Orange Plate Montipora

I have two very large Orange MOntipora Plates that have been thriving for over a year. They have grown 100x since we put them in the tank. They were only one layer when we put them in and they are now both four layers deep. I just noticed a small bit of what I believe to be alage on the very edges of the coral. I also noticed that the growth is directly in the path of where one of our powerheads was running. I did not notice it until recently that the powerhead was actually pounding the sides of the two coral. Should I be too concerned with this now that I have moved the flow of the powerhead. These are two absolutely beautiful corals and are becoming the centerpiece of the tank. All of the frags that were taken from the initial corals are doing great as well.

 

The powerheads could have damaged the tips of the monti cap's thus letting algae grow on the dead skeleton. Just scrape off the algae, The coral will regrow new tissue over the dead areas. The cool thing about monti's is they regrow tissue really fast.

 

Cool, thanks Geek...That is what I was thinking of doing. Using a soft toothbrush....

 

Be real careful or you could end up damaging more tissue. I learned that the hard way on a favites a long time ago, lol. I ended up killing 2 or 3 heads on accident that turned into 5or 6 dieing total. Monti cap polyps are a lot smaller and easily damage. Ive had powerheads take off sheets of tissue. Lost a big chunk of a superman montipora danae I got from "whodah". I knocked off a rack by accident, and it fell right in the path of one of my SEIO's and I watched and 2/3's of come right off. Danae's are alot more sensitive then the capriconis species...

 

Ok, i will be sure to be extremely careful...I would hate to lose these two beauties...

 

Should I use a toothbrush, or somethign else?

 

I would use my finger nail and just away the dead part. You remove all of the algae that way too. Just make sure you wash your hands before and after.