Can I have some opinions on Montipora and whether or not it could thrive with this lighting:
I have no experience with this coral but I like it a lot. If the lighting is good enough it will go well in my 37g 
Also… any suggestions on what else I could add to the 37g w/ the lighting that I have? I’d like to add more but would like some suggestions on what might go well.
Thank you everyone!
i had/have montiporas that thrived under similar lights, sent you a PM
You should be able to keep everything with that fixture as long as attention is paid to coral placement.
Any suggestions of fun corals you enjoy?
Cespitularia, Duncans, and Fungia are some of my favorites. Are you testing Ca, Alk, and Mg yet?
I kept two montiporas under PC then a Current Nova Extreme 4x54 and it started to grow alot on the T-5s
I do test Ca, Alk, and all the rest b/c I have corals and such right now but i just wanna expand Most of my experience has been w/ anemones, zoo’s, and star polyps and just want to branch out
If you are testing and keeping your Ca, Alk, and Mg and have those lights on your tank you may be ready for just about anything. Of course different things in different areas depending on the flow and light.
Do you have any interested in Small Polyp Stonies? If so you could try a birds nest frag for starters and see how it does.
Take a look on some of our sponsors websites and just browse through the corals. Try to find some colors you don’t have or find a coral you think would look nice in your tank. Once you find something ask us about the particular coral and we can share our experience with it and give our opinions on how difficult it is.
ive heard that the encrusting type of montis are easier to keep under pcs than anything else. i just added a rainbow encrusting monti in my 37 (at the top) and its doin really well so far.
the ones that form branches and plates are a lil bit harder.
although i have to admit that my encrusting seems to be the easiest/fastest growing as well, montis are going to vary from species to species. ive literally placed montis right next to one another only to have one take off and one fade. they can range from hi to low light and hi to low flow IME. if your interested in SPS starting with a monti is probably a good idea. also, like jon mentioned, most birdsnest are also fairly easy and make a good first branching SPS. there is also a tan/green polyp acro that passes around the club that grows at an insane rate and seems to thrive in almost everyones tanks. you might want to look around for a frag of that. i cant think of a better starter piece and local aquaculture is always the way to go. just stay away from non aquacultured/maricultured corals.
Encrusting do well, but often times in my experience don’t take to moving or fragging well and fade in color for a long time before recovering. So just be warned it may not look as nice for a couple of months, but never throw a coral out as it always has a chance of coming back even when it seems completely dead.
Montipora digi’s are pretty hard to kill most of the time as well (unless your anemone wants that spot), and have a nice branching appearance.
i picked up 2 monti’s today
purple
chocolate chip
the purple next to my orange monti
i like frags, more fun to watch grow than full colonies.
PBJ!
[quote=“Jcling, post:4, topic:1868”]
Any suggestions of fun corals you enjoy?[/quote]
nobody’s mentioned acans, easy to keep and lovely, but lps, not the sps you are looking at.
As you can probably see from my tank pictures (in members tanks)… I like small frags B/c this tank is still relatively new and I want my girlfriend to be able to watch everything grow in it (because its in her room lol). I like starting small to very small and let it grow in its own time, b/c in the long run im in no rush and that tank wont be moving for at least a few years so… its got plenty of time And I Never throw away a coral period. I have read about people having total skeletons of corals and then after a year or so… all the sudden it starts growing back… and a year from the first growth, it looks great! So… as long is it doesn’t hurt my tank, it doesn’t hurt me (If anything i’ll just put it in the back where people cant see it, but make sure that i still get it all the light it needs and food it needs and just take care of it as if it was healthy :)) That’s what im doing with my favorite anemone right now, its been crappy for the past month or so… but until i know its dead (which its not) it will get the same treatment and same everything until it comes back… hopefully!
I’ve got some tiny tiny frags of ORA pink birds nest. They are healthy and growing, just average about 1cm in size, lol.
lol very nice. That is quite small