montipora digitata care

[squishifishi]

I'd love to buy a montipora digitata for my pico, but before i jump into this, i need to get some advice on care. This will be my first ever sps coral, i hear this is the best beginner one. My light is a 10watt LED and the water is only 8inches deep. should that be enough for it to grow? do they like high or low flow. can it be placed on the sandbed, or does it need to be in rock? what will I need to do differently with it that i don't do for other corals(ie feeding, supplement etc...)
thank you very much!

[tomservo]

Most montiporas are definitely on the easy side. Your light is enough for growth for certain, and you are likely to be able to get good color as well, from an intensity perspective at least. I've seen montipora digitatas grow very well in like 60-80 PAR, but that's generally not enough for good color, depending on the specific one.

I've had pieces of purple digi growing on my sand bed before, but it is best to keep it from going under, attaching it to a small rock or frag disc or simiar is a very good idea.

If you have an active local reefing community, you can probably get frags of the common montiporas for cheap or free. I got my original "frag" of purple digi from a guy and it was too big to fit in the 1.7l insulated mug I was using for a transport - for $5!

Keep in mind montiporas are generally not very robust physically. Digitatas can be fragile, I don't know how many times I've had a light bump with mine and broken off chunks.

[Reef Bass]

M. digitata is a good choice for a first sps. They are relatively hardy.

When keeping any stony coral, you'll need to monitor your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium levels, and possibly dose if your levels get too low / become depleted. With one small stony coral, water changes may be sufficient to keep levels up. Testing will let you know.

I feed my sps zooplankton (Reef Chili, Coral Frenzy, RotiFeast) a couple times a week. Not everyone does.

Good luck!

[animalkingdom]

acclimate it to the leds and you should be good to go with frequent water changes I would imagine on a pico. I would mix your salt closer to NSW if you aren't already instead of 1.021 that some people recommend. This will help ensure the calc and alk and mag stay inline. just to be safe a phosphate kit could come in handy because small tanks are easy to pollute and you want to make sure you are keeping up on water changes properly. It would probably to best on a rock as most digis do a fair amount of encrusting in addition to branching. good luck and post some pics! if you were local I could even get you started with some digi frags

[squishifishi]

thanks for the good info!
what do you mean by acclimate it to the leds. how is this done? my lfs uses leds, so will it be ok? what flow do they prefer?
Also, with fish, some colors are hardier and do better in aquariums. Is this true for digi corals? if so, which color of monti do you think is likely to do best?
so, will it be ok if I place it on a plug in the sanbed?
thanks!

[windcoast reefs]

Acclimating corals is basically adjusting your corals to your light. If you think you have more light than the LFS, then start it out lower. If you have less light start it out higher in the tank so it gets the light that its used to.

I find mine like stronger flow, it shows the base color more.

[squishifishi]

ok, thanks! I might be able to buy one next week. I hope this will be a sucess!