Can't get montiporas to open up

LC8Sumi · Jan 2, 2018

Hi!

This is my second tank with the same problem. It must be something wrong in the air.

Tank is a 1yo Reefer 250, 2xKessil A360We, 50% int, 100% color (but tried different settings to no avail). Skimmer is pulling air from the outside, have a UV and a fuge as well.
RS CP salt, parameters in check and stable between RS growth and coloration program, other corals, even acros are thriving.

No matter what color, type of monitpora I offer up to the tank there is zero to little PE and zero to little growth.

There must be something fundamentaly wrong with my approach, as I had the exact same issue with my previous tank (RS MAX 250), which had different lights, flow, water parameters, everything.

All ideas are appreciated.

Blanch · Jan 2, 2018

Have you think of a fish or something bothering them? In my case i had little PE because an ecsenius.

jda · Jan 2, 2018

PE is nothing to worry about if everything else is going OK. Many have tried to fix it for years with not only no avail, but also to the peril of their tank. PE can also be a litmus that something is wrong, so there is certainly a fine line.

I would worry about "zero to little growth." Is your tank popping up new Coralline everywhere? Until this happens, SPS can be hard... even the easier SPS.

If you want more detailed help, people will ask you for actual parameters since "in check" will not allow them to help much. Also important to know if you are using GFO, organic carbon, LC, Aluminum-Based Phosphate removers or any supplements.

The most common typical issues that people encounter are newer tanks setup with dry/dead rock and using GFO or organic carbon from the get-go and diving N and P too low (naturally low N and P is no problem).

LC8Sumi · Jan 2, 2018

I have a bicolor blenny, but it's not picking at the monties.

On the other hand I don't really have decent coralline growth, so this might be a good trace about what is going on. I have some small patches in the fuge, and on the plastic parts in the display, but nothing close to others are having after a year. Initially I had N / P troubles with the tank (both were too low), and also alkalinity problems (abiotic precipitation above kh10, which was solved by pulling the gfo (rowa) out of the system, and lowering the kh to 9).

Will introduce an autofeeder, and feed pellets 2-3 times a day instead of the half a cube of frozen mysis I'm doing right now. There is only 3 fish in there right now, and it might be that this way the corals are underfed.. So many things it can be..

Blanch · Jan 2, 2018

Watch more your blenny, mine is also a bicolor. I have just watch him one time picking an acro but he was the responsable of not much PE of the montis, and never watch him touching them.

jda · Jan 2, 2018

Do you have sand? Did you start with dry/dead rock?

HB AL · Jan 2, 2018

Thats really odd when you say the acros are thriving. Montis in my tank grow the fastest, bright colors, polyps extended. Wish a had an answer.

reefrf · Jan 2, 2018

Can you share some pictures of your reef & the acros that are thriving?

Epicreefster · Jan 4, 2018

I found my montipora sometimes don't like alk above 8.5, I run at 7.2-7.5 target and get the best look to all my sps. I also run no gfo or carbon and run ozone only a few hours a day, not off a ORP controller. This allows for getting the crystal clear water but not ending up with excessive ozone or ozone byproducts and not ozonizing everything organic out of the water. It works for me. I also like running an algae turf scrubber for around 1/2 the day. Enough to reduce nuciance algae but not strip the tank clean, and run .01-.05 po4 and 2 nitrates.

Something else I have done is switch salt. I use reef crystals. It's cheap and reliable. There are other better salts but I have had access to cheaper salts sometimes too and tried it out on my 2g nano tank and display. I switched both to reef crystals and I see a difference.