Question: What is considered a healthy growth rate for montipora?

[Js.Aqua.Project]

I regularly take photos of my tank just to help with my quasi-ADHD brain and keeping track of the health and growth of my corals over time.

A couple recent photos that I took and overlapped led me to question: what is considered a healthy growth rate for montipora? I know that slow growth may be due to a variety of water quality/lighting/stress issues, just general not quite the right happiness level in the coral, but really fast growth can lead to really thin plates that are brittle and unable to support a large colony.

The two corals below are just a few months apart and are of different variants of monti caps I believe.

Jul - Oct 23 About 1 1/2" perimeter/edge growth plus encrusting since added to tank: (overlayed with photoshop)

Jun - Oct 23 About 3/4 - 1" perimeter/edge growth plus encrusting: (overlayed with photoshop)

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Really thin plates (and growing straight out) is the result of low flow, not a sign of fast growth. In high flow they will grow thinker and curl in.

I never measured my monti growth, it just seems like one day they are too big lol. If I had to guess, I think I would say an inch a month.

 

[FUNGI]

Really thin plates (and growing straight out) is the result of low flow, not a sign of fast growth. In high flow they will grow thinker and curl in.

I never measured my monti growth, it just seems like one day they are too big lol. If I had to guess, I think I would say an inch a month.

Learn something new everyday.......didnt know that.

 

[FUNGI]

Heres mine: 5-10-23 to 9-14-23... will look at increasing flow to them....

 

[Borat]

Everyone is saying that montipora is growing like weeds. Judging at weeds growing in my garden, I would say it is about an inch a day..

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Everyone is saying that montipora is growing like weeds. Judging at weeds growing in my garden, I would say it is about an inch a day..

If only...

One of my struggles, despite my close to a decade in the hobby, is keeping my SPS straight aside from mostly telling my genus apart.

I found an old ReefBuilders article today going over identifying montipora species and it looks like my first photo is of a montipora crassituberculata while the second is of an montipora foliosa.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Heres mine: 5-10-23 to 9-14-23... will look at increasing flow to them....

Impressive, what is your Alk and Ca consumption like with those guys?

 

[FUNGI]

Impressive, what is your Alk and Ca consumption like with those guys?

TBH....I dont test. I stopped chasing numbers along time ago. I dose Kalk everyother day. DIY dripper, 16fl.oz, overnight....10% waterchange (120G Tank) every Saturday...thats all I do....

 

[InvaderJim]

Once montis are happy they will take off.. I can visibly see mine growing daily which is pretty cool to watch. I have one colony thats probably 18" or more across. I'd say yours is well on its way.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

TBH....I dont test. I stopped chasing numbers along time ago. I dose Kalk everyother day. DIY dripper, 16fl.oz, overnight....10% waterchange (120G Tank) every Saturday...thats all I do....

I wouldn't consider myself a numbers chaser by any means, I pretty much have set the calcium reactor on the tank (240gal) and walked away and just check to make sure things are stable. But if that calcium reactor is off my Alk can drop 1.5-2 dKH in 18-24 hours, which is why I was curious about yours.

Now water changes though, can't say I have done one of those in a couple years...

 

[Borat]

I wouldn't consider myself a numbers chaser by any means, I pretty much have set the calcium reactor on the tank (240gal) and walked away and just check to make sure things are stable. But if that calcium reactor is off my Alk can drop 1.5-2 dKH in 18-24 hours, which is why I was curious about yours.

Now water changes though, can't say I have done one of those in a couple years...

Same here.. 2dkh a day, if you are off by only 10% - alk would either shoot up or drop and kill all corals in about a week or so..

i test alk every 3 hours..

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

Same here.. 2dkh a day, if you are off by only 10% - alk would either shoot up or drop and kill all corals in about a week or so..

i test alk every 3 hours..

Are you running a Trident? Every 3 hours sounds like 8/day testing schedule.

 

[Borat]

I am running a DIY version - if interested, you can see the thread here:

DIY Alkalinity Monitor

Hello US&A fellow reefers.. In this thread I am going to show you super-advanced Kazakh technologies. I am going to rebuild my DIY Alkalinity Monitor (that is already fully functional for over a year) - except this time I am going to make it as small as possible. The footprint of this device is...

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