i purchased a 2 inch superman monti frag about 4 months ago. It was totally bleached of all color and i got it for really cheap. I have it 11 inches under a 150 watt 14000K metal halide bulb. it has not colored up at all. the base is white and the polyps are a light orangeish brown. I have no detectible nitrates or phosphates. I cant move it because it has encrusted to the rock and has grown about double in size. I have another encrusting montipora (yellow/green with purple polyps growing a few inches away from it that has gotten even brighter in color over the past month. Will my superman ever color up to what its supposed to be or should i break it off and get rid of it? I have a 34 gallon rsm so any room i have i would like to just have nice pieces.

thanks

I have a Superman Monti that I had in my nanocube under the same light but was much closer, about 6" and under the light. It was nice and bright blue and red. I moved it to my 120g under 250w and it bleached. The polyps were a light pink and the body white. Moved it to the sand and the polyps are now red again and the body is starting to turn blue. Very little hint of blue though. It has been about 2 months in the sand. I don't know if it is even the light because the spot I had it in was not that bright at all. It is actually brighter on the sand. I think it might have been when I raised the temperature of the tank when I thought my Tangs had ick. That's when I noticed it turning white. I've read that it is really sensitive to parameter changes. I have since lowered the temp and it is coming back slowly.

I don't know if yours will recover since you said it is completely white from the time you have bought it but if you say it is still growing it could still come back. Mine was still growing before I moved it. That's why I didn't move it right away. It might have still been fine in that spot but I wanted to make sure I don't lose it completely. Mine still had a little color to it though. If it doesn't hurt anything, maybe give it more time or move it if you can.

Try some Brightwell Coral Amino's for a few months. That stuff has colored up some of my corals that I got from other reefers that were bleached out. I got a Tyree Sunset Monti frag that was really faded for $10. I put it in my tank about 8 inches from my 150 MH 14k's and I've been dosing the aminos. Within two weeks it looks like every other Tyree Sunset Monti. Very vibrant orange with green polyps. I also got a really bleached out Rainbow Enchinata frag from a reefer and I thought it was going to die. I could see it's skeleton through it's tissue. Two months later it's all colored up and eating mysis. I love the stuff and have had really good success with it. I've been using it for 3 months now

hey man i have hope for you. I had a white and brown superman monti, then moved it right under my 150w MH 14k. about 4" from the light



its super pretty now, with huge red polyps and a nice blue skin. just time

I fed some coral frenzy a week ago and my superman is looking like its starting to color up. The white base no longer looks white but a very light purple now.

Im not sure if it was the coral frenzy that did it or just time.
since i fed the coral frenzy, there is now a light amount of film algae on the glass, as if i missed a water change. Seeing this, Im pretty sure my water quality decreased a little.
Should i continue to feed the coral frenzy?

If in fact it was the coral frenzy which helped color up my superman a bit, then probably i would like to continue feeding and maybe do water changes more frequently or get a better skimmer.
If it was just time that helped the superman, then i should stop feeding coral frenzy and concentrate more on making my water have less nutrients right?

Any opinions on what it was that helped the color start coming back?
thanks

+1 on the amino acids, either brightwell's or zeovit's AAHC should get it looking pretty good

Coral frenzy probably provided a few fatty acids to the superman, but amino acids are like coral frenzy cubed...

thanks, ill try that.

I found two things, brightwell coral aminos and brightwell KoralColor Additive...
does anyone know the difference?

So... how did the bleached superman montipora end up ?

I just bought a really big one from a guy that had failed his tank. He lost interest and pretty much let it go. It was pretty well bleached out, but I bet his water chemistry was poor.

Any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Richard