MONTIPORA AREN’T GROWING! Need Advice

[Zero1091]

Hi everyone! Just want to start off by
Saying that im a pretty patient guy but am having the darnedest time getting a few of my signature montis to grow.
Rainbow Phenomenon, Crazy T, Dragon Rider, Route 66
All of my coral are doing well, no recent changes in chemistry, good growth on many pieces that I have, some grow like weeds others slow but doing their thing.
I run a mixed reef and would say its stocked heavy. Some of my montis grow like crazy.
Although, its been close to two years time and a few montis are just not growing or made very little progress. There arent any major swings as I run a GHL doser and have recently added a trident and still manually test with salifert here and there to confirm its accuracy so far its spot on
Current tank parameters,
1.025 salt
8.4 Alk
Cal 440
Mag 1480
Nitrates 15-20
Phosphates 0.03
I also dose seachems reef plus and trace on alternate days to supplement elements.
Colors show great polyp extension and feed 1-2 a week using Benepets,
Used to use reef roids a year back but phosphates would spike up easily.

The montis are getting 150-200 PAR
Lighting parameters are as follows at peak mid afternoon.
I run two Hydra 26s on a Reefer 250
UV 52%
Violet 52%
Blue 52%
Royal 52 %
Green 1%
Red 0%
Cool White 5%
Any help would be appreciated guys.

 

[Zero1091]

If it makes a difference PH also runs between 8.1 lowest at night and 8.2-8.3 during the day.

 

[melanotaenia]

How long have you had them? Sometimes montis just need some time to adjust, but once they start growing they grow pretty fast in my experience. From your photos they don't look like they are doing poorly

 

[Zero1091]

Full tank shot

 

[Zero1091]

How long have you had them? Sometimes montis just need some time to adjust, but once they start growing they grow pretty fast in my experience. From your photos they don't look like they are doing poorly

Whatup,
Yeah they’ve been in my system close to two years now and similar parameters from those that I posted since I started the tank.
Cant figure it out, Im stumped lol

 

[melanotaenia]

those monti frags have been in your system TWO years and they are only that size? Yeah that seems like a problem, how big were they when you purchased them? I bought a monti a few weeks ago that was covering about 75% of the frag plug and it has already covered over the entire plug and moved onto the rock, so you should definitely be getting more growth than that. How are the other montiporas growing in your aquarium?

 

[BayouReefer]

Your tank is beautiful you obviously have a handle on things. All of your parameters are in range. Have you tried walking up the par on them a little?

 

[Zero1091]

those monti frags have been in your system TWO years and they are only that size? Yeah that seems like a problem, how big were they when you purchased them? I bought a monti a few weeks ago that was covering about 75% of the frag plug and it has already covered over the entire plug and moved onto the rock, so you should definitely be getting more growth than that. How are the other montiporas growing in your aquarium?

Surprisingly enough the pics I posted are exactly what they looked like when I bought them. All bought and added at the same time.
They have shown no growth except for the Rainbow Phenomenon, that one grew like a centimeter or two haha.

Ive added a few montis since then and theyve shown better growth than those I posted.
I even have a JF Mean Streak that was a 1.5” frag now its at a 5-6” colony.
I even had to get rid of a red cap monti 6-7” because it was blowing up in size in just a years time from a single 1” frag

 

[Zero1091]

Your tank is beautiful you obviously have a handle on things. All of your parameters are in range. Have you tried walking up the par on them a little?

Hey thanks man.
Ive tried upping the par and slowly raising them higher in the tank, they used to be where the gold torch is.
Par is at 300-350 at the very top surface.
Considering going up higher. Although, I am only running 50s highest percentage in lighting so don't wanna ramp it up too much.
On a positive note I finally got my JF Alter Ego to give me red coloration from the experiment.

 

[melanotaenia]

Surprisingly enough the pics I posted are exactly what they looked like when I bought them. All bought and added at the same time.
They have shown no growth except for the Rainbow Phenomenon, that one grew like a centimeter or two haha.

Ive added a few montis since then and theyve shown better growth than those I posted.
I even have a JF Mean Streak that was a 1.5” frag now its at a 5-6” colony.
I even had to get rid of a red cap monti 6-7” because it was blowing up in size in just a years time from a single 1” frag

That is very strange; I am not familiar with these particular color morphs you have nor do I have any of them, but I would think you should see more growth out of them in that time. I agree on possibly upping the light on them to see if that helps, but based on their coloration they look happy in the PAR you have them in now.

Perhaps these are just slow growing montiporas.

 

[Zero1091]

Here are some that showed great growth, the others have been late bloomers

 

[SeaDweller]

Some Montis are slow growers. One can’t compare M. Cap to the rest of them and think all montis are “montis” and will grow quickly. When I had them, Reeftek, spongodes and the JMT types grew the slowest.

 

[melanotaenia]

maybe they don't like the frag rack

 

[Zero1091]

The last thing I havent tried on them is blasting them by moving them near the top where my sps sticks are, and even those are growing great aswell.
The red dragon acro was just a .5” frag, now its colony size.

 

[Billldg]

This is not a rule, but something I have noticed, montis like higher par than the 150-200 par you have them under, but at the same time they do not like to be blasted with very high flow like a acro. Again, this is not cut in stone.

 

[Jots]

Hey thanks man.
Ive tried upping the par and slowly raising them higher in the tank, they used to be where the gold torch is.
Par is at 300-350 at the very top surface.
Considering going up higher. Although, I am only running 50s highest percentage in lighting so don't wanna ramp it up too much.
On a positive note I finally got my JF Alter Ego to give me red coloration from the experiment.

Yep I suggest the same, place them higher in the tank vs raising the par on lights. I’ve seen so many cases making a tweet to help one coral adversely affecting the rest of tank. Since you have several that are not growing move one lower and one higher and see if that makes a difference and adjust accordingly. Tank looks great otherwise!!!

 

[Zero1091]

This is not a rule, but something I have noticed, montis like higher par than the 150-200 par you have them under, but at the same time they do not like to be blasted with very high flow like a acro. Again, this is not cut in stone.

What would you recommend in PAR?
Its just weird to me, polyp extension and color is there, regular feeding but, darn things don't wanna grow haha.

 

[Zero1091]

Yep I suggest the same, place them higher in the tank vs raising the par on lights. I’ve seen so many cases making a tweet to help one coral adversely affecting the rest of tank. Since you have several that are not growing move one lower and one higher and see if that makes a difference and adjust accordingly. Tank looks great otherwise!!!

Thanks man, ill give that a shot for a bit.
I find it funny how its the stunners that are having a hard time growing ha.

 

[Billldg]

Like others have said, I would raise them in the tank, maybe 200-250 par.