Montipora Digitata: What does it like? *SPS Newb*
 

Well , the topic says it all really, I just picked up from Tarolisol a nice dark green digitata frag. It's my "first" SPS , I had a Bali Green Slimer, but sadly it didn't make it, (my lights were not sufficient)

Anyways, people with digitata, what does yours like? I want to try and get it in the perfect spot, keepnig paramaters in check, and I watn to keep note of growth, I definitely enjoy SPS, this coral is really cool .. and the fact that it seems to be thriving under 2x65W PCs makes me happy.

So if you can help me figure out the pristine conditions for this coral that would be great (lighting, flow, etc..)

They like light, and varying degrees of flow. Lighter flow results in longer thinner branches, heavy flow, think branches.

need to get me some of those think branches eh... hahah yeah more flow for thicker branches it is.. I think they looks nice when they're fat... thanks for the little tips..

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I never knew that, thanks!

Hopefully it wont brown out on you but IME the green and the purple digis I had lost most of there color under my 2 x 96W PC lighting and once I upgraded to MHs the color is coming back.

IMO they need fairly intense lighting to really do well.

if it starts to brown I will get rid of it.. but as of now its thriving, polyps fully extended, etc... but when I tried the slimer (stupid move) it browned right away.. this one hasn't.. it's mounted at the very top of the tank, about 6" or so under the lights.. so far so good?? should I get rid of it?

I had mine 6" under my lights too. It looked great. A ton of polyp extension and grew quite a bit. It just lost most of its colour. I wouldn't get rid of it just cross your fingers that it will keep some if not all the greenish colour it has now. :biggrin:

Ya, I have to agree. Although greens and pinks don't really brown out too much, blues and purples do.
Ideally MH is best, but not an absolute.

Yeah I shall cross my fingers then, but if it does brown.. I should just sell it off or something, I don't want it to just be alive, I want it to be alive and thriving , right? Otherwise, it's just kinda sittin in there haha... thanks for the info though Muck.. I'll keep a close eye.

I figured MH is best, as always.. this IS SPS after all... man oh man.. I had a chance to get a 175w MH pendant, but so many things got in teh way... mostly parents... I want that light sooooo bad, you have no idea haha

My deep purple digi went completely brown and my bright green digi faded a fair bit. It was still green so I'll agree with you on that. :mrgreen:

haha blue, purple... ah man, I really do need MH to keep these amazing corals... so simple, but they are so fasinating.. much more interesting than an LPS or softie IMHO... I really like these fuzzy sticks :smile:

Pfft, get with the program boys; the new wave of the future is sponges and gorgonians.

pwnt n00bz



:cool:

I've had some green digitata frags fall behind the rocks at the back of the tank and while they did turn brown they are definitely still growing. They have encrusted to the glass and refuse to let me rescue them :rolleyes: so i don't think you need to get rid of it if they turn brown, imo they are very tolerant of a wide variety of conitions

Green and purple digitata should do just fine under PC's I fine if you keep your Ca about 380ish and your alk slightly high (as in 12ish) they will look good. they were my low alk warning system in my tank because as soon as my alk droped below 10 they started loosing color.

Steve

hey, well my CA is at umm... 430-440 .. so no worries there, ALK is about ... uh ,, errr... i forgot hahah my bad... its in check though, I do know that much.

I will try and raise it, and see.... been in the tank for about 2 days and still looking great... if i wasnt so lazy id have pics of it up by now hahah maybe this afternoon.

don't forget to higfh of a Ca is just as bad as to low as it is harder for the coral to expell the higher concentration requiring it to use more energy to grow.

Steve