Monti corals hate me!!

[mfief]

That's not funny I can't keep green star polyps to save my life. I was told these are great to start with. Ha that was funny. Euphyllia good, Z & P good, birds nest good, acans good. GSP install death. I am about to try again though. It has been a few months

 

[ritter6788]

My problem was high alk with low nutrients. They seem to be ok with the higher alk 8-10 with a high enough nutrient level but at some point they don't do so good. After moving my alk to 7 I've not had a problem

Same here. If I run alk above 9 or run gfo in my tank my montis crap out quick.

 

[Pete polyp]

That's not funny I can't keep green star polyps to save my life. I was told these are great to start with. Ha that was funny. Euphyllia good, Z & P good, birds nest good, acans good. GSP install death. I am about to try again though. It has been a few months

Just say no to gsp!

 

[revhtree]

Same here. If I run alk above 9 or run gfo in my tank my montis crap out quick.

Very interesting! My alk is way up there!

 

[bjledbetter]

Monti's are the only sps I can keep.

 

[barrierbound911]

I run two sol blues over my 75 and my monties grow like weeds. I have my mother colony under t5's in another tank where it also grows really well. I usually break a piece off and chuck it in loose on the sand bed for a few days to acclimate to
the LEDs before moving it to the top. All my encrusted ones are under 5in from the water surface. I'm running my LEDs at B90 RB95 W50-65. Maybe water quality or just the particular frags you are getting? I hope you figure it out cuz they are awesome corals :(

 

[bairdimusprime]

my montis grow like weeds... I always feel clean water and high calcium is the way to go as they suck it up like a sham wow!!!!!!!!!! lol

 

[fishroomlady]

I'm in good company it seems :) Montis hate me too.......

 

[TruRacr314x]

Montis hated me until I switched from LED to T5. I'm guessing I wasn't giving them enough light? I have a frag that was literally the size of a quarter for a year...never grew, but also didn't die. I switched to T5's a couple months ago and it has already doubled in size...

 

[ahtatt]

I have read sometimes in ultra low nutrient systems montis browning out can be an indicator of low potassium. But thats somewhat of an uncommon thing isn't it? Does anyone check their K levels?
lol I'm no expert though. I have some that do well and others that...uh.. died. :/

 

[prsnlty]

My monti caps started growing after adding a kalk reactor. I did lose my big green one but I think it was my fault. It was happy and I move it higher in the tank. Yep the sol blues bleached it.

Jackie

 

[prsnlty]

I have read sometimes in ultra low nutrient systems montis browning out can be an indicator of low potassium. But thats somewhat of an uncommon thing isn't it? Does anyone check their K levels?
lol I'm no expert though. I have some that do well and others that...uh.. died. :/

That's interesting. I just got a red sea reef colors test kit and it says my potassium is quite low and so is the iron.

Jackie

 

[Pete polyp]

I checked my k yesterday, it was 400.

 

[Ike]

I struggled to keep good color on caps and digis in particular until I started maintaining a small amount of nitrate in my system. Just had to get it to detectable levels and there was a big difference.

 

[Pete polyp]

I struggled to keep good color on caps and digis in particular until I started maintaining a small amount of nitrate in my system. Just had to get it to detectable levels and there was a big difference.

I have been told they like dirtier water than most other sps. I have struggled to bring up the nitrate some and it still has no effect on mine...

 

[Pete polyp]

I think mine has something to do with lighting. Under the fixture it looks really bad. In the frag rack that's not directly under the fixture it almost resembles the monti I was supposed to be buying.

It still really has no pe here either, but the body does have a bluish tint to it.

I also just noticed that both pieces are actually growing away from the light too....

 

[revhtree]

I run two sol blues over my 75 and my monties grow like weeds. I have my mother colony under t5's in another tank where it also grows really well. I usually break a piece off and chuck it in loose on the sand bed for a few days to acclimate to
the LEDs before moving it to the top. All my encrusted ones are under 5in from the water surface. I'm running my LEDs at B90 RB95 W50-65. Maybe water quality or just the particular frags you are getting? I hope you figure it out cuz they are awesome corals :(

Welcome to R2R! :D

 

[Keithcorals]

I have read sometimes in ultra low nutrient systems montis browning out can be an indicator of low potassium. But thats somewhat of an uncommon thing isn't it? Does anyone check their K levels?
lol I'm no expert though. I have some that do well and others that...uh.. died. :/

That was one of the things I tried before lowering my alk it was at 380 and I moved it to 410 over two weeks. But I didn't notice any difference.

I struggled to keep good color on caps and digis in particular until I started maintaining a small amount of nitrate in my system. Just had to get it to detectable levels and there was a big difference.

I agree that a little nitrate will help but if like me you also keep lots of acros it a fine line between the right amout of nitrate and too much. For me it's easier to keep my alk at 7 than to keep nitrate at a set point. My nitrate never reads higher than 0.2 with salifert and phosphate is 0.009-0.000 with Hanna phosphorus checker

 

[GKorals]

biggest thing is Alk swings..mine bloom until I forget to dose a day or two:sad: