[mberth3205]

So I have tried now for almost 8 months to get 3 pieces of monty to grow 2 orange and 1 green, I have Digi, and many acro's that are growing well but so far my montipora just kind of sits there, I keep my calc at 460, KH at 9, mag 1500, potassium 410, undetectable phos, nitrite, nitrate, no ammonia, no algae blooms, par is around 200 with moderate flow not sure what is going on any ideas?

Also for feeding I have ISOCHRYSIS, nannochloropsis running through a drip line at about 2oz a day.

 

[weimers75]

Where are they in your tank? Do they have any white spots on them? Pics would help.

 

[mberth3205]

there in the lower 1/3 of the tank, the one that is doing the best is sitting under a birdsnest, they all have white growth spots, and growth lines but when I compared my monthy measurements over the last 6 months they added about 1mm each in diameter, the 2 others are sitting in the front corner of the tank and are getting the same amount of light par wise, just don't seem to be doing any growing. They do have very good color though.

 

[weimers75]

Can you post a pic? The white spots may mean monti eating nudi's which would explain why your acros are doing well.

 

[mberth3205]

best I could get

 

[weimers75]

The monti in the pic looks like a verrucosa from the bumps but is hard to see, not a typical cap. Verrucosa are typically slower growers, and mine tend to grow in spurts. You mentioned you have a digi (also a monti), is that growing normally? What do the undersides of the monti look like? That's usually where monti eating nudis hit first.

 

[mberth3205]

digi is out of control underside is clean, no eggs or bug of any sort

 

[weimers75]

The eggs and bugs are very tiny and usually can only be seen at night (and sometimes even then are hard to spot). Are there areas of tissue damage on the bottom? My guess is they were stressed at some point and just need time. Did they all come from the same source?

 

[mberth3205]

Yes they all came from blue fish aquarium, I gave them all iodine baths for about 15 minutes before placing them in the tank, I will say the one piece I recently moved to a shaded area has started to grow a little more. maybe its just getting to much light?

 

[weimers75]

If they're getting too much light they will bleach. I'm betting the stress from the iodine (maybe too strong) or a stress from before is the cause. Sometimes when corals get stressed they take a long time to recover. I've had a few monti's that did that after I started a phosphate reactor.

 

[mberth3205]

I don't Dose iodine or have a phosphate reactor, currently i'm using bio pellets and using my yellow acro's as a guide to my must flow to let though.

 

[weimers75]

I was saying those as examples of what can happen when they are stressed, not that that is what is causing your problems: You could have used too much iodine or too long in the dip and that could have stressed them, or they could have been stressed in the move or at the store since they all came from the same source. I mentioned the phosphate reactor as an example of when mine got stressed and how long they took to recover.

They may also not like the biopellets...in my experience montis seem to take longer to recover. When I used the phosphate reactor, I had a whole colony of monti bleach, another lost the bright color and never recoverd...all acros were pretty much unharmed.