Monti under T5?

[Guppy]

Does anyone keep Montis under T5. I have about 150w of T5 and was thinking of giving it a go. Do they lose colour or not thrive? My water params are good apart from nitrate which creeps over 20ppm. Water movement is from SEIOS and other PHs but I'm planning on consolidating on a pair of bigger SEIOS which might be overkill.

[arrows]

you may find the groth is slow, waht other equipment are you going to use, skimmer, calcium reactor ect ect?

[Guppy]

The tank is up and running with thriving softies. MCE600 skimmer and chemical filtration (Rowaphos and carbon at times) but no calc addition at the moment - I'm not very good about the supplements I do use and I guess I could be more regular.

I would consider calc additions with top up but I don't even have an automated top-off at the moment. Realistically, I want to keep things simple and reactors and stuff are out of the question.

[arrows]

a calcium reactor is a worth while addition as it keeps your calcium levels up when the corals ask for more.

[maestro]

Lighting should be ok what bulbs do you have?

Imo you need to understand calcium and alkalinty additional and have a plan of action oh how you are going to keep your parameters stable first imo

Test for alk, calcium and magnesium

Alaklinty should be 8-12 and stable at what ever level you decide to run at.
calcium 400-440
magnesium should be around 1400

Monitor these for a couple of weeks and see how stable they are, for simplicity the 2 part additives are good but very expensive long term.

Kalk is fairly easy to do, do a few searches, a home made dripper will cost you a few quid, an automated system will cost you around £100 2nd hand

theres no point spending your money on monti's yet because unless you can keep the tank stable they wont do well.