Are these polyps partially extended, or not at all?

[paulsz]

Hi,

I have 3 monti frags in my tank for a few months now (purple cap, orange cap and a frag of the red from the wwc grafted).

The purple and orange montis have some polyp extension (see picture of orange below):




But for some reason i have trouble figuring out whether the polyps are closed or partially open for my grafted.



They look partially open but i have seen a little loss of coloration and not much growth since it has been in (almost 3 months now).

 

[tyleraoc]

They look fine to me, and yes there is a bit of coloration loss. Maybe test params and try moving lower in the tank.

 

[paulsz]

Why move down? They are 12 inches below the surface of the water and it's a 20x20x20 cube tank with an AI prime HD and two t5s supplement. Do you think that's too much?

 

[vrba]

I think that it looks great.

 

[paulsz]

When I first for it (for the first month), it was a nice deep red/orange. Now it's faded a little and I can't tell if it's too little or too much light. My params are 7.6 alk, 400-410 Cal, 1400 mag, 7.8 pH (a little low, but it's stable), undetectable nitrates and phosphates.

I am in the process of slightly raising my nitrates to 5ppm. I think it may help the softies and possibly some of the Montis