Is this a normal condition for the montipora?

[Gore15]

I am not sure if I am giving my coral wrong lighting or wrong flow strength. The higher up of the branch has a lot of open polyps but lower parts have very little or none. 
 

Could anyone more knowledgeable give me some hints? Thank you. 

[Tired]

What light do you have over the tank, and what is the flow like? The flesh between the polyps looks a bit pale or thinned out near the base as well. Is this a recent development, or has it been like this as long as you've had it? 

[RoyalGramma001]

It looks like it isn't getting enough light. 

[Clownfish king]

Hey I think you have a dud light. A good light is a nicrew one. I also notice u have several closed zoa polyps in the background maybe try a dif light

[Gore15]

I am using a maxspect Razer R420R 70w. I am more scared that I am giving it too much light. My tank is a shallow tank and I use a jaebo wavemaker rw 4 in its lowest settings. If Increase the settings some of the soft corals will get pulled really hard to one side. My tank is 80L max capacity with about 65L of water or so.

 

Should I put it closer to the high light density? 

[mcarroll]

11 hours ago, Gore15 said:

I am more scared that I am giving it too much light.

Fear not!  But maybe worry a little.  I do not worry about your light or flow (yet).  I do worry a little that there is no mention of the tank's nitrate or phosphate test results (yet).  I also worry a little that the tank looks fairly new....that can mean more challenges for a new stony coral frag.

 

Can you briefly fill us in on the tank's history/build along with all of your most recent test results?  If you don't have any test results for nitrates or phosphates, get some.  Your LFS is likely to test for free or cheap if you don't have the test kits at home.  👍

[Tired]

Good advice. And if you have your LFS test your water, ask them for exact numbers, not just "good" or "bad". 

 

If you plan to stay in the hobby, you should definitely get test kits. Nitrates and phosphates are probably most important right now. Liquid test kits, not dip-strip ones. 

[Gore15]

Thank you for the comments and interest you show in my efforts. My last tests, about 8 days ago are s follows:

 

Tank details and age:

I bought the tank/inherited it from a friend. It is a shallow reef tank of 85x35x20 (cm) and the last 10 cm of the tank is the filter compartment. If I remember correctly he started the tank in march 2020. Since then (one month ago today) I made the following changes to the tank:

 

• Reduced the rocks to half. There was too much rock inside the tank imho (I might be completely wrong. I am creating a thread to gather some input about aquascaping). Will link it here.
• Cleanup up all the glass and did move around the sand a little bit to make some dead stuff go into the filter foam and cleaned that up. There was algae on the glass and on the rocks, cleaned up the glass algae and the rock algae is slowly reducing.
• Cleaned up the wave maker
• Bought and installed an ATO to keep the water salinity more stable
• moved the light a bit higher over the tank to spread the light a little bit

 

 

Parameters:

• Salinity: 1023 (I tested again last night)
• Alk: 9.3
• Ca: 380
• Mg: 1480
• Ammonia, No2, No3, po4: no change in the color, so very close to zero.
• Temperature: 25c (using analog thermometer, the ones with liquid inside). The heater that I have is set to 24,5 since that looks to be less accurate and after few tries I came to that number matching 25c.

 

I did all the tests using Salifert test kits. I change about 6 liters of water every week. The top up happens twice a day at 9am and 9pm using an ATO pump.

 

Light and flow:

• I am using Jebao RW-4 Wavemaker and I feel it is too strong for my long shallow reef. I tried the lowest settings and still feel it is too much.
• For light I am using a MaxSpect R420R 70W NANO, and for now I set it up to use a Preset which automatically turn the strength of the light up and down.

Livestocks

• Five snails
• Two clownfish
• One pom pom crab 

Corals:

• Total of 13 corals: SPS, LPS, a green star polyp, and one green mushroom

[Tired]

Ok, sounds like you have a decent start. You need to get your nutrients up, though. Nitrates should never go below 5ppm, and phosphates should never go below about 0.03ppm. Those are both minimum numbers for the average tank, most tanks should run higher numbers. Corals and beneficial algae need those nutrients to survive. 

 

How much are you feeding? You should feed the fish daily, a good amount, and consider feeding the corals. LPS in particular like to be fed. Feeding the tank will help to get the nutrients up.

 

Can you take a picture of the whole tank and how the rock looks? It looks like dry rock with a bit of algae in the picture there. 

[RoyalGramma001]

On 12/26/2020 at 10:50 PM, Clownfish king said:

Hey I think you have a dud light. A good light is a nicrew one. I also notice u have several closed zoa polyps in the background maybe try a dif light

The nicrew light is not very good from what I could see they only have whites and blues. Not enough for sps like montipora. While the maxspect light it very good

5 hours ago, Gore15 said:

Thank you for the comments and interest you show in my efforts. My last tests, about 8 days ago are s follows:

 

Tank details and age:

I bought the tank/inherited it from a friend. It is a shallow reef tank of 85x35x20 (cm) and the last 10 cm of the tank is the filter compartment. If I remember correctly he started the tank in march 2020. Since then (one month ago today) I made the following changes to the tank:

 

• Reduced the rocks to half. There was too much rock inside the tank imho (I might be completely wrong. I am creating a thread to gather some input about aquascaping). Will link it here.
• Cleanup up all the glass and did move around the sand a little bit to make some dead stuff go into the filter foam and cleaned that up. There was algae on the glass and on the rocks, cleaned up the glass algae and the rock algae is slowly reducing.
• Cleaned up the wave maker
• Bought and installed an ATO to keep the water salinity more stable
• moved the light a bit higher over the tank to spread the light a little bit

 

 

Parameters:

• Salinity: 1023 (I tested again last night)
• Alk: 9.3
• Ca: 380
• Mg: 1480
• Ammonia, No2, No3, po4: no change in the color, so very close to zero.
• Temperature: 25c (using analog thermometer, the ones with liquid inside). The heater that I have is set to 24,5 since that looks to be less accurate and after few tries I came to that number matching 25c.

 

I did all the tests using Salifert test kits. I change about 6 liters of water every week. The top up happens twice a day at 9am and 9pm using an ATO pump.

 

Light and flow:

• I am using Jebao RW-4 Wavemaker and I feel it is too strong for my long shallow reef. I tried the lowest settings and still feel it is too much.
• For light I am using a MaxSpect R420R 70W NANO, and for now I set it up to use a Preset which automatically turn the strength of the light up and down.

Livestocks

• Five snails
• Two clownfish
• One pom pom crab 

Corals:

• Total of 13 corals: SPS, LPS, a green star polyp, and one green mushroom

Nutrients are way too low

[Clownfish king]

1 hour ago, RoyalGramma001 said:

The nicrew light is not very good from what I could see they only have whites and blues. Not enough for sps like montipora. While the maxspect light it very good

Nutrients are way too low

Well the nicrew light is working with my frogspawn coral. Though each I could see why montis would not work with a nicrew. Also my nicrew has a red light. 

[Gore15]

3 hours ago, Tired said:

Can you take a picture of the whole tank and how the rock looks? It looks like dry rock with a bit of algae in the picture there. 

Here is a photo. Note that I upped the channel 1, yellow light a lot to take the photos. otherwise I am keeping the blue to yellow light in factor of 3-1. I am having a program that the light goes on starting 10am down to 10pm in a staggered going up and going down mode.

 

 

[Tired]

Yeah, that rock isn't well established at all. Definitely started with dry rock, and hasn't matured well since March. Except that one patch of coraline, that's odd. Did the rock you removed have more colors on it? 

[Gore15]

54 minutes ago, Tired said:

Yeah, that rock isn't well established at all. Definitely started with dry rock, and hasn't matured well since March. Except that one patch of coraline, that's odd. Did the rock you removed have more colors on it? 

The rocks I removed were in the right side and half of the rocks were out of water and half inside the water. The tank lid has an open cutting on the right side, say 20cm to 10cm. The rocks I removed were pretty bad. they looked like as they have spider net on them. I do not know if he has started with dry or live rock. 😞 

 

By the coraline you mean the rock on the right side where it is reddish color? the one with the mushroom on it?

 

[Tired]

If he had started with live rock, there would be much more algae on it. Yes, the reddish color is coraline. It's a type of algae that has calcium in it. It's hard for pest algae to grow on, so it's good to have. Keep an eye on the coraline, and see if it's growing. If it grows, conditions are likely good for corals. 

 

It's fine to have rock sticking out of the water, if you like how it looks. That's how rocks often are in the wild. 

[Gore15]

36 minutes ago, Tired said:

If he had started with live rock, there would be much more algae on it. Yes, the reddish color is coraline. It's a type of algae that has calcium in it. It's hard for pest algae to grow on, so it's good to have. Keep an eye on the coraline, and see if it's growing. If it grows, conditions are likely good for corals. 

 

It's fine to have rock sticking out of the water, if you like how it looks. That's how rocks often are in the wild. 

Is it advisable to add more fish and coral to the tank at this stage or I should wait? I have been thinking about two more fish and few more corals (in addition to mangroves and macro algae).

 

I am thinking about the following two fish, and of course I will add few more snails and crabs along with the fish. 

 

• Amblyeleotris randalli - Randall's partner goby
• Elacatinus figaro - Yellow neon cleaner goby
   

[Tired]

You should probably get your corals and whatnot healthy and happy before adding any additional livestock to worry about. 

 

Make sure you cover the hole in the lid, too. Fish jump, especially gobies. 

[A.m.P]

4 hours ago, Gore15 said:

The rocks I removed were in the right side and half of the rocks were out of water and half inside the water. The tank lid has an open cutting on the right side, say 20cm to 10cm. The rocks I removed were pretty bad. they looked like as they have spider net on them. I do not know if he has started with dry or live rock. 😞 

 

By the coraline you mean the rock on the right side where it is reddish color? the one with the mushroom on it?

 

Brown bubbly spider netting?

 

9 hours ago, RoyalGramma001 said:

The nicrew light is not very good from what I could see they only have whites and blues. Not enough for sps like montipora. While the maxspect light it very good

They have *White and Blue channels*, but other LEDs within each cluster, worth noting people can grow sps with W+B par bulbs and Cool White fluorescents so the need for other spectrums is perhaps a bit overstated. 

[mitten_reef]

two points

1. Not a montipora
2. are your light clamp screws soaked in saltwater?  Are they metal screws?  if so, sooner or later that'll become a problem...

 

[I'm Batman]

Salinity is low and your alk, Ca and mag do not seem relative. With mag that that high, that’s strange for 1.023, I could be wrong... can you mix your water at 1.026 and then retest those Params?

[Snow_Phoenix]

12 hours ago, RoyalGramma001 said:

The nicrew light is not very good from what I could see they only have whites and blues. Not enough for sps like montipora. While the maxspect light it very good

Nutrients are way too low

 

11 hours ago, Clownfish king said:

Well the nicrew light is working with my frogspawn coral. Though each I could see why montis would not work with a nicrew. Also my nicrew has a red light. 

I noticed there are different *types (or maybe models?) of Nicrew lights out there. The ones with *only whites & blues definitely can't support SPS long-term. I know a reefer here personally who tried to use it over a tank which had some SPS and even nem in it, and he eventually had to upgrade his lights because the light couldn't support his animals (nem looked bad, and the SPS was mud-brown). I did come across someone else who used a Nicrew which had some red in it - like Clownfish described, but I'm not sure if it can support SPS long-term because I didn't ask that person. I think some LPS *might be able to work with it, but it's a stretch. 🤔

[Gore15]

10 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

two points

1. Not a montipora
2. are your light clamp screws soaked in saltwater?  Are they metal screws?  if so, sooner or later that'll become a problem...

 

Could you be specific on what the coral please.

The screws are not metal or at least no metal part is visible (covered in plastic) and the poles that the light is assembled on is on the outside of the tank.

11 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Brown bubbly spider netting?

 

They have *White and Blue channels*, but other LEDs within each cluster, worth noting people can grow sps with W+B par bulbs and Cool White fluorescents so the need for other spectrums is perhaps a bit overstated. 

Yes, that is the one.

[Gore15]

9 hours ago, I'm Batman said:

Salinity is low and your alk, Ca and mag do not seem relative. With mag that that high, that’s strange for 1.023, I could be wrong... can you mix your water at 1.026 and then retest those Params?

it might be because I added some MG to the tank and my measurement has not been good enough. 

[Gore15]

A brand new question since you know my tank now... Would it be advisable to get a AI Hydra 52 HD for my tank since my current light is not covering the whole tank. I am just worried that such a big strong lamp may cause harm to my LPS.

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, Gore15 said:

Could you be specific on what the coral please.

The screws are not metal or at least no metal part is visible (covered in plastic) and the poles that the light is assembled on is on the outside of the tank.

Yes, that is the one.

It looks more like a stylophora to me.
 

And good that all metal parts are not in the water. 

 

lastly, I think someone else mentioned on your other thread(not sure which) that you need to switch your top-off location.