Katropora Owners Thread

[TheKleinReef]

Roger, if you have the means and want to go this route Interceptor is back on the market.

 

I've had them for a while and they never caused any damage, the AEFW however, are.

[Tamberav]

Sorry to hear about the pests Klein. Stay vigilant!

 

 

You are #41, thanks for filling out the form

 

Am I on the list? Is there a form I need to fill out?

[sprite]

On first page

[sprite]

Dec 18 2015 under ATI t5 6x24 powermodule(3 blue+ and 3 coral+)

 

Just taken.. Been under 250w radium 20k for a little over a week now

[TheKleinReef]

_RMK4318.jpg by Roger Klein, on Flickr

 

I miss my tank already.

[metrokat]

Dec 18 2015 under ATI t5 6x24 powermodule(3 blue+ and 3 coral+)

 

 

Just taken.. Been under 250w radium 20k for a little over a week now

Higher light FTW

[Hexadron]

Gonna have to get one of these baby's in Canada for me to try

[HarryPotter]

Encrusting everywhere! Its well encrusted off the plug now and is battling the red cap. Luckily it beats the red cap but I may try to help it out by scraping some of the red montipora off.

 

[metrokat]

The main body is more minty blue/green now, that's awesome.

[HarryPotter]

The main body is more minty blue/green now, that's awesome.

 

Yeah more teal in person than I can capture with my iPhone

 

Just encrusting though! When will this stubborn acro start to branch haha

[metrokat]

 

Yeah more teal in person than I can capture with my iPhone

 

Just encrusting though! When will this stubborn acro start to branch haha

it will take time, it's building a solid foundation first. Also, as with I think maybe Sprite's tank, it encrusted like mad and no branching growth, I think it is dependent on light as well.

[HarryPotter]

it will take time, it's building a solid foundation first. Also, as with I think maybe Sprite's tank, it encrusted like mad and no branching growth, I think it is dependent on light as well.

 

Stupid LEDs! I want to get a small MH fixture just to put over SPS island

[Chris!]

 

Stupid LEDs! I want to get a small MH fixture just to put over SPS island

 

SPS will grow just fine under LEDs, radions, AIs, and even the cheapo chinese black boxes lol

[afyounie]

What is the update on the wait list? Every time I see this coral, I just want it more.

[metrokat]

What is the update on the wait list? Every time I see this coral, I just want it more.

I'll have frags available in a couple of weeks. I'll update everyone.

[jedimaster1138]

it will take time, it's building a solid foundation first. Also, as with I think maybe Sprite's tank, it encrusted like mad and no branching growth, I think it is dependent on light as well.

 

I've had one of these for a while...several years in fact. It's been a slow grower and a bit of an enigma for me, but then again, my tank is a little...complex when it comes to acropora. That's a bit of a long story though, that I won't recount here. lol.

 

A few fun facts that I've observed over a few years though...

 

- It likes to encrust - A LOT. Like, a lot. It almost acts like a encrusting montipora, crawling all over the rock work both horizontally and vertically at probably 3x or more of the speed it grows vertically for me.

 

- It doesn't like high nitrate and seems to appreciate very, very low nitrate.

 

- It REALLY doesn't like high phosphate. At least if you care about color and growth rate.

 

My reef, being the phosphate enigma that it is, can be less than ideal for this acropora. During that short period where I was able to reduce phosphate levels down to where some people think is "good", this acropora actually colored up nicely and growth took off. A high levels of P, the color is mostly green with a tiny bit of purple on the tips. With low P, the green actually turns more minty, with a gradient to more of a minty blue. At the tips, bright purple with some pink even in the coralites.

 

Again, that's just in my reef.

 

Where it is placed it doesn't get high light at all and flow is not significant. It's being shaded and barricaded by a football sized ORA Purple Stylophora colony. Moving the stylo is clearly not even a consideration. I *could* move the kat, but that means losing most/all of the encrustration. At some point i will be forced to do this as the stylo completely covers it, but I'm mostly stalling because I don't have a good alternative place to put the kat right now. I guess we'll see if something craps out in the meantime.

 

I would highly recommend to place this acro in pretty high light. I'm not going to quote inches or PAR or whatever because I don't have PAR #'s handy and every tank is different in terms of lighting distance, so inches are useless to this discussion. Whatever is "high light" in your reef, give this the same.

 

Lastly, if you don't have the minty green slight blue with a little purple and pink color that you want...check your N and P, and check em often.

 

PS - I'm assuming here that you have alkalinity dialed in and nice and stable. It's definitely not a coral that enjoys being a swinger. I would not at all call this a "beginner's coral".

[metrokat]

I've had one of these for a while...several years in fact. It's been a slow grower and a bit of an enigma for me, but then again, my tank is a little...complex when it comes to acropora. That's a bit of a long story though, that I won't recount here. lol.

 

A few fun facts that I've observed over a few years though...

 

- It likes to encrust - A LOT. Like, a lot. It almost acts like a encrusting montipora, crawling all over the rock work both horizontally and vertically at probably 3x or more of the speed it grows vertically for me.

 

- It doesn't like high nitrate and seems to appreciate very, very low nitrate.

 

- It REALLY doesn't like high phosphate. At least if you care about color and growth rate.

 

My reef, being the phosphate enigma that it is, can be less than ideal for this acropora. During that short period where I was able to reduce phosphate levels down to where some people think is "good", this acropora actually colored up nicely and growth took off. A high levels of P, the color is mostly green with a tiny bit of purple on the tips. With low P, the green actually turns more minty, with a gradient to more of a minty blue. At the tips, bright purple with some pink even in the coralites.

 

Again, that's just in my reef.

 

Where it is placed it doesn't get high light at all and flow is not significant. It's being shaded and barricaded by a football sized ORA Purple Stylophora colony. Moving the stylo is clearly not even a consideration. I *could* move the kat, but that means losing most/all of the encrustration. At some point i will be forced to do this as the stylo completely covers it, but I'm mostly stalling because I don't have a good alternative place to put the kat right now. I guess we'll see if something craps out in the meantime.

 

I would highly recommend to place this acro in pretty high light. I'm not going to quote inches or PAR or whatever because I don't have PAR #'s handy and every tank is different in terms of lighting distance, so inches are useless to this discussion. Whatever is "high light" in your reef, give this the same.

 

Lastly, if you don't have the minty green slight blue with a little purple and pink color that you want...check your N and P, and check em often.

 

PS - I'm assuming here that you have alkalinity dialed in and nice and stable. It's definitely not a coral that enjoys being a swinger. I would not at all call this a "beginner's coral".

Your observations are awesome. I hope Markalot will stop by, his colony of the Kat likes high nitrates. I'll post my observations after. Thanks Jedibear.

[HarryPotter]

 

I've had one of these for a while...several years in fact. It's been a slow grower and a bit of an enigma for me, but then again, my tank is a little...complex when it comes to acropora. That's a bit of a long story though, that I won't recount here. lol.

 

A few fun facts that I've observed over a few years though...

 

- It likes to encrust - A LOT. Like, a lot. It almost acts like a encrusting montipora, crawling all over the rock work both horizontally and vertically at probably 3x or more of the speed it grows vertically for me.

 

- It doesn't like high nitrate and seems to appreciate very, very low nitrate.

 

- It REALLY doesn't like high phosphate. At least if you care about color and growth rate.

 

My reef, being the phosphate enigma that it is, can be less than ideal for this acropora. During that short period where I was able to reduce phosphate levels down to where some people think is "good", this acropora actually colored up nicely and growth took off. A high levels of P, the color is mostly green with a tiny bit of purple on the tips. With low P, the green actually turns more minty, with a gradient to more of a minty blue. At the tips, bright purple with some pink even in the coralites.

 

Again, that's just in my reef.

 

Where it is placed it doesn't get high light at all and flow is not significant. It's being shaded and barricaded by a football sized ORA Purple Stylophora colony. Moving the stylo is clearly not even a consideration. I *could* move the kat, but that means losing most/all of the encrustration. At some point i will be forced to do this as the stylo completely covers it, but I'm mostly stalling because I don't have a good alternative place to put the kat right now. I guess we'll see if something craps out in the meantime.

 

I would highly recommend to place this acro in pretty high light. I'm not going to quote inches or PAR or whatever because I don't have PAR #'s handy and every tank is different in terms of lighting distance, so inches are useless to this discussion. Whatever is "high light" in your reef, give this the same.

 

Lastly, if you don't have the minty green slight blue with a little purple and pink color that you want...check your N and P, and check em often.

 

PS - I'm assuming here that you have alkalinity dialed in and nice and stable. It's definitely not a coral that enjoys being a swinger. I would not at all call this a "beginner's coral".

Interesting! Mine is in relatively high light yet my tank tends to have low nitrates and very low phosphates, I have the Mint/purple/green and have also noticed a TON of encrusting. I wish it would branch, but given its been in here only three months I guess I'm just impatient

 

How is your PE? I don't notice much

[TheKleinReef]

Even when I got mine, it encrusted for a while before it started to send off new branches.

 

Interesting! Mine is in relatively high light yet my tank tends to have low nitrates and very low phosphates, I have the Mint/purple/green and have also noticed a TON of encrusting. I wish it would branch, but given its been in here only three months I guess I'm just impatient

How is your PE? I don't notice much

 

Just be patient man! Kat and I are in need of another Kat-dealer and you'd be an excellent addition to the team. just keep that coral nice and happy and you'll get something like this:

21778561251_a2c5866c60_o-1 by Roger Klein, on Flickr

 

[markalot]

I don't know what it likes.

 

It's still brown in my 150 but prior to that had its best color at 20 nitrates. In my 40 gallon I have a little frag that survived a huge alk spike (but low nutrients) and then a PO4 spike, staying bright green while other acros including a slimer died and/or browned. It seems to be tolerant of any one bad parameter, just not two at the same time.

 

My bigger piece encrusted some but also put on good top growth. It probably depends on flow.

[metrokat]

Just be patient man! Kat and I are in need of another Kat-dealer and you'd be an excellent addition to the team. just keep that coral nice and happy and you'll get something like this:

 

 

That is a really great idea actually. I can't think of anything better than little Kat frags in Harrys friends tanks grown by him.

[HarryPotter]

 

That is a really great idea actually. I can't think of anything better than little Kat frags in Harrys friends tanks grown by him.

That would be pretty awesome, "Kats all around"

 

I can only hope it'll grow that well

[braaap]

Seriously. What number am I?

[markalot]

I miss not having a nicely colored katropora, still about a month out. Here's the colors I've been able to obtain so far.

 

LED (Maxspect Razor), 5 nitrates

 

T5 goodness, 20 nitrates, just crazy color.

 

T5, 5 nitrates, I would say normal color.

[metrokat]

 

I've had one of these for a while...several years in fact. It's been a slow grower and a bit of an enigma for me, but then again, my tank is a little...complex when it comes to acropora. That's a bit of a long story though, that I won't recount here. lol.

 

A few fun facts that I've observed over a few years though...

 

- It likes to encrust - A LOT. Like, a lot. It almost acts like a encrusting montipora, crawling all over the rock work both horizontally and vertically at probably 3x or more of the speed it grows vertically for me.

 

- It doesn't like high nitrate and seems to appreciate very, very low nitrate.

 

- It REALLY doesn't like high phosphate. At least if you care about color and growth rate.

 

My reef, being the phosphate enigma that it is, can be less than ideal for this acropora. During that short period where I was able to reduce phosphate levels down to where some people think is "good", this acropora actually colored up nicely and growth took off. A high levels of P, the color is mostly green with a tiny bit of purple on the tips. With low P, the green actually turns more minty, with a gradient to more of a minty blue. At the tips, bright purple with some pink even in the coralites.

 

Again, that's just in my reef.

 

Where it is placed it doesn't get high light at all and flow is not significant. It's being shaded and barricaded by a football sized ORA Purple Stylophora colony. Moving the stylo is clearly not even a consideration. I *could* move the kat, but that means losing most/all of the encrustration. At some point i will be forced to do this as the stylo completely covers it, but I'm mostly stalling because I don't have a good alternative place to put the kat right now. I guess we'll see if something craps out in the meantime.

 

I would highly recommend to place this acro in pretty high light. I'm not going to quote inches or PAR or whatever because I don't have PAR #'s handy and every tank is different in terms of lighting distance, so inches are useless to this discussion. Whatever is "high light" in your reef, give this the same.

 

Lastly, if you don't have the minty green slight blue with a little purple and pink color that you want...check your N and P, and check em often.

 

PS - I'm assuming here that you have alkalinity dialed in and nice and stable. It's definitely not a coral that enjoys being a swinger. I would not at all call this a "beginner's coral".

 

 

I don't know what it likes.

 

It's still brown in my 150 but prior to that had its best color at 20 nitrates. In my 40 gallon I have a little frag that survived a huge alk spike (but low nutrients) and then a PO4 spike, staying bright green while other acros including a slimer died and/or browned. It seems to be tolerant of any one bad parameter, just not two at the same time.

 

My bigger piece encrusted some but also put on good top growth. It probably depends on flow.

 

So in response to both of these, I'll post my experience with this coral. First of all it is extremely hardy, it can tolerate a number of things like parameter swings, lighting changes and still cling on. But what it does like is nutrients. Doesn't have to be 20 nitrates but measurable.

 

I have observed a significant jump in growth very recently. In trying to understand why - my nitrates are much lower than I like and my phosphate is stuck at 0.08 no matter what I do recently, might need a new test kit perhaps. The low nitrates and jump in growth support Jedi bears observation perhaps that it prefers lower nitrates. However as the 2nd picture will show, it loves higher phosphates too.

 

The color is gorgeous right now, minty flesh and deep purple polyps.

 

 

I did have those pink tips that Jedibear is talking about. This picture is from December

 

I think the nitrates may have been higher - or certainly the Nitrates and phosphates were in a good balance, reddfield and all maybe. I was dosing NOPOX to get both down a few points, it may have affected the nitrates without touching the phosphates and now that there is an imbalance, the pink has chosen to hide.

 

My observation is that in lower light, the flesh is a darker green.

 

In a low nutrient tank the over all colors are pale, but the polyps are still a dark purple.