55 gallon SPS reef tank- 5/31 Tear Down

Thanks! How fast would you say they grow? I have nice area for one in that far right corner of the tank (see photo above. )

 

Here is a photo with the halide on.

 

Kevin, you'll be fine with a Derasa, IMO/E hardier than a lot of sps. Just start with a healthy specimen. Always put in an indentation if you put the clam up in the rocks, clams can die from falling, especially multiple falls. Look for Pyramid snails (more common than you think). Just make sure you keep up on the Ca utilization once the Derasa starts to grow.

Edit: You have a good scape there.

Edit: Love red mushrooms, and they seem to love your tank, be careful.

 

Sounds good. If you recall, I have a calcium reactor. It's all plummed and ready to go. I have it offline until demand increases again. In the meantime, I'm dosing soda ash in my ATO based on how much my alk was falling daily (1 dKH).

Believe it or not, I'm not sure the mushrooms do love this tank. They stay shriveled up for some reason. Most of them propagated in the 20. There are a load of blue ones too.

 

It's not a little shop of horror thing, and they're lovely clams so don't let me discourage you. Just alerting you to the issue.

You can see the dark line a little more than midway up the dark region? That's where it was when I got it 9 months ago.

 

I have a few frags that browned out and then paled out when I was going through my bacteria blooms in the 20 gallon. They were growing unbelievably fast and had great color.

They were:

Green birdsnest
Purple stylo
Green stylo

For the life of me, I can't get them to color up and haven't been able to since early fall. Obviously all the issues and changes sparked this. I've never had coral stay like this for so long. How long should I expect to wait for them to color up and grow? They were pretty vibrant eye catchers at one point.

I also have a red planet that hasn't had color for probably 6-7 months.

Lastly, a pink leonade frag I got 6 weeks ago won't extend its polyps for some reason.

Every other piece in the tank is gaining color daily and starting to grow again after the transfer.

Do pale coral ever reach a point where they won't come back?

 

Impressive. How would you quantify that? 2"? That's not discouraging at all. I appreciate rapid growth in this hobby, it doesn't come easy.

 

The deresa by far was my fastest growing clam followed by my squamosa. Both very hardy

 

If the coral is pale but still has intact tissue your chances are better for recovery. Just be consistent they'll come around. Don't tinker too much you.

Your running MH right? For gods sakes people update your lighting sig.