Montipora

[Mark Bradley]

Is this receding? My calcium, alkalinity measurements are good - magnesium is a little high. Towards the top of my tank almost directly under the light but about 12 ins away from it. Any thoughts please?

 

[homer1475]

Picture to blurry and blue to tell anything other then its a monti cap.

Also posting "numbers are good" means nothing to us. We need hard numbers. What you think is good, may be in fact bad, or off to a seasoned reefer.

 

[Fishy212]

Way too much light in my opinion. I have it under medium lights and flow and my monti is starting to encrust all over the live rock. Whats you Calcium??

 

[Mark Bradley]

Picture to blurry and blue to tell anything other then its a monti cap.

Also posting "numbers are good" means nothing to us. We need hard numbers. What you think is good, may be in fact bad, or off to a seasoned reefer.

Salinity - 1.025
Alkalinity- 9 dkh
Calcium - 423ppm
Magnesium - high at 1500 but it seems to stay there consistently
Phosphate - 0.25

I run a reactor with ‘carbon dosing pellets for nitrate and phosphate degradation’. Instructions say put a maximum Of 200ml of the pellets per 100l - as I have a Reefer 170 that would be a maximumof circa 300ml and I’m running at 200ml. Should I increase or use another form of phosphate Reducing media?

I’ll look to get a better photo.

 

[Mark Bradley]

Way too much light in my opinion. I have it under medium lights and flow and my monti is starting to encrust all over the live rock. Whats you Calcium??

Calcium is at 423ppm - everything I’ve previously been told was that it needed high light!

 

[Backreefing]

You will get better responses from the SPS forum .
But carbon dosing = sps problems . Yes people do it but it’s dangerous for sps corals.

 

[plankton]

Definitely need a better pic hopefully under full spetrum light. M.digitata will tell you very clearly if they are happy or not by how extended the polyps are. If the polyps are pulled in the coral is not happy. If they are out and swaying in the current then you are doing good. You numbers look OK. m.digitata is fairly tolerant but no coral does well with swings. How is your salinity/alk over time?

 

[Mark Bradley]

Definitely need a better pic hopefully under full spetrum light. M.digitata will tell you very clearly if they are happy or not by how extended the polyps are. If the polyps are pulled in the coral is not happy. If they are out and swaying in the current then you are doing good. You numbers look OK. m.digitata is fairly tolerant but no coral does well with swings. How is your salinity/alk over time?

All my figures don’t change much - i do weekly water changes (15%) and the measurements remain stable. So much so I rarely need to add any supplements (have the Redsea recipe elements in my cupboard).

 

[Mark Bradley]

 

[homer1475]

Well someone mentioned a digitata, has no bearing here as thats is a capricornis(monti cap).

I would be willing to bet either low nitrates(starving the coral), or too high of light. I still see polyps on the whiter shade area, so I feel pretty confident in saying too much light. Could also be a combination of both.

Have a nitrate number?

 

[Mark Bradley]

I read that as ‘2’

 

[homer1475]

Well then move it down out of the high light, as nitrates aren't the issue.

2 is perfectly fine.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I’ve got my blues set at 90% and whites at 50% - would an alternative be to reduce the blues to say 75%?

 

[Mark Bradley]

Put it on a frag rack - now put it on the sand bed. What could I replace it with where the left hand circle is? Unfortunately I do not have a par meter and no LFS rents them - so needs to be something that needs high lighting. Would be about a foot from the light and a little to the left as you look at it.

 

[Backreefing]

Montipora, They hate to be moved around. It is common for a montie to sit stunned for 2-3 weeks after you moved it. Pick a place and leave it alone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Increase white intensity a little and this indicates water issue:
Triple check for high salinity
Alk possibly high Keep around 8-9
Calcium low? should be about 440
PH should be 8.1-8.3
Fairly decent water flow required

 

[Gordonm]

Monticaps aren't that fussy and don't require high intensity lighting. If your parameters are half decent then they grow quite nicely.

 

[Mark Bradley]

It’s on the sand bed now so I’ll leave it there and see how it goes. I was looking for a coral that could go in its original spot and the LFS suggested this - indeed in their big display tank a large piece is high up and under heavier lighting that I have. Do frags behave differently to large colonies?
I have 14 different corals in the tank and all are growing - this is my first negative in 7 months so perhaps I was due.