Monti losing color???

[fish clown]

I've had this Monti maybe four to five months and it seem to be losing color. I've heard Montis are sopposed to grow very fast but I haven't noticed very much.

Here is a picture that was taken probaly 4 months ago

And here is now

It's nothing significant but considering there hasn't been much growth also makes wonder if somthing is wrong with my levels.

 

[Sander_Bos]

Well, what are your water levels then? ;-)

 

[fish clown]

Ph 8.0
Alk 2.4 (hard to tell from the test exactly)
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Calcium 500
Magnesium 1320

I forgot to mention that a recently had a low alk and it caused the calcium to be 610 but it going well now.

 

[frankyrivera]

Looks like alk is way too low calcium is high and you might want a little phos you need some nutrients in there

 

[fish clown]

Looks like alk is way too low calcium is high and you might want a little phos you need some nutrients in there

Phos as on phosphates right? Are there additives that could help with this or maybe even more frequent water changes?

 

[frankyrivera]

Lol phosphates go up with feeding heavily

 

[fish clown]

Lol phosphates go up with feeding heavily

Hmm, that's interesting. I've heard over feeding causes ammonia and I had ammonia(low but I wanted it zero) so I started to feed a lot lighter. Maybe I'll try feeding a bit more. All I feed is mysis shrimp. Should I get some food for corals to?

 

[frankyrivera]

If your tank has fully cycled there should be no more amonia most people don't even test for it after the cycle. If you had amonia your fish would have died as it is highly toxic when amonia breaks down it converts to nitrite or nitrate vice versa however the point being its ok to have a little phosphate my tank runs at about .08 and my color is very intense most people would say that is too high. The funny thing is those same people run an ulns and the supplement with chemicals because they starve their corals. Feed a little more or get more fish but work on your parameters too good luck

 

[SULLY736]

What are you doing for lighting?

 

[fish clown]

If your tank has fully cycled there should be no more amonia most people don't even test for it after the cycle. If you had amonia your fish would have died as it is highly toxic when amonia breaks down it converts to nitrite or nitrate vice versa however the point being its ok to have a little phosphate my tank runs at about .08 and my color is very intense most people would say that is too high. The funny thing is those same people run an ulns and the supplement with chemicals because they starve their corals. Feed a little more or get more fish but work on your parameters too good luck

What would getting more fish do? My current livestock is one true perc clown, flame angel, 2 chromis, 2 Banggai, and a royal gramma. I am planning on a couple othe ones though.

 

[fish clown]

What are you doing for lighting?

Two Tao tronics LEDs. They are actully great and I've had noticeable growth with just about all my other corals. I'm just starting to get more into sps and I just got a green slimer acro and pocillipora but neither one has been in thee for more than a few weeks

 

[frankyrivera]

More fish equals more feeding which equals more poop equals more color lol. Are your LEDs dimmable if so are they ramped all the way up you could be fading them with too much intense light

 

[fish clown]

More fish equals more feeding which equals more poop equals more color lol. Are your LEDs dimmable if so are they ramped all the way up you could be fading them with too much intense light

They were at 80% ish on blues and 50% ish on whites. I turned them to 50% blues and more like 30% on whites to acclimate a new coral and they otherwise looked a little bit better. I'll try feeding more and ill try to add a kole tang in the next few weeks so that should help to I guess.

 

[fish clown]

Well I noticed this when Ioved the frag to get a fish. I noticed a lot of the Monti looked tan when I anged it. Are all Montis like this or is there something up with this one?

 

[fish clown]

Ok, well it has gotten much better!!! It probaly brighter than the first picture actully now. I did three things different. I fed Heavier than before and the other two involve the lights. I dimmed my lights down to 50% and the corals have gotten I bit bright but not significantly but I realized on day I had my lights on 11 1/2 hrs a day. I took it down 2 hrs less and everything has gotten much much better.