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Ryno

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I was hoping someone could give me some advice on acclimating Montipora Cap.
I have tried two times now to keep Montipora and both times they bleached and died within about two weeks. I feel that it may have been light shock as I may have rushed them into place too quickly. I just want to know if anyone has any tips to share. I am running 2 x 175w Hamilton 14k metal halides 9 hours per day in a standard 90 gallon tank. my levels are as follows.

salinity- 1.026
temp- 78-80
ph-8.1
alk-7.7 (red sea)
calc-460 (red sea)
mag-1440 (red sea)
nitrate-5 (API)
phosphate- about .025 - .030 I think (I have a hard time reading the color wheel on the red sea kit)

all other corals in the tank are fine. I'm just a little nervous to buy another one as I'm wondering if I am doing something wrong with them.
 

Ryno

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Thanks. I had a feeling it was light shock. How long should I keep them on the sand bed before I can start putting them up higher? My plan is to have a few growing out from the bottom 1/3 of the rock work below everything else.
 

JBNY

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I have had good luck with Montipora under Halides, so I can only say that you are probably starting them off with too much light. Start them off on the bottom and bring them up over time. I think they do just fine under direct light. I have had some really great growth directly under the halide.

Under middle halide 250 XM10K
DSCN4056.jpg


directly under right MH 250 watt XM10k
DSCN4023.jpg
 

Ryno

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Thank you for the replies.

Joe, Those are great looking monti's.

Just an update: shortly after my original post, I purchased another red Monti. Cap and it has been doing really well so far. I placed it on the bottom all the way to the left and it seems pretty happy. I can already see some new growth and it is starting to encrust onto the glass next to it.

piranhapat: I did double check with my Red Sea kit and it I'm definitely right around .03 Phosphate
 

vio

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JBNY (Joe) there is any reason why you like XM 10K VS Iwasaki ?
Then one more Q.
How about XM 10 K VS Radium ?
I now XM 10 K, may be faster grow, more PAR, any think ............. more than that?


Thank You.
 

JBNY

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JBNY (Joe) there is any reason why you like XM 10K VS Iwasaki ?
Then one more Q.
How about XM 10 K VS Radium ?
I now XM 10 K, may be faster grow, more PAR, any think ............. more than that?


Thank You.

Visually I think the XM10K looks much nicer than the Iwasaki, I found that growth was the same or maybe a little slightly with the XM10K.

XM10K and the radium are very different lamps. The radium looks crazy blue if you are going from an XM10K. Visually I think it is really a matter of preference as you can get very good coloration with both lamps. But growth will be stronger using an XM10K bulb than with the Radium.

All that said, I am currently using a Radium lamp over my tank. Mainly because I had used the XM10K and wanted t try a different bulb. But also because I prefer pairing the XM10K with actinics and the actinic bulbs that available for T5 IMO are terrible visually when compared to VHO actinics. So I don't use them.
 

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