Need help with montipora getting white spots?

[plankton]

I got a nice mini colony of wild caught m.digitata (burnt orange) from LFS, racked for two weeks now moving near center with lights at 50% acclimation. Then white areas develop. The central area has more flow for sure (two mp10 at reef crest up to 80%). And central area has 4x more light than corner rack area. What are the white spots? Should I lower colony to bottom then slowly raise? Assuming light spots are intensity related? I thought montis liked intense light?

tank Parms in case it’s something else:
SG : 1.025
Alk : 8.0
Ca : 500
Mg : 1500
PH : 8.1-8.3
Phosphate : 0.22
Nitrate : 5ppm

 

[Spare time]

That is definitely way too much light for that size tank. In reality, a single AI puck is all you need. I'd remove either the hydra or the prime.

 

[blasterman]

That looks more like bleaching stress due to general acclimation than light bleaching. It's too mottled. One way to tell with orange and red digis is the polyps will retract more on light exposed areas if it's too much. If polyps are uniform it's likely not light. That fact this is wild caught brings a lot of variables. If it's a new frag i would still start it in lower part of the tank because below:

In my experience with digitata the orange and red variety (flames and bubble gums) are substantially more fussy and stubborn about acclimation and lighting than the green and german blues. The later two I don't think it's possible to burn them out without wiring 220 to your tank and using carbon arc lights. Unfortunately digis are not all cut from the same cloth and color varities are significantly different in terms of initial acclimation.

 

[Crustaceon]

Too much light and IME, montis do better in lower par.

 

[Rick.45cal]

You should get out your flashlight after lights out and look for montipora eating nudibranchs

 

[plankton]

hmm, ok will check for creapy crawlies after likes go out just in case. I'm already on 50% light intensity and will reduce and place coral near bottom of tank to see if that makes a difference.

I don't have PAR meter yet but I took LUX measurement at water surface.

Using LX1010B, the max LUX value at water surface in middle of tank was 354 in 100x mode or 34,500 LUX, if we simply use the /50 that riddle says then PAR at water surface is 708. I wish I new PAR below the water level where the corals are.

 

[plankton]

Ordered SenEye for the PAR sensor and will take light measurements where I’d like to place corals. What is good par value for orange monti?

 

[plankton]

Just wanted to provide update to help others avoid burning their corals with too much light.

I haven’t reduced the number of AI pucks yet cuz I like the spread but reduce intensity to be more in alignment with CoralLabs SPS AB + recommendations.
So on my tank with four picks 12” above water level running bixby profile my PAR levels as read by seneye are :

top 410; mid 250; bottom 168
Side bottom 150
Side middle 213
Rear rack 130

I moved the orange monti that was stressed to side at 213 par and polyps are out now and no white spots.

Coral Labs generally recommended zone 1 300 par for acropora ; zone 2 225 par for montipora

PS I’m looking into diffusers and dropping down to two pucks

 

[Graffiti Spot]

By the way that coral doesn’t look like a digi but maybe another type of monti. It’s pretty thick and has flat branches. I am no good with monti ID’s but maybe someone can clarify if I am right or wrong.
I hope it’s coloring up ok, I can’t help with the leds but I do see a lot of people having issues because they change their lights settings too often for one coral. I would agree it looked like it was just acclimating and polyps normal suck in with light stress.

 

[plankton]

By the way that coral doesn’t look like a digi but maybe another type of monti. It’s pretty thick and has flat branches. I am no good with monti ID’s but maybe someone can clarify if I am right or wrong.
I hope it’s coloring up ok, I can’t help with the leds but I do see a lot of people having issues because they change their lights settings too often for one coral. I would agree it looked like it was just acclimating and polyps normal suck in with light stress.

Pedoconfuego- I agree it’s a montipora but doesn’t look like digitata or any other I’ve seen yet. It’s very thick with large dense polyps.

Since I’ve burned several corals I decided to remove the two pucks leaving just hydra 32hd, raised to maximum 13” above water line and tuned par to be 234 middle tank. Will allow corals to adjust over a couple months then maybe increase par. I should have started with this and a par meter before adding any corals!