Montipora Digitata Help

This past week I picked up some nice size pruple digitata frags for FREE from a fellow reefer. The frags are about 3 to 4 inches in size and branching like crazy with some color to them. He said he was not able to take care of his tank for a couple weeks and if my water quality is ideal they will color right up. Well, I placed them at the same height as my birdsnest (very healthy) and my monti cap (growing like a weed). Everthing was going well until I noticed last night that one of them is losing its color on the bottom but still has its polyps there. Then tonight I noticed the same thing from the other frag a small lighter color area almost like a blotch. The strange thing is I purchased two small 1 inch digi frags 2 weeks ago, they are placed lower in the tank and seem healthy. My nitrates and phosphates are non existent. My alk is 9 but my calcium is 350 (just started dosing tonight with calcium). Should I be worried at all or are the corals in some what of shock going from 4 500w mh to a Tek 4 bulb T5 system?

 

You need calcium. I don't think that's you issue, though, TBH. I would be worried about phosphates leeching from the rock you placed them on. If there's a high phosphate concentration in the rock, it'll leech into the frag plug and eventually the frag, killing it slowly from the bottom up.

 

this is odd... never heard of this

 

I heard it a few times. Might not be true, but definitely a possibility, seeing how high levels of phosphates in the water will definitely kill more sensitive species.

 

kinda far fetched....

First thing that came to my mind would by M.E.N. (monti eating nudis)

Digis... along with birdsnest are extremely easy to keep.

Cant see what would cause it to bleech from the base up.

 

I dunno. I probably would have said the same thing sober. Inhibition removers don't work on someone with nearly no inhibitions ahaha.

 

All four digi frags are placed on the same rock. I wonder if it is flow? I read they like moderate to heavy flow and I have a Koralia 2 about 8 inches away from them.

 

throw up a pic or two

 

Ok let me turn the lights on.

 

Well, I wouldn't say flow as high as a tabling acro. They definitely shouldn't have anything settling on them, even the smallest grain of sand. That'll cause them to close up on you (if it's a recurrent problem), and possibly retract. I don't think they'd get shocked like that from the lighting switch, TBH, since you're almost definitely going to a lower PAR.