Lighting for Montipora Capricornis

[osi]

Hi guys and girls..

I like to hear from you guys who keep Montipora Plate Coral ( Montipora capricornis ) under T5 lights. Only T5 lights, No MH or LED.

I’m building a new reef tank and its going to be heavily stock with Plate Coral. And I’m going to use T5’s as my only supplement lighting.

I like to know about your light combos and also how many watts and depth of your tanks. It’s very good if you can post pictures of your Plate Coral colonies with details of your lighting.

Cheers.

[yousmellsfishy]

Mine grew like a weed under T5 only.

[sanchoy]

Monti caps are easy sps corals. They are more forgivable.

[Reef Bass]

150-400 par.

[zachfishman]

Mine grew in a 120g lit only by 2x65w PCs and a 40w 20k T12 tube. It was near the surface though...

[seanm001]

I have green and red Monti caps at about 20" depth under 12 hours of actinics at 4x54w and the white lights come on for an hour or two a day for an additional 4x54w. I feed the tank frozen cyclopeeze and aminos. Both montis are growing like weeds and colored beautifully.

I also have an orange plate coral on the sand, but I suppose that's a different kind of plate than what you were asking about.

[sslak]

I had healthy monti caps in my stock 14g biocube under PC lighting.

It doesn't take much.

[ezerasurfr]

keep it under decent flow, not too heavy - but good flow will make them grow fast and healthy.

[osi]

I’m going to keep all my Monti Cap within first 30” from the water level in my 48” deep tank. It will be fix on my live rock pillars in spiral formation.

According to Giesemann technicians there T5’s are good to grow SPS up to 80 cm (31.5”)
I’m planning to use 8 × 80w Giesemann powerchrome T5 bulbs on IceCap ballast and SKIMZ aluminium parabolic reflectors.

Bulb combo will be

3 × Aquablue 80w
2 × Actini plus 80w
2 × Pureactinic 80w
1 × Aquapink 80w

Like to know what you guys think about this.

BTW my tank capacity is 2260 L and tank flow will provided by 2 × 5000 L/H pumps + 1 × 9000 L/H return pump. Hope it will be not too much flow for Monti Caps.

[AquaReeferMan]

65g with 6 HOT5s. All Giesemann lamps(39w). Pretty much all SPS. 24" deep tank.
4 Actinic+
1 Aqua Blue
1 Midday


http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e349/aquareeferman/30ced3f8.jpg

[osi]

Nice tank mate. It’s good to know T5s work on 24”. Think I should add midday to my bulb combo.

Btw what’s on the back wall of ya tank?

[docjames]

4 years now going to 5. Everything just kept growing using ATF only!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0K8_wtALGq8VkVVbUZaRmVuQmc