Monti Cap Question

[TheShepherdTrio]

My husband wanted me to post this since he doesn’t have an account here. Just wanting to see if I could get some advice on our Monti-Cap. Other Than this Coral, all of our SPS seem to be thriving, growing and have terrific polyp extension and color. Our Monti seems to have progressively gone in the opposite direction though. It used to have beautiful yellow/orange polyps very extended, but now it just looks kind of sad. We are running a 75 gallon tank w/ 20 gallon sump/fuge that is around 5 months-ish old. Water parameters look pretty good (to my entry level knowledge) other than the PH being a little on the low side at times.

PH fluctuates between 7.8 and 8.2. (API saltwater master kit)
Alk - 9 dkH (Hanna tester)
Calcium - 466 ppm (Hanna tester)
Magnesium - 1350 ppm (Salifert)
SG - 1.025
Temp 78-79

We are running three 18" WiFi extreme SB reef lights. I am feeding reef roids with pre-dosed poly-booster about every 2-3 days and occasionally dose home cultured phyto/copepod mix.

I have included images of my other SPS for reference.

Thanks for any advice or constructive criticism!

 

[BostonReefer300]

Hi, with the other SPS doing well and if the parameters you quote are stable numbers (and not just a snapshot, then my quick guess would be lighting. What height is the monti cap vs the other SPS you pictured? It could be getting too much or too little light.

 

[ReefJCB]

What is your nitrate and phosphate at? My montis always do better with a little more dirty water. I’m running about 15 nitrate and about .10 phosphate.

 

[TheShepherdTrio]

Hi, with the other SPS doing well and if the parameters you quote are stable numbers (and not just a snapshot, then my quick guess would be lighting. What height is the monti cap vs the other SPS you pictured? It could be getting too much or too little light.

It’s at about the same height as the others.

What is your nitrate and phosphate at? My montis always do better with a little more dirty water. I’m running about 15 nitrate and about .10 phosphate.

I believe phosphates are around .25 and nitrate is 5

 

[PokeFish]

perhaps too much flow?

 

[Rmckoy]

It’s at about the same height as the others.

I believe phosphates are around .25 and nitrate is 5

.25 or .025 for phosphates ?

.25 is high .....

I prefer keeping nitrates closer to 10 but battling keeping phosphates below .06

.03 is my goal but I’m happy as long as they stay stable

 

[Alexopora]

You could try this, frag a few small pieces of that monti and glue/epoxy them to diff areas of the tank, and see which perform better.

 

[BostonReefer300]

Is that a purple monti cap below and to the right of the pink one? If so, how’s its health?

 

[Backreefing]

My guess is to much light to quickly. I find montipora don’t take the light intensity like acropora do . And montipora tend to de stunned for 2-3 weeks after introduction to a ( my ) aquarium.
also aren’t sb lights strong?

 

[TheShepherdTrio]

.25 or .025 for phosphates ?

.25 is high .....

I prefer keeping nitrates closer to 10 but battling keeping phosphates below .06

.03 is my goal but I’m happy as long as they stay stable

We have an API test kit for phosphate so it reads 0 and the next mark is 0.25 so ours are somewhere in between that. It could be lower than .25 but not exactly sure where. We did buy a Hanna tester so that should be in soon.
For our nitrates, no matter what, they don’t seem to go above 5. Water changes once a week- every 2 weeks. We also have chaeto growing in the refugium.

Is that a purple monti cap below and to the right of the pink one? If so, how’s its health?

It’s a chalice and is doing well. On the rock with the birds nest and acropora, there’s a montipora digitata that is doing really well.

 

[BostonReefer300]

OK my first bet would be lights then given all the other info. I like the idea of fragging a piece and putting it lower and then watching it for a couple weeks. For the phosphate hanna checker, I'd recommend you get the PHOSPORUS (HI736) checker. If you got one of the phosphate ones, send it back and get HI736. The API tests are basically useless for low range or precise work.