Tempurature for Monapora

I have a Monapora frag that for a couple of weeks was doing great but recently has taken a turn for the worse.  One thing I have noticed is that when I turn donw the main lights (250w MH) it seems to open up.  With the main lights on the tank sits at a pretty steady 77 degrees.  After a night of no lights it is at 72-73 degrees and that is when the monapora looks the best. (Ph 8.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0, Calcium 380-420)

My tank usually is around 80 deg most of the time, and mine have been doing fine.

Edited by WhiteReef

78°F

I'd be interested to know if anyone here keeps their tank (reef tank, not shark tank) in the low 70s?

Is it Montipora Digitita? What does it look like now. I had all of my montipora digitita retract in December and I blamed it on my blenny. Now I am not sure and I don't know what is wrong either. They still are somewhat retracted and come more out during the night than the day. If this sounds the same I would be curious to learn more about your tank and see if we have anything in common that might be causing it. The weird thing is although they don't look very healty they are still growing.

It is a monapora Digitita and it does seem to come out during the night.  I haven't seen many of our fish around it so I don't think they are disturbing it.  Both frags (both are doing the same thing) are near the top of the tank with good water movement.  I am going to try a little direct feeding to see if that will encourage them to open up more.  They had been in the tank a little over a week and looked good until the other day. The tank is lit with 4-250w MH (spread over 8 feet of tank surface) All the other corals seem to be doing good.  Hopefully a little extra food will help.

Did you start the frag at the bottom and work it up to the top?  I've found with my lights (2-400w in a 110g) and frags (sps in general) they adjust better if I put them on the sand bed for the first week and then slowly move them up the rock work.  This allows them to adjust to your lighting.  Are they bleaching at all?  It may be they just need some time to adjust.

I've never tried feeding.  Let us know if it seems to help. 

Here are 3 pics of the Weimers up-and-coming 300 gal. tank with the Montipora on the left in 2 of the pics.


The Lawnmower Blenny is doing an absolutely fantastic job on the Bryopsis.

Those turbo snails are about 1.5" and have done a number on the hair algae and bryopsis.

This is the sump which has 3 types of Caulerpa and 4 other types of macroalgae.   


Edited by Mark Peterson

Mark, are you sure that the algae the Weimer's have is Bryopsis?  I don't think it is.  The Bryopsis that I have seen is more feathery.

Edited by Marcus

I thought that Bryopsis was poisonous to most things...

http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/algae_page/bryopsis.htm

 

It certaintly looked like hair algae to me when I was at their house.