Montipora Digitata Care

[WaffleWalffle22]

Hi

I'm a new SPS keeper. I just got a bright orange digitata frag today. It is about 1" tall. I have it 4" from the surface under 110w PC Fluorescent. There was an area (about 1cm or less) with dead tissue and GHA growing on that area, so I took my coral propagating bone cutters and cut that are off to prevent spread of dieing tissue and get rid of the GHA. It seems to be fine. It opened up its little polypie thingies 10 minutes after the 5 minutes acclimation. Has some new growth on the top. I'll try and post a picture tomorrow since the lights are off right now, but I have a few quick questions...

1. How fast do these grow in term of centimeters or inches per month on average?
2. What supplements are good for digitatas? I have strontium, molybdenum, calcium, and iodine.
3. Does it eat phytoplankton?
4. Anything else I should know about keeping digitatas?

BTW, I'm just sticking to digitatas. Yes, I realize that most SPS require MH, which is why I'm sticking to digitatas only since they can survive under PC in good conditions. This is my very first SPS. My tank is covered in zoas... I'd say at least 30 different types. I keep lots and lots of mushrooms also, probably 15-20 types. I have 2 GBTA - 1 of them is 6", the other is 3". My clownfish love my tank - the enjoy wallowing in the anemones, laying down on the polyps for naps, and using mushrooms for pillows. The run the tank which is why I never see my other fish except for my banggai cardinal fish which is my clownfish pair's BFF...

Anywho, just load a bunch of information about digitatas on me and give me tips on keeping them happy. Thanks :hammer:

 

[returnofsid]

Rate of growth will be very hard to determine, as it depends on so many things.
Do you test for strontium, molybdenum, calcium and iodine? Do you know how any of these elements benefit your reef inhabitants?

Don't supplement anything that you do not test for, AND know the benefits of.

Typically, Stony Corals need Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium...test for them all.
Most corals do not eat phytoplankton, they eat zooplankton, as they're carnivores, not herbivores. There are some soft corals that are herbivores.

If you keep M. digitata in salt water, it'll grow...lol. Okay, this is a bit of an overstatement, but not much. They're very hardy. Your M. digitata will grow just fine under your PC lights, if you meet all it's other needs.

 

[deepbluesea99]

my orange and purples seem to get better color under a whiter light 10 or 12 k. under 20k they seemed to brown out dont know why other monty and acros love the 20k.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

Well I got up this morning and waited for the lights to turn on at about 8:30. It opened up very fast and I can see new tissue starting to grow over the place I cut.

@ returnofsid...

I do have calcium, strontium & molybdenum, and iodine supplements. I add the calcium (Purple Up) which also contains iodine about 2-3 times a month along with strontium & molybdenum. I do not, and have never in my 2 years of being in the hobby, test for any supplements. I have LOTS of corals like the ones I mentioned and frgospawn, candycane, and some other brain coral thing that I've had for 2 years that just won't die, which rapidly use the supplements. My schedule of supplement adding seems fine with all the corals. Oh and I do have magnesium and a magnesium test kit... I don't use either of them and my corals seem fine...

 

[Fibinotchi]

Careful not to bleach it out by not starting down low and acclimating it to light. Even though it is pc, I have bleached out monti before under 8 watts per gallon pc light by having it 5 inches from the top.

 

[WaffleWalffle22]

I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks...
And it's about 3w per gallon.