Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I recently swapped to a 150 gallon from my 75. Some of my montipora broke off. The other night I tried using some marine putty to mount it to a rock next to some other pieces of monti. Well one piece started to turn white. Now it's almost completely white. I noticed another piece of monti has a white patch on it. This didn't start to happen until I mounted it with the putty. It wasn't putty I bought from a fish store. It was putty from walmart that just said "marine putty". Could it be the putty that caused this or something else?

Putty can be tough on them, it tends to get hot when it's curing. Did it go white from the spot where the putty was? Is it under the same amount of light? (just have to rule out bleaching from the light too.)

Putty will do that. The best way to glue Monti I found was super glue gel on the BOTTOM side of the Monti.

There are several other monti pieces (that were already attached to a rock) next to the ones that are dying that are doing fine so I doubt it's the light. One is completely dead today and the other isn't looking much better. I'm pretty sure it was probably that dang putty! I've attached monti in the past with putty without a problem.

Kevin, which putty did you tell me to use in the past? I haven't bought any in some time.

I know this has come up in the past. Some of the putt out there isn't fish/coral safe. Just because it says "marine epoxy" doesn't mean it is safe for the tank. I think it just means it will work in saltwater.

that's probably where I went wrong...I bought "marine putty" from Walmart thinking it was the same thing.

Eek. That is a problem. Many epoxies have amine curing staging, thus releasing ammonia and other nitrogenous compounds (and still other organics). I would only use those that safely cure in aquarium settings. KrazyPlace is on the ball there, in that it is meant for outdoor marine situations and will cure in seawater.

well crap....that sucks!

To answer my own question (did a little search)

http://www.mbrk.com/viewtopic.php?t=594 ... highlight=

Some marine epoxy had copper in it too (kind of like bottom paint on ships so that stuff like barnacles wont grow on them). Oateys is what I always used although it doesn't work very well alone. I always tried to use it and then when I had a dried epoxy that had a perfect sized hole for what I was mounting just used super glue gel and put it back in the same hole I made with the epoxy.