New Montipora have some question

quakstar

Member
When these begin to grow and do well in your tank will the new and growing part be green before it turns th e brown color bc if the green part means it is growing the heck yeah mine is doing great if not then :help:
 

murph145

Active Member
thats not exactly a monti its some sort of acropora and its slowly dying from the base up.... the whole coral in general doesnt look too happy or healthy its browned out with no polyp extension
please give some info on the tank its in and the water parameters.... lighting etc....
and those clown gobbies are known to cause stess to acros and kill them off
 

quakstar

Member
Ok thanks for the advise I actually had the clown and citron Goby and my LFS said i needed the coral for them bc they would be stressed with out but i have tested my water
salt 1.023
Nitrate 25
Nitrite <.3
PH 8.0
KH 16 drops 8 DH
Amonia 0
 

quakstar

Member
oh shoot forgot the tank
it is a 72 gallon bow front up and running 4 years now just have never done corals till lately with a 29 gallon refuge attached
it also has a hamilton 2x250 metal halides and 2 20k vho
water temp is a constant 82.0
 

ifirefight

Active Member
Originally Posted by Quakstar
bump
Here is my monti,,,, I agree with reefreak29...mine is usually white when growing new sections...
 

murph145

Active Member
yea its dead skeleton that has algae growing in it now.... i have tons of acros and i can tell yah somethings not right and from the look of it its ur nitrates.... those clown gobies can be more of a pesk that a cool fish if u realy wanna get into SPS corals....
how can i tell its nitrates.... first of all the coral is totally brown with little polyp extension and the base is dying....
base dying could also be a flow issue acros need ons of flow to be happy.... shoot for around 25x's total tank water turnover per hour
was that the color of the coral when u got it from the LFS?? is so they just wanted u to take it off there hands they should never sell an unhealthy coral like that unless it was very cheap
 

quakstar

Member
That is definitely the color of what it was and never had any sort of spores coming off of it. This is my first so i am still learning i did not have it in a good current so i put a new power head on it giving it a constant swirling current around it now maybe that will help but thanks for the advise
not new to salt water but very new to the green thumb of corals
 

murph145

Active Member
u got it acros are the toughest corals usually to keep alive theres some basic things they like.... light, good random flow (not direct), and very clean water
if u can meet these do your research get the nitrates down add some more flow then id try some frags from a local reefer they are usually more hardy
good luck!
 

quakstar

Member
thank you so much for the advise... I am working on the nitrates what would you say is the ideal perfect level of nitrates my store told me to never get them to 0 but i have never really known i just know i have never seen mine get all the way to 0 or should you just aim for 12.5?
 

murph145

Active Member
well for sps corals heres an ideal water table parameters IMO
temp 78-82 but constant not varying too much at anytime
salinity 1.024-1.026 using a refractometer
Ammonia 0
nitrates 0-5! preferably 0
nitrites 0
phosphates 0-.25
calcium 390-450ppm
alkalinity 8-10 dkh
magnesium 1250-1450
flow 20x's + some run around 100x's turnover in an sps tank
light-very bright ;-)
thats kinda a general rule of thumb and i know some will wander out of the guide lines i like but each tank runs a lil differently
 

quakstar

Member
thank you so much and i just want to say i looked at some of your post of your aquarium and i think it is absolutely astounding... What do you think of comuteing to central north carolina to work on my aquarium daily :-D
 
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