Best placement for an encrusting monti

[JoJosReef]

Acquired an encruster from a friend yesterday! Behold!

Beach Bum Monti.

What kind of placements are good for these guys? Can they go on the sand bed like this? What would its growth pattern be? If it goes on the rocks, will it be outcompeted by faster growing corals? I have a green cyphastrea, which I also understand to be an encruster, which is almost surrounded by fireworks cloves. Not sure how it's going to grow much. For this monti, are there any that it shouldn't be around? Thanks!

 

[shakacuz]

if you have enough PAR at the sand bed, i'd say go for it. i've seen these fully encrust, but i've also seen some palawensis plating(not upwards/spiral like a cap, just horizontally). might have been glued over a tile, i'm unsure.

for any encrusters i would advise to leave a lot of room, and to never glue it onto your rock work in the event you have to go in and move it to another spot due to coral warfare or the like. i regret gluing my monti caps to my rockwork. now i have to go back in ever so often to trim it back from the rock so it can grow out away from the rock work lol

 

[JoJosReef]

if you have enough PAR at the sand bed, i'd say go for it. i've seen these fully encrust, but i've also seen some palawensis plating(not upwards/spiral like a cap, just horizontally). might have been glued over a tile, i'm unsure.

for any encrusters i would advise to leave a lot of room, and to never glue it onto your rock work in the event you have to go in and move it to another spot due to coral warfare or the like. i regret gluing my monti caps to my rockwork. now i have to go back in ever so often to trim it back from the rock so it can grow out away from the rock work lol

Tell me about it. I'm going to have to do the same with my red monti I placed on the edge of a cave cliff on my rocks and it is growing down along the rocks toward my dendro! How do you trim yours back?

 

[shakacuz]

Tell me about it. I'm going to have to do the same with my red monti I placed on the edge of a cave cliff on my rocks and it is growing down along the rocks toward my dendro! How do you trim yours back?

i just go in with my hand, and try to pry it apart as gentle as i can to avoid making a million pieces. try getting a nail underneath it and pry it off. considering how yours encrusted my suggestion is to use kalk paste, epoxy, or super glue to smother it. or glue a faster growing coral over it to out compete it. orrrrr you can just go in and bull doze it with bone cutters, but i give away frags of monti for free whenever i do trades/sales so you can also consider that. LFS don't usually take monti's since they're just far too easy to propagate lol

luckily for me it hasn't gotten this stretched out so i don't have as much work as you may end up having

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Congrats! Thats a nice one. I just got mine a month ago. I put it on a small rock on the sand bed, I have metal halides so its still bright on the sand bed. I'll let it encrust for now and I'll decide where to place it later.

 

[JoJosReef]

i just go in with my hand, and try to pry it apart as gentle as i can to avoid making a million pieces. try getting a nail underneath it and pry it off. considering how yours encrusted my suggestion is to use kalk paste, epoxy, or super glue to smother it. or glue a faster growing coral over it to out compete it. orrrrr you can just go in and bull doze it with bone cutters, but i give away frags of monti for free whenever i do trades/sales so you can also consider that. LFS don't usually take monti's since they're just far too easy to propagate lol

luckily for me it hasn't gotten this stretched out so i don't have as much work as you may end up having

I'll try that. I don't mind breaking up more pieces. I can give them away when people come by.

 

[Joekovar]

I seem to have a knack for placing encrusting montis a couple inches higher than is optimal. Mine tend to encrust their way down to a random point, then cliff out horizontally as if they've found a sweet spot.

 

[UMALUM]

I put mine on a cliff about a 1/2 inch off the rock with hopes of a more plate type growth. It looked like yours about three months ago.

 

[JoJosReef]

I put mine on a cliff about a 1/2 inch off the rock with hopes of a more plate type growth. It looked like yours about three months ago.

I like it!

 

[UMALUM]

I like it!

One thing they can't do is grow upside down. Lol

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I put mine on a cliff about a 1/2 inch off the rock with hopes of a more plate type growth. It looked like yours about three months ago.

Nice looking Monti!

 

[tbrown]

I had my Kung Pao about 6" from the water surface. It was a really slow grower up there and then the Monti Eating Nudibranches got it so it didn't do anything else ever again...

 

[Roatan Reef]

I put mine on a cliff about a 1/2 inch off the rock with hopes of a more plate type growth. It looked like yours about three months ago.

Let's Go Canes!! []_[]

 

[CBonito]

I put mine on a cliff about a 1/2 inch off the rock with hopes of a more plate type growth. It looked like yours about three months ago.

I have to get one of these! If I can get it to plate instead of encrust, I'd be pretty proud. lol
Looks like yours may be doing it!

 

[Waters]

I also just got that one and a couple of other high end montis. Plan is to hopefully allow them to encrust and cover the glass bottom. Definitely don't put any monti on your rock unless you plan on dedicating the whole rock to that coral. I tore down my last tank due to an out of control monti lol.

 

[VintageReefer]

I put mine on a 2x2 grow out tile and then on a magnet shelf, towards the top of my tank, angled towards the light fixture

When the tile gets fully encrusted, I can relocate it to stage 2 of my propagation system, or I can mount the tile somewhere

 

[maroun.c]

Prefer to have anything encrusting on its own separate rock to avoid them overtaking brickwork with time.