Pale Montis

[Patrick.S]

Hi guys. I was hoping for some advice on my Montipora coloration. I have 2 caps and a digi and they are all much paler in my tank compared to where they came from. It's not like i just got them either. They have all been in the tank for 6months or so. The things I am questioning are:

Nutrients- I don't think I could possibly be too low in nutrients. My tank is a nano, barebottom but without a skimmer. I have 2 fish and I feed some reef roids. I have a few little tufts of algae but nothing out of control. I admit I don't test nitrates or phosphates, mostly because it was my thought that with algae consumption, the data can be unreliable.

Light- Here is what I suspect the most strongly. I run the aquamaxx nemolight, which is really not meant as a sps light. I actually get decent growth on the montis, just poor coloration. Can low light cause pale colors in sps?

Alk- My alk went a tad low in the last little bit (mostly due to doubting my own test kit and getting some confusing numbers from my lfs) but nothing that I would consider worrying. Got down to 7ish. Slowly brought it up to my goal of 8.5 where it is now. I use Kalk as my method of controlling alk/cal.

Other than the montis, the rest of my corals are doing great. Softies, lps, stylos, cyphastrea, all growing nicely, if not explosively. Do you have any advice for me?

Thanks!

 

[BoomCorals]

To me the top causes of this kind of thing are lack of light, lack of nutrients, and ALK swing. Make changes SLOWLY and give a week to see if it improves anything. I woulnd't change too much at once either. Alk as low a 7.0 is fine.

 

[jda]

If you have any algae, then you have some nutrients - I would not focus here... yet. I would also focus on getting a quality light - even though Montis are not hard SPS, they are still more demanding than the other stuff in your tank.

IMO, corals can handle some swings as long as they are not all the time. Everybody has had one now and again. My CO2 went out when I was out of the country for a week and my alk went from 7.1 to 5.8 in about a day - it was all fixed the next day and you could never tell that this happened, but it only happened this once.

 

[Patrick.S]

Thanks guys! So it sounds like the lack of light is most likely the culprit then. Upgrade may be in the cards one of these days hopefully.

 

[nashorn]

Hope you don't have monti eatting nud.
May show no bite marks but you will have no PE and lost of colors
If you have them they usually live underneath the Monti around the edges

 

[Patrick.S]

There actually is decent PE on the montis. They are just pale. I'm slowly turning up the whites a little bit on my lights to see if I can feed them more par.