I said I wouldn't do it...but I lied

[Rikerbear]

I had never really planned on getting into SPS corals, but today while looking over some zoas and LPS frags I was given a nice frag of orange montipora digitata. A really nice 3 inch frag.
I placed it in a nice bright spot, and will watch it for signs of distress.
Thanks for the generous gift Chris!!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Well “liar liar pants on fire,” since you’ve come over to the dark side, are you dosing? Once you enter the dark side of SPS, you’ll need to use one of few means of dosing calcium.

 

[ritter6788]

Uh oh. You're hooked now. Good luck with the new pieces. Be sure to test alkalinity, calcium and magnesium frequently.

 

[Rikerbear]

Thanks guys. I am not dosing anything yet, as I do a nice WC weekly with a good salt, and have been running excellent levels.
Now that I have a piece that will be pulling more, I will be watching to see what I need to start adding....eventually, maybe.....

 

[FishLipz]

Well there goes the neighborhood. Hahaha! Nice first pick up.

 

[Rikerbear]

I just hope I don't kill it while learning to care for it. I usually do not bring things home that I know nothing about. I have been doing a bunch of reading. I took a full 90 minutes to drip acclimate it (also got a nice two head frog spawn frag)...I chose to mount it so that all four of the branches are pointing up, so better growth/spread potential is my thinking. Hard to know how to glue it down, knowing I was gonna be killing some of the polyps no matter how I chose to attach it.

 

[Connie]

Good for you! You will never be the same...lol. Putting the frag on it's side was actually very smart on your part. It is recommended they be put on their side for faster growth and spreading. GL!

 

[Reef Pets]

Good luck with the new addiction. I starting growing sps about 10 years ago and sps is still my passion. As already stated, keep an eye on calcium, alk and mag once you start to amp up your sps collection.

 

[Rikerbear]

Putting the frag on it's side was actually very smart on your part. It is recommended they be put on their side for faster growth and spreading. GL!

I sort of thought it made sense. Time will tell if I have it lit correctly for it to thrive.

 

[Zack]

90 min of drip acclimation? Honestly I don't think you have to go that far, at least I never do and all my sps turn out fine.
I usually drip acclimate 15 -20 min when I get a shipment in. And actually if I move a frag from one tank to the other I barely acclimate it at all. Not that I would ever recommend that but I do think sps are a little more resilient and tough than we give them credit for

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[cmaxwell39]

Welcome to the addicting world of SPS. Montipora is a great coral to start with. Keep up with your water changes and test your calcium and all regularly and you will be fine.

The one other parameter that seems to effect SPS more than some other corals is phosphate. If you do not currently test for it I would add it to your testing regimen. Good luck and enjoy your new coral.




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[Rikerbear]

Well the frag is still doing well I guess. The tiny polyps are visable, so I know there is still life LOL
The part of the coral around the reef epoxy has turned a strange color of grey....I am assuming it is from the polyp die off in that area.
I had also forgotten about a small piece I rescued from some live rock I was curring for my FOWLR tank. I have no idea what type of coral it is, but am assuming it is also an SPS, or maybe a smaller LPS. The coral looks like red organ pipe, but the polyps are much smaller than what I see pictured.
I will try and get a pic of it later this evening.

 

[Rikerbear]

The digitata is still orange, I still see tiny polyps most of the time. There is a small area that looks a tad bit 'bleached' but it's near the epoxy area so may be part of that die off. I am still hopeful.....
The other unknown coral is not looking as good as it was. I was cropping a couple pix of it to post here when I noticed a definite bleaching happening, but I am seeing much more polyp extension so am a bit confused.
Here are the pix of the unknown coral.
Pic #1 is from 10 days ago as I remember
Pic #2 is from last evening

 

[cmaxwell39]

That looks like a sun coral to me. This one looks like it is in poor health. They are an LPS coral that requires frequent feeding becuase it is nonphotosynthetic.

 

[larangcon]

Yup, they need to be fed, the colors start fading if they do not eat, try some cyclopeze or coral frenzy, might even take mysis.

 

[Rikerbear]

Great! Thanks you two! I will try and spot feed it right away!

 

[Rikerbear]

So the digitata seems to be doing great. The white tips are coloring back up, and I even see a small dot of color starting on the fully bleached area. I tried to get a pic, but I have limited macro equipment (God son recently lost my macro lens I had loaned him)
I can clearly see polyps, but am unsure if this is their full size or if this is limited extension right now.

 

[Rikerbear]

***bump***

 

[Connie]

That is actually looking pretty good. Good polyp extension other than the bleached area and the white tips is growth!

So the digitata seems to be doing great. The white tips are coloring back up, and I even see a small dot of color starting on the fully bleached area. I tried to get a pic, but I have limited macro equipment (God son recently lost my macro lens I had loaned him)
I can clearly see polyps, but am unsure if this is their full size or if this is limited extension right now.

 

[johnanddawn]

Next time use less putty
The putty heats as it cures and killed/stressed it
All you need is a bit of putty the size of a pea and a dab of superglue
Should recover though as the rest looks fine
Good luck with it