Superman monti wont turn blue????

My Superman is on the sandbed (on a shell), par ~200, T5 lighting. Couldn't look better. When it was mid tank it didn't have the vibrant blue that you see on them normally. After a couple weeks down low, he sprung right back to the color I purchased it as.

cdangel0 - 150w, 250w? People will be surprised to find that 150w halides at the same distance above the water as a 6 bulb T5 fixture put out lower par. I recently did a par check on my tank and a friends (his having 150w Halides and mine T5). The difference was pretty shocking.

I did the test on his and my tank because he wanted to go to T5 lighting. I told him that the T5's would put out more par... He didn't believe me and now has many corals bleached out because of the increased par.

Back on topic, leave you monti down low and it should bounce back with color in a few weeks.

Its been down on the sand for about two weeks now, and its almost dead! It's definitely not getting better down there

Have you ever had a Superman Monti in this system before?

I ask because this may just be one of those corals that isn't going to live in your tank.

I can't, for the life of me, keep Red Planet. I've tried 4 times now and every time, the corals slowly fades away and dies. I've tried multiple locations in the tank, high/low flow. You name it, I've failed every time.

I know another reefer in the area here who cannot keep birdsnest. No matter which one he has tried, he has never been able to keep it alive in his 90g. Now if he put's it into another tank that he has there, completely separate system, it thrives. I've taken some of his failing BN's home and put them in my tank and they live every time.

It's really disappointing and discouraging when we run into this type of problem.

This monti looked pretty decent for a year before this, and i have a frag from a diff source in another location in the tank that looks great. I know what you mean, and its very common, i'm just confused because the other frag looks A-ok.

This is always a bad thought, but have you checked it for bugs? I know you mentioned having it for over a year, but ya never know.

I got Montipora eating nudi's once... that's all it took. I found thm on a cap that was given to me. I dipped the coral before putting it in my system, and a few nights later I just happen to look, and seen something moving on the coral. I pulled it out, and there they were.

So I got rid of the coral (sadly), and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, 3 months later, my LengSi starts looking bad. When I broke it away from the rock, the base was loaded with them.

Hopefully, when you check yours, you don't/didn't find any type of pest.

Have the 2 frags been in your tank for the equal amount of time? Or has the one not doing well been in there longer.

Originally Posted by Daimyo68

This is always a bad thought, but have you checked it for bugs? I know you mentioned having it for over a year, but ya never know.

I got Montipora eating nudi's once... that's all it took. I found thm on a cap that was given to me. I dipped the coral before putting it in my system, and a few nights later I just happen to look, and seen something moving on the coral. I pulled it out, and there they were.

So I got rid of the coral (sadly), and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, 3 months later, my LengSi starts looking bad. When I broke it away from the rock, the base was loaded with them.

Hopefully, when you check yours, you don't/didn't find any type of pest.

That was one of my initial thoughts, i had a run in with those nudi's myself before and i've been looking for any signs of pests...... nothing i can see.

Originally Posted by houndsbayman

Have the 2 frags been in your tank for the equal amount of time? Or has the one not doing well been in there longer.

the one thats not doing good has been in there for a bit more then a year...... and the ok one has been 6 months-ish. It actually was a little hitchiker piece (about 3 little red polyps) on a frag of sunset monti from Ellen. my other encrusting's ( sunset, rainbow, ) and 4 diff monti caps are all good... (actually my green cap has lost a little brightness, but it just had some gsp pulled of it a couple weeks ago) 3 diff branching monti's are all good, my orange setosa looks amazing! and my acro's look good.
any ideas?
also, none of my encrusting monti's seems to "bulk up" just spread a really thin matt. some i've seen grow and get a 1/4'' thick or more.... is this a sign of lacking something maybe? flow? light?
btw.... there was never any other coral close enough to it for warfare to be an issue.

The pic you posted earlier of the superman shows it on what appears to be a large rock. If possible, can you remove the large part of the coral which looks like it was fragged on a plug? Then you can check for pest and if that part of the superman is not too bleached out, try dipping it in an iodine solution for like 10 -15 mins. I know that the coral is stressed out, but at this point, you can try and maybe save some of it from further die off.
You could also just leave it on the rock and dip the whole rock.
Just my 2cents. Hope you can find out what is going on.

I haven't tried dipping it, but it did get removed from the rock, inspected and put lower on the sand a couple weeks ago. Most of it has bleached out except for the new edge growth, which is still alive. some still on the big boulder, and some on the frag plug...

On the pest topic..... what ones would attack a superman? there's def no nudi's on it, and i don't see anything else "visibly". Would any pests be smaller then red bug size and i'm just not seeing them?

I think nudies would be the most likely thing but we've looked for them and didnt see any. The only other pests i can think of would be black bugs. I doubt you have them though because they are just like red bugs and would have been killed when you treated for red bugs not long ago.

i found the nudis often ate from the outside edges in too, not often from the inside out....

but they are really hard to notice when they are on your coral, since they are just as white as the fresh skeleton they leave behind - took me many many hours of crazy staring, and scraping, to determine if they were really there when I had them!

Any improvement John?

Nope, nothin left but the very edges of the newest growth... like its bleaching from the inside out???

And the other one is still doing good right? Time to frag that one and move one piece around and see what happens.

the other is still good! too small to frag it yet though imo