First Shot at SPS... Montipora

[italipinos8]

Hey all, got two panorama pro leds for my biocube 29 for Christmas. Went to my lfs today and picked up an orange montipora frag.

As of now it is at the top of the tank in a high flow area.

Got a few questions about it

1. How do i know if it is healthy? Polyps, bumpy, color, etc???
2. How do they Grow? Upwards, downwards?

Is calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity testing/dosing required?

If all goes well with the montipora then i hope to get a birdsnest frag. All parameters are good also. Everything is at 0.

Will get a pic up tomorrow.

 

[Smitty]

You have a pic of it...and monti's are low light sps's, so I'd move it down some from the top a lil.

 

[little_fish]

also if its growing and you see polyps, its healthy and happy. Depending on the type, montis either encrust or plate out

 

[phastroh]

I feel they are easy to grow especially after talking with a few coral farmers.

One grows tons of it and fast and says it is simple.

I got 2 large ones from her(orange and purple) Now the purple is very bumpy and looks nice but the orange is a bit smoother.

I cracked off a piece of the orange and had the frag so I stuck in between some rock to hold it and in like 1.5 months I can see it is growing already.

All the edges of the orange one have started growing down but only like 1/8 or less of an inch. I can tell they have grown because there is a round coral mount between them and I could see the whole thing from the start and now it is almost hidden.

They are at the bottom of my 30" deep tank with only 150Watt MH above. The get enough light so keep that in mind for yours.

Here is a link to some videos I posted from my tank.

https://www.livingreefs.com/phastrohs-220-gallon-build-pic-heavy-t36169p9.html

The first one at around 1:50 you will see them and if you watch all the videos on the last few pages you should see them a lot more and also the little part that broke off.

There are a lot of green palys under them and I am worried they will grow like weeds so I may try to remove some(carefully with gloves)

They were both on this rock an the lady was going to saw it in half but I think she changed her mind because it would have been very tricky and would have probably destroyed the corals somewhat.

I would love to take them apart but I may if I ever get a larger tank or I may wait a year and take some frags to spread around since they are awesome looking and easy to care for.

Good luck, you can do it!!

 

[italipinos8]

Heres a FTS

Montipora... best pic i could get of it... My camera doesnt seem to work well with the leds

Some favia i got yesterday

 

[Northstar24]

It looks healthy to me, when it starts growing the very edge of it will be white, that is the coral adding a calcium skeleton

 

[phastroh]

It looks healthy to me, when it starts growing the very edge of it will be white, that is the coral adding a calcium skeleton

Yeah mine both have white edges now and they are always white and growing.

I heard the grow quick or can. Like a year and you can get some frags if you want.