Where do I find info on growing Montipora?

[justthewife]

I have been trying to find information on growing Montipora. Are there any suggested readings or books out there on this coral?

[dunc101]

Growing montipora's is really no different than growing any other SPS. For the most part you need
1.) Good lighting. Most montipora caps and digis do well in just moderate light while other SPS require very intense lighting.
2.) Low PO4 and nitrates (0.03 PO4 or so)
3.) Tank stability of the big 3 (ALK, CA, and Mg with ALK being the top one if I had to pick).

The good news is that most montipora's (monti caps and digis for instance) are fast growers for the most part and will tolerate some less than ideal parameters unlike some other acros.

If you are looking for some good reads, find some articles about keeping SPS.

[tdb320reef]

Growing montipora's is really no different than growing any other SPS. For the most part you need
1.) Good lighting. Most montipora caps and digis do well in just moderate light while other SPS require very intense lighting.
2.) Low PO4 and nitrates (0.03 PO4 or so)
3.) Tank stability of the big 3 (ALK, CA, and Mg with ALK being the top one if I had to pick).

The good news is that most montipora's (monti caps and digis for instance) are fast growers for the most part and will tolerate some less than ideal parameters unlike some other acros.

If you are looking for some good reads, find some articles about keeping SPS.


Well Said.

[justthewife]

Growing montipora's is really no different than growing any other SPS. For the most part you need
1.) Good lighting. Most montipora caps and digis do well in just moderate light while other SPS require very intense lighting.
2.) Low PO4 and nitrates (0.03 PO4 or so)
3.) Tank stability of the big 3 (ALK, CA, and Mg with ALK being the top one if I had to pick).

The good news is that most montipora's (monti caps and digis for instance) are fast growers for the most part and will tolerate some less than ideal parameters unlike some other acros.

If you are looking for some good reads, find some articles about keeping SPS.

thank you!

When you say "fast growers" how fast is fast :) That is actually my quest. To find out how fast they grow as I have one and it's growing but not very fast unless a little bit in 3 months is fast. :) My parameters are all good and I have LED lights.

[Bpb]

Montipora indeed grow fast but take time to get going. Digis are ESPECIALLY good at letting you know if they're unhappy. You want white tips, and otherwise you shouldn't see any skeleton at all. It's super common but I think red digis are one of the prettiest sps you can find because they're incredibly bright and the polyp extension is amazing.

They don't grow as fast as say...algae, or pulsing Xenia, but most montipora should be some of the fastest growing things in your tank. Impossible to actually quantify how fast they grow, but mine grow faster than any of my lps, zoas, acropora, ect.

Like others said, their needs are the same as any other sps, however unlike alot of acropora, they typically won't brown out or bleach out FIRST if things go bad. You'll see it in other species before montipora will react. Very good beginner corals in general. I had a friend that was runnig a tap water tank with horribly out of whack parameters and low lighting and all his montipora were beautiful

[xrayjeeper83]

You make em sound easy, I managed to kill two different ones lol. My lights suck though

[dunc101]

thank you!

When you say "fast growers" how fast is fast :) That is actually my quest. To find out how fast they grow as I have one and it's growing but not very fast unless a little bit in 3 months is fast. :) My parameters are all good and I have LED lights.

What type of monti is it? Some just grow faster than others and the growth rate can be dependent on a lot of things such as available light and of course nutrients in the tank and stable alk/ca. For example, I have a green monti that I placed in my tank about 15 months ago that was the size of a silver dollar. For the first 4, maybe even 5 months it grew a "little" but not a lot... at least not to my eyes. All of a sudden, it took off and now is the size of a small dinner plate growing at an alarming rate. I also have a red/orange monti cap that a friend gave me 6 months ago and was about the size of a quarter. It took it 3 months of doing "nothing" to decide it wanted to finally take off and has almost doubled in size the past couple of months.
The same has been true for all my SPS in my personal tank it seems. They all seem to take 3-6 months before I start seeing noticeable growth, so what you stated above is definitely not abnormal. =).
I am using 2 x 120 watt Maxspect Razors over a 90 gallon, FWIW.

[MS Reef Addict]

I'm running Razors on mine as well and my montipora's are doing great and grow crazy fast. They even grow on the sand bed and my tank is 29" deep.
Season's greeting monti
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-U2C5-pulO5k/UhmKG2iPMGI/AAAAAAAAAco/Vckn5ZU-JDQ/s640/DSCN2068.JPG
Green Monti cap
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FKH8VvDyDfk/UhmNKKapITI/AAAAAAAAAdc/3doSNFz9GGo/s640/DSCN2074.JPG
Orange and purple digi
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-ykPmn2FQG2A/UghgNIc_1fI/AAAAAAAAAaw/EWdcisy_Vyw/s640/IMG_0934.JPG

[Axolotl]

How do you guys get yur pieces to stick to the liverock when first introduce to the tank. I recently got some red monti and just placed them on a ledge. There are no fish in this tank now so it wont get knocked off. Will it eventually grab hold on its own once it starts to "take off"?

[MS Reef Addict]

I use super glue for smaller frags and reef epoxy for bigger pieces.

[dunc101]

How do you guys get yur pieces to stick to the liverock when first introduce to the tank. I recently got some red monti and just placed them on a ledge. There are no fish in this tank now so it wont get knocked off. Will it eventually grab hold on its own once it starts to "take off"?

I do very similar to Ms Reef Addict. For all SPS frags, I take some epoxy and place super glue on one side and stick it to the frag and also place super glue on the under side of the epoxy as well. Then just stick it to the rock.