My first SPS (monti plate)

[cablebox615]

I have looked everwhere for some plating montipora and I feel my LFS had the best deal. I got a piece the size of a dollar bill for $20. It is orange with a white tip. He also threw in 2 1" frags of bright red with a white tip for free. My real quesion is will purple up and a magnesium supplement be enough for minerals. Will a 6 bulb T-5 light with indiviual reflectors in a 75g work for my sps. Also a off topic question a guy at another lfs told me that carbon can be bad for a reef tank because it pulls out some of the minerals is that true. Should I get rid of my carbon, which is in my wet/dry filter. Please help me with this.

 

[bill109]

it should be, what bulbs are you running?
i use a 8 bulbs t-5 and all i add is ca and alk.
you can cover all your smaller additives with a good salt, aka strontium, magnesium, iodide, etc.
although i have added a little iodide when needed and the soft corals took off..

 

[gatorwpb]

your lighting is definitely enough.
But purple up I would stop using. Also, only dose magnesium if you test for it. and the test shows you are low.
Look up B-Ionic or other 2-part solutions, because it doesnt sound like you are dosing anything for alkalinity and you should be testing for calcium and alkalinity.
When I got my first SPS (encrusting monti) I did not test for either and ended up having low alkalinity. Almost lost the monti.
But once I started dosing a 2-part solution and testing my calcium and alkalinity, the monti come back strong and I started to get more sps. now I have almost 20 species.

 

[bill109]

Originally Posted by GatorWPB
http:///forum/post/2796268
your lighting is definitely enough.
But purple up I would stop using. Also, only dose magnesium if you test for it. and the test shows you are low.
Look up B-Ionic or other 2-part solutions, because it doesnt sound like you are dosing anything for alkalinity and you should be testing for calcium and alkalinity.
When I got my first SPS (encrusting monti) I did not test for either and ended up having low alkalinity. Almost lost the monti.
But once I started dosing a 2-part solution and testing my calcium and alkalinity, the monti come back strong and I started to get more sps. now I have almost 20 species.

+1 on the b ionic 2 part..
i use it and love it. my monti is doing very well along with some other sps