New Member Old Hobbyist from IL

hey dada atlanta

what corals do you have exactly and how long has each one been in?
if they are mostly softies , then growth IME is painfully slow and you dont really notice it as you see them every day - a casual vistor who maybe sees your tank once every few months, might notice increase in size since last visit, but you just cant tell

if you have LPS corals, they can be encouraged to bulk up on size , by feeding them rather than just letting them feed themselves

if you had SPS corals - the reef builders , then growth would be more noticeable and much quicker than it is with the soft coral species ( Doc Fragenstien for one, and many others I assume, have had some species of SPS almost double in size in a 6 month period)

good lighting, good water, and they will grow, slowly. my honest advice is dont try and force it by trying different types of additives, IMO they cause someones bank balance to increase is size at a faster rate than they increase the size of the corals

flow also has a bearing on the potential size when fully expanded of a coral, if the flow is to strong for them, their self preservation instincts tell them to hang tight so they dont get ripped off the rockwork ( shrooms behave this way IME as do other soft corals and LPS)

Steve

 

The corals I have in my tank are some sort of brain coral, yellow gorgonian, candy cane w/ 4 heads, was 3 a year ago, montipora frag with no growth or too little to notice, green zooanthid colony, misc zoo frags, bright mustard yellow im guessin flowerpot coral, some light green palys, frogspawn that looks like it may be growing, a whole lot of mushrooms, havent seen much increase in size in the smaller ones on the colony rocks but one did move to an adjacent rock of the maroon I have a picture of in the beginning of this thread, a frag of some type of sps thats still the same size as when i got it, wasnt sure how to attach so its just attached to a small piece of rock but you can definitely see the glue under it and a piece of two toadstools i bought which only opened once when i bought them and then once in between, they have a couple small brown patches on them and give out these web like stringy things at night but are not near any other coral. My tank has been running for about a year, I had some purple corraline at first after introducing a piece of rock from lfs covered with it, then had none, then had some ugly dark green coralline take over a lot of the purple and splotch my glass and now thats almost turned all white and only on one end of my tank im startin to see maroon/rust color algae growing, but very little and only in one area right now, looks like coralline. I just bought a new skimmer, berlin xl, its been up for 2 1/2 days now, still waiting for it to break in i guess and hoping this will help with coral growth and over all help because my seaclone wasnt producing enough skimmate, only 1/3 cup per week. My levels and tank info are listed at the beginning. Sorry for going on and on but just tryin to give you as much info as possible. I've also been told that a tank could take a year or more to really start takin off if the levels are maintained and that i can get better growth with lower k bulbs. Thanks for all your help.

 

hey DaDa Alanta
dont apologise for long posts, they make interesting reading IMO

I note you have 175 watt metal halides? how many and in fact how big is your tank?
also how far off the water surface are they? it may be a light issue but maybe not CT (colour temp) related

you might want to post a question covering the situation and include the answers to the questions above? in the lighting section as some of the MH experts ( Im a T5 user myself) are more likely to see it on that section/ forum

phosphates can hinder SPS growth and also impede the growth of coralline as it intereferes with their ability to absorb/utilise calcium
your levels dont seem high, its just 0 phosphates are recomended in tanks with SPS for this reason


Steve

 

55 gal with two 175 watt 14k pendant at 1 foot above the tank, will be lowering it a couple inches soon but will post in the forum to see what they say. Any idea about the toadstool, do they go dormant for that long? Whats the small brown patches and whats the stringy stuff at night that goes away when i put my flashlight on it? Only additives I use is C-balance and AquaVitro Fuel and Prime if needed. Thanks Steve

 

good choice on posting the lighting specific on the lighting thread

I have 2 toadies and they close for 3 or 4 days max when shedding so it does seem strange to me- try an area of increased flow, as IME these things can stand and enjoy a little agitation ( helps with shedding)
small brown patches could be algae or diatoms and again this would indicate to me that flow was not optimum for them where they are

Steve

 

Try to get your phosphates down, they really will effect coral growth and health

 

I think my phosphates are less than what the test says, because after running a phos reactor with phosguard for 1 month it read .5 and I ran it for another month with the same reading so im thinkin the test is not accurate maybe. I got the toadstools in under the return from the skimmer and close to the side of the HK2 so lets see, hopefully will see a difference, still wondering what the stringy web like stuff is at night, maybe for feeding or something. I'll try and see if I can get a picture of the two up tommorow showing the brown patches. gnite for now

 

Recent pic

This is a recent pic, for some reason its really blue in my camera but Im running 10k reeflux bulbs and its at night before lights out so my corals arent fully opened but just an update and will put more pics soon