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Digi skin browning

1799 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  andrew.jones50
I have a ORA Green Digi that the polyps are still out on some, and usually has a nice bright white skin with the fluorescent green polyps. The white has become brown, no algae on it I can see and the growth has become significantly slower. I have a ORA German Blue about 3" from it that grows like a weed and an ORA Birds of Paradise about 2" above and 2" over that grows crazy as well. I actually had a frag of this off the colony that turned brown and the polyps receded and never returned. Anyone ever see this before? Will post pics shortly.

SG: 1.025
CA: 450
Alk: 9
Nitrate: <10
PO4: 0
pH: 7.7 - 8.1
Mg: 1350

Any thoughts would be great!
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Only time I seen digi's go brown is when they dont get enough light like falling in a cave or something. I have had incredible Digi growth and I attribute that to high lighting. Move it to a spot where you have increased light and see if it improves. Also as a safe guard you can dip it in bayer advanced and make sure you dont have any nudis snacking on it. Investigate your dip and see if you have any white fluffy things in it.
My first guess would be pests too. A monti eating Nudi being the prime suspect. But that does not explain why the blue is doing fine.
I hadnt even thought of the pest potential, I'll definitely see if I can find anything. My Blue Digi is doing exceptional, but my Orange is slightly unhappy now too. But that happened after I did a tank transfer, so I have been attributing it to that.

is there anything reef safe you can treat an entire tank with? My concern would be if there is a nudi/pest in there and it's not on the coral the moment I dip it, I havent really accomplished anything.

Thanks for the thoughts, definitely going to research this.


Also when you say Bayer Advanced, are you refering to the Aspirin? lol
no, it is a pesticide available in most garden centers. It is a large bottle, I think it's around $8.00. I can get a pic of the bottle this evening if you want.
Bayer advanced total insect control. Works great.

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If you could shoot a link or pic that would be great! Thanks!
There are several wrasse options that could be helpful in the tank if you find nudis while doing your dip

Melanurus, yellow corris, six line and a bunch of others.

If you find something dipping the browned out coral I would dip all your other montis and then add a wrasse.
I was actually considering getting a six line anyway, may be something I move forward with, thanks much!
I would dip, if it's a pest with a specific diet you will kill the adults and then re dip. I used bayer advanced as I was getting into sps, I brought in a cheapie frag and when I dipped it appeared to have red bugs :-/ luckily I only had two other sps at that point, evey 5th day they all took a dip, I did that for a month. After the second dip I didn't see anything suspicious
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It's probably not pests.

What size is your system, how often are tou doing water changes and what are you supplementing with?
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