sunset monti questions

3mm3 · May 1, 2007

I need some help!!
If you have a sunset montipora, can you tell me what type of lighting you keep it under and how far from the light you have it.
I seem to be having problems with mine.

ale:

patedship · May 1, 2007

Give it a fair amount of light. Mine is like 12" under 4 t-5's. I really need to raise it up more but I am switching to halides so I will hold off for now.

3mm3 · May 1, 2007

I have had mine under 14k phoenix 150watt hqi the sunset is 7" from the top of the water and 16" from the bulb.

The Shan Man · May 1, 2007

High light high flow

surfn · May 1, 2007

yeah, lighting shouldnt be your problem...its kept under a wide variety of lighting.

i've had mine all over my tank, 30g w/ 250w radium on an HQI

i think flow and stable conditions (alk/calcium) is more key.

Azurel · May 1, 2007

I agree With Shan man....I have mine about 4 iches from the surface almost direct lighting from a 250w 14k MH and some pretty good high flow. It has doubled in the last month....It has also gotten much brighter then it was when I first got it....I do as Surf said as well....

3mm3 · May 1, 2007

All of my tank parameters are in check and very stable. The sunset monti has faded and lost a lot of its color. Fading, Is that caused by lack of light with this piece?

VanGogh121 · May 2, 2007

light shock? what kinda lights was it under before you got it?

reefboy · May 2, 2007

id check for nudis as well

3mm3 · May 2, 2007

Ok next question. What would happen if the protective glass lens that is supposed to cover the hqi bulb was not completely covering the bulb? What are the signs of uv damage?

To all the people that have responded Thank You!!

I have checked for nudis and have none.
The light previous was a 150w hqi 10k bulb

chadfarmer · May 2, 2007

i have 4 pieces of sunset

i have had it grow like crazy and than have no growth at all and do the same as you are having

havent changed anything

alk calcium phosphate everything correct

got rid of the t5 and went to halides and it seems to be more happy but we will see

Azurel · May 2, 2007

3mm3 said:
Ok next question. What would happen if the protective glass lens that is supposed to cover the hqi bulb was not completely covering the bulb? What are the signs of uv damage?

To all the people that have responded Thank You!!

I have checked for nudis and have none.
The light previous was a 150w hqi 10k bulb

That could very well be.....It is on there for that reason...

chadfarmer · May 2, 2007

sorry you need that glass on there will burn the corals and kill them

3mm3 · May 2, 2007

Well upon further investigation I noticed something Very odd.

Almost every piece of coral on the back row had signs of burn damage on the upper most exposed surfaces.:sad2:

All of the sps on the front row just below the bulb looked great. No problems at all.

Well I looked at my light bulb and noticed that the back 1/3 of the bulb was not being covered by the protective glass, causing the whole back row of my tank to be exposed to unfiltered light.
I fixed the glass lens and now hope that was the problem with the sunset monti.

Azurel · May 2, 2007

I hope that does it for you......Fingers crossed.

chadfarmer · May 2, 2007

50/50 chance

hopefully it wasnt off long

Mr.Firemouth · May 2, 2007

UV burn would cause bleaching.
Sunsets are a little picky about being crowded, touched. They need lots of flow, lots of light.
How long have you had it?
Have you checked your Mag levels yet? Should be at 1300ppm

Chelsey · May 3, 2007

Sunsets are a LITTLE picky?!

I have more problems with that dang thing than I do my superman digitata, and THOSE are supposed to be incredibly picky and hard to retain color!

I have a frag that has doubled in size in the past few months and another frag on a plug in Chad's tank. The frag that has doubled is a little lower than midway down in my tank and the "fraglet" was glued to my rockwork. The original frag was bleached from stress of fragging and is slowly coloring back up, but the new stuff that has grown is a gorgeous deep orange with green polyps

surfn · May 3, 2007

are you guys sure you have the real one? (just checking b/c a couple impostors are coming into the trade)

i've never had issues with mine, its growing like a weed and always has been.

i havent seen any combo of flow/lighting make it upset so far.

only time i've seen it mad is when i fragged it, the frag looked very sluggish for a while until it started getting some polyp extension and it healed where i cut it.

Chelsey · May 3, 2007

surfn said:
are you guys sure you have the real one? (just checking b/c a couple impostors are coming into the trade)

i've never had issues with mine, its growing like a weed and always has been.

i havent seen any combo of flow/lighting make it upset so far.

only time i've seen it mad is when i fragged it, the frag looked very sluggish for a while until it started getting some polyp extension and it healed where i cut it.

Yep, absolutely sure

I got mine from Chad and I think he got his from Hugo, though he'll have to post to confirm that.