Sunset monti and monti cap fading

[saltwater newby]

Hello
I've had both theses corals for about a month. They were nice vibrant red on the cap and the sunset encrusting monti was a nice deep burgundy color with blue polyps. Now they both look washed out. My ALK has been stable in the 9.1 to 9.8
Ca 400-420
Mag 1400
I run Kessils 360 we
I moved them lower in the tank now and the cap looks to be getting some color coming back and the sunset was doing good in the shaded area I had put it in but now it started looking faded again so I put it on a screw type plug and dug it oun the sand.
I hope I've explained my situation well enough and I appreciate any feed back and or experiences .
Thank you

 

[McMullen]

Alk is the usual suspect, you provided levels and assuming no big swings must be something else. It seems lighting may be at least part of the issue. Both were fading but the cap is improving a bit. I can tell you my caps, acclimated, tolerate my leds well, but my sunset wants low lighting and sits on my sandbed off center from leds. Even that is a little much and it stays lighter in color than it should.

 

[jsker]

What are you feeding you? where are your Po4's and No3's

 

[twilliard]

What are you feeding you? where are your Po4's and No3's

I was going to ask this same thing but you beat me to it lol
OP what ever you do don't raise you lighting intensity

 

[jsker]

I was going to ask this same thing but you beat me to it lol
OP what ever you do don't raise you lighting intensity

We are on it

 

[saltwater newby]

Alk is the usual suspect, you provided levels and assuming no big swings must be something else. It seems lighting may be at least part of the issue. Both were fading but the cap is improving a bit. I can tell you my caps, acclimated, tolerate my leds well, but my sunset wants low lighting and sits on my sandbed off center from leds. Even that is a little much and it stays lighter in color than it should.

That's to show I know nothing about dos corals. I thought they need to be dead in high light areas lol
So what do you recommend??
Like I said earlier
I've put them lower in the tank.
Thanks for the advise

 

[authentic]

i had the same problem and i checked all my Parameters which were stable.what i didnt check was my Salinity which had creeped up to .28,sometimes it is the basics

 

[McMullen]

Always more to learn, and sometimes you just gotta try an idea.
All of my encrusting montis completely bleach out directly under my LEDs. I have to keep them on the bottom of tank and positioned out of direct light. Over time you may be able to move them somewhat. I have one in particular that remains almost in the front corner and shaded because it cannot tolerate the intensity.
Digitata and capricornis seem to be a bit more tolerant and after a brief low light acclimation they'll tolerate placement anywhere, low or high.

 

[twilliard]

With an alkalinity of almost 10 your no3 and po4 should be present

 

[saltwater newby]

I was going to ask this same thing but you beat me to it lol
OP what ever you do don't raise you lighting intensity

I assume 60% intensity is ok??
Whites are 10% max
I don't like them
Does that matter??

 

[saltwater newby]

Po4 is 0
Nitrate are still high for some reason in the 20's
I run an algae scrubber so it should come down some.
I feed LRS once a day and sea weed once a day

i had the same problem and i checked all my Parameters which were stable.what i didnt check was my Salinity which had creeped up to .28,sometimes it is the basics

makes sense.
I'm always 1.025-1.026
I use Red Sea coral pro salt

 

[saltwater newby]

Always more to learn, and sometimes you just gotta try an idea.
All of my encrusting montis completely bleach out directly under my LEDs. I have to keep them on the bottom of tank and positioned out of direct light. Over time you may be able to move them somewhat. I have one in particular that remains almost in the front corner and shaded because it cannot tolerate the intensity.
Digitata and capricornis seem to be a bit more tolerant and after a brief low light acclimation they'll tolerate placement anywhere, low or high.

Ok
Cool
That's to show I just had no idea with these guys lol
I thought I'd have to put them right under my lights
How about toxic waste lepto corals?
I have one too
It's sitting right under my lights too

 

[McMullen]

I've personally not kept lepto's but I would start at the bottom of tank

 

[saltwater newby]

Yup
Seems like that is the way to go with all corals huh??

 

[McMullen]

Generally when using LEDs, yes. Now if your buying from someone using leds then your less likely to get a significant bleach.

Most of the local reefers in my area now use led, so when I aquire a frag from them I simply place where I want, if I buy from LFS or online I always acclimate.

As you can see there are so so many variables and no right wrong methods. When you read "every tank is different," it's true.

 

[Catchemall]

With an alkalinity of almost 10 your no3 and po4 should be present

Can you explain this more to me I'm sure it may help others as well.

 

[twilliard]

Can you explain this more to me I'm sure it may help others as well.

No3 and po4 is an essential part of Photosynthesis
Even down to the basic cellular form
Now zooanthelle needs the same to thrive.
Also there needs to be a balance of no3 and po4. I am sure most have heard the statement "why is my coral brown?"
This would be an excessive amount of zooanthelle
Then there is the other side, "why is my coral pale?" This is a lack of zooanthelle
Zooanthelle needs the basic elements to survive. What we call nutrients if there is a lack of carbons (which spur the growth of bacteria they can feed off of) within the water.
So with a tank stripped of no3 and po4 they may suffer.
I have a saying..
No3 keeps it green and po4 let's it grow
Don't let po4 exceed no3
This is about a balance and for instance my no3 is 5ppm and my po4 is .018

 

[Lenny_S]

I've had montis do well at all levels in my tank, but they didn't always. The thing that helped me the most was raining my lights higher and actually turning up the power. I think the diffusion and blending is key. I've messed around with nutrients, params, color channels, you name it. By far, at least for my system, it was raising the lights that made the biggest difference. They were 8" AWL and got a hanging kit and put them 11" AWL. This was the result on some pieces I just happen to have some progression pics of...

Sunset Monti (the sad little turd front row middle) March 2016

It stayed like that for weeks until I moved the lights up in May.....

June 6

Today

Digita on June 6

Today

Another sunset
June 6

Today

 

[Catchemall]

No3 and po4 is an essential part of Photosynthesis
Even down to the basic cellular form
Now zooanthelle needs the same to thrive.
Also there needs to be a balance of no3 and po4. I am sure most have heard the statement "why is my coral brown?"
This would be an excessive amount of zooanthelle
Then there is the other side, "why is my coral pale?" This is a lack of zooanthelle
Zooanthelle needs the basic elements to survive. What we call nutrients if there is a lack of carbons (which spur the growth of bacteria they can feed off of) within the water.
So with a tank stripped of no3 and po4 they may suffer.
I have a saying..
No3 keeps it green and po4 let's it grow
Don't let po4 exceed no3
This is about a balance and for instance my no3 is 5ppm and my po4 is .018

Ok I see but I guess what I'd like to understand better is how that relates to the alkalinity. He has 10dkh and you said he should have nitrate and phosphate present

 

[saltwater newby]

No3 and po4 is an essential part of Photosynthesis
Even down to the basic cellular form
Now zooanthelle needs the same to thrive.
Also there needs to be a balance of no3 and po4. I am sure most have heard the statement "why is my coral brown?"
This would be an excessive amount of zooanthelle
Then there is the other side, "why is my coral pale?" This is a lack of zooanthelle
Zooanthelle needs the basic elements to survive. What we call nutrients if there is a lack of carbons (which spur the growth of bacteria they can feed off of) within the water.
So with a tank stripped of no3 and po4 they may suffer.
I have a saying..
No3 keeps it green and po4 let's it grow
Don't let po4 exceed no3
This is about a balance and for instance my no3 is 5ppm and my po4 is .018

Interesting