whats up...my montipora doesn't seem to like bright light?

[toonces]

hey all,
i have a plating montipora (monti cap?) in my 110 under 2x150 mh and 2x115 actinic pc.
i had a problem when i first put it in where it seemed to gradually be losing color, fading from a medium electric green to a very pale green. it was sitting about 12" from the lights.
i moved it lower and sort of under a hanging ledge so it got more indirect light, and it colored up much better. unfortunately, i got some big turbo snails and they knocked it off its perch. so, after about 3-4 months in that shaded spot, i moved it back to the original spot where it receives nice, direct light, and it seems to be fading again. it's not bleached, but it definately is lighter green now.

i thought this species liked really bright light?

 

[murphreef]

ive had the same issues with 2 frags i bought of monti caps one was a redish and the other an orange i mounted them about 10" below one of my 250W 20K DE they faded away and died... i had the orange one for a while ona piece of egg crate that was holding my small frags out of direct light it was neon orange but as soon as i put it under the MH it bleached right away and i couldnt save it...

 

[cato]

I'm picking up a purple and an orange frag of monti cap today. It would be nice to know if MH is too intense for these. I was planning on placing them on a flat ledge near the top of my tank. Now I'm not so sure. My set up is a 150w MH and 2-65w PC. Is this too much.

 

[murphreef]

id say compare them to what they are under now then i would start them low to acclimate them ... i duno maybe i just had bad luck

 

[toonces]

see, i just don't know.
i'm sure i've read that monti's like bright light. in fact, when i brought this up when it started fading the first time a while back, i was strongly encouraged NOT to put it in a shadier part of the tank.
i realize that a coral can bleach in response to being shocked by bright light, but this change shouldn't be that dramatic to cause it to bleach. i'll try to get a picture at some point to show what i mean.

 

[Wiskey]

I have monti's that love bright light, and ones that don't. I dont' know why but that is the way it is. None of mine seem to like as much light as say,.. a tort.

Whiskey

 

[cato]

I know my favite bleached quite a bit when I first added it. It's been about 6 weeks now and it's slowly making a comeback. Being a newbie, I take full blame for my ignorance in light acclimation at the time. I've since learned.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Most of my plating Montipora have not been very high light corals - I always put them much lower than my light loving Acropora.

Some varieties can handle it, but IME plate-like Montiporas react more strongly negatively to very strong light vs. many Acropora, or branching Montipora. Water flow may have something to do with this, too [if high light, IMO more water flow].

Just my impression.

 

[raddogz]

I would agree with MiddletonMark. I moved an orange cap up to the middle of the tank (at the very back), and it went from vivid orange to a pale melon color

 

[AWExotics]

Monti's can handle strong light but they need to be acclimated to the new light intensity. I gorw the same Orange/Red Cap under many different lighting parameters and it has always done fine. But If I was to pull the colony out of my PC lit 40 Gal and drop it below my 250W MH .. ummm it would cook.

Todd

 

[MiddletonMark]

Agree, don't mean to imply they can't be acclimated to high light - but acclimate poorly to increases + at least a few color nice without the need for that light.

 

[cutsupremetrib]

the orange monti cap i bought was underneath a 10000 k 1000 watt bulb at inland aquatics now its under a 400 watt 15 k xm bulb and two pc lights one actinic and one daytime for a total of 592 watts should i worry about bleaching? or should it color up its about half way down in my 65 gallon

 

[slojmn]

All frags need a little time to acclimate from stress during move from tank to tank. It is just good practice to start low and give the monti at least a few weeks to settle in and then slowly move it to the desired placement in the tank. I have two plating montis that came from intensely lit tanks and they both lost color and intensity within a week of placing them low in my tank, I figured it was just a stress response. As the weeks have passed the color and intensity of the rim color has returned. Now I can easily move the frags slowly up if I desire since I know they were both high up in previouos tanks under more light than I have. Tank conditions also play a part. Tanks that have really clear water,i.e low dissolved organics, can have lower light levels and still bleach out a coral that is coming from a tank that has high dissolved organics. The light intensity is very high when your water is crystal clear. Just a few of my observations over the years

 

[toonces]

thanks for the inputs.
i'm guessing my coral just doesn't prefer the higher light intensity.
it's really noticable how the color has faded, so i'm going to move it lower and just cement it to the rock i guess.