can't grow leather?

Word,

Just wondering. I have a green nepthea, for 6 months that hasn't grown at all. Save it for the tank specs they are perfect, mg, ph, po4 and all that. I just got a six line (only fish) to take care of a pod prob. Do you think the food for the six line (frozen marine mix) will help?

 

Assuming you have sufficient lighting, yes. Actually, any type of organic matter will help. Unlike most SPS corals, softies absorb nutrients from the water. While they can be fed specialized liquid coral preparations, they will do equally well from fish being fed in the same tank.

 

I have some powerful leds. I was also wondering if too high of lighting would cause leathers not to grow. Everything else about the coral is fine, healthy, ect. It just won't get any bigger which is making me mad because I want it to take over a corner of the tank that's pretty bare.

 

I am learning the hard way that a sterile tank is also not conducive to growing sps either. I have gone from 1 fish to 3 fish and am dosing amino acids and oyster eggs every other day now. I took my carbon, gfo and nitrate media off line. Algae wouldn't even grow in my tank (chaeto, coralline etc.). Sand was white as bleach.

 

Strong lighting is probably the issue.

 

+1

I would dial down the intensity if you have that option. If not you could try raising the fixture, or lowering the coral to the bottom and to the far side of the tank.

 

yeah, my leathers do best in the corners on the bottom of the tank, as far away from the LED's as possible.

 

That's where its at. Damn. I went cheap and got non dimmable drivers for my leds too. Maybe I can try some window tint on that corner of the glass top. Fwiw my sps are doing fantastic and my pods were so out of control I had to get the wrasse. So I don't know if the tank is sterile. There's po4 coming from somewhere because a small coating of diatoms will grow, then the pods will eat it but I can't detect it w a kit.

 

True, all corals require some type of nutrition aside from light. Most softies rely on dissolved organics that they can absorb; OTOH, SPS and most LPS corals feed on particulate meaty foods, and many, especially SPS, are very sensitive to high nutrient levels. You'd probably do much better by target-feeding your SPS with zooplankton and keep your filtration running.

 

Yep. Non-dimmable LEDs will do it every time. However, I still contend that raising nutrient levels will also help.