Help! Montipora

[mrdamsel]

Hello everyone! I am a beginner and have my tank setup for two months. On my 40 gallon breeder and have various mushrooms, polyps, and soft and hard coral in my tank. I was wanting to put some Montipora at the very very top of my rockwork so it will be a few inches from the T5 HO light I have. The main question I had was if it will be enough light for it. The tank is only 16 inches but the montipora will be place about 4-5 inches below the water surface. If any, what montipora would you recommend? Please respond. I don't want to get livestock and have it die on me. Any help is highly appreciated:spin3:!!

 

[danil]

I would wait on monty for few more months when you get your feeding, dosing, wc etc routines stable and your tank get a bit more matured. If you think you are ready... get green or red montipora capricornis. Your lights should be OK for this coral.

 

[mrdamsel]

Thanks! Yes, I also was thinking to wait even though I have never overdosed the system. I was actually thinking of the German blue polyp montipora and the red one. What about the German blue polyp? BTW, each bulb is 39 watts.

 

[Ken_S_NY]

How many and type of T5 bulbs do you have. Which fixture?

I have a 4 bulb DIY from reefgeek with individual reflectors and I can grow montipora at the bottom of my 40br.

If you put the plating montipora up high it will shade out other corals eventually.

 

[mrdamsel]

The fixture has a single large reflector and has two 39 watt bulbs: one 10000 k daylight and one 420 nm actinic. Thanks. Also the fixture is a zoo med aquasun!

 

[Reef Bass]

That's not a ton of light but you might get by. I suggest Montipora digitata. Montipora capricornus could work as well, though if you're successful, it will quickly get (too) large.