I lost 4-5 colonies. IME and also a few reliable sources, when running the pellets I try to keep my alk arund 7 ish, just like all the other probiotic system(zeovit, prodibio, etc) once your no3 and phosphate are getting close to zero with an elevated alk levels it is much easier to bleach your sps. Also I think if you have a good habbit of keeping your water prestine condition, not overfeed and over stock, I don't think you shouldn be runing pellets. I have quite a few fishes in the tank and I like to feed heavily so the pellets really keep things inline for me. I feel that if some thing is working for you there is no need to change any things.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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. :biggrin: