Advice for getting SPS corals to grow

[Fmellish]

I've had a montipora cap frag since Superbowl Sunday, and a green acropora frag since about the same time.

My params are good and I take care of my tank. These things haven't grown. see some people get noticeable acro growth in 2 weeks.

my acro doesn't extend his polyps very far anymore. they used to come out a few millimeters and now they don't come out anymore. You can see them in the holes, but they don't extend.

No color loss, the corals look great, but they just don't grow.

Anyway as I said, params are good, calcium is slightly above natural seawater, etc, etc.

Any advice for promoting sps growth and polyp extension?

You can check out my photo journal here
http://fmellish.shackspace.com/aquarium/

Thanks
Josh

 

[dots]

On the SPS forum, yesterday someone had mentioned that their SPS didn't grow very well until they got a CA reactor and switched from two part.

 

[MiddletonMark]

I would disagree with that - I have pretty good growth with only 2-part.

What are your water parameters?
What's your lighting/flow?

Sometimes it's just time. Are the corals encrusting, just not showing growth on tips?

IME, some will start growing immediately - but most will encrust for a while before showing any growth. IMO, look for encrusting at first to verify they're doing ok.

 

[Biscutz]

IME, zero polyp extension usually signifies a problem with something in your tank. I noticed this no more than 2 months ago in my own tank that is 80%+ SPS. After investigating further, I realized that my regal tang was missing. He apparently was wedged between 2 rocks that my zebra eel had knocked over. Needless to say he was dead and there was a small ammonia increase, just barely detectable. Well only the acro's and clams showed signs of this. I lost polyp extension in most of my acro's for almost a month. They did bounce back just fine over time, but it did take a while. Now Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m not saying look for something dead in your tank, but like the person stated above me, it may just take some time to see noticeable growth.

 

[Fmellish]

Thanks for the responses, here is additional information.

Regarding Encrusting
Each of my two specimens are on frag mounts that are fairly big. I have not noticed the corals encrusting over these plugs. The footprint of these corals on their bases has not increased.

Regarding water parameters
Temp: 81-83F (range throughout 24 hr period)
SG: 1.025
pH: 8.3
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Calcium: 455
Alk: 11 dKH

I have a 140 gallons of water volume replenished with 15% Instant Ocean water changes twice a month. With only the 2 small sps frags my calcium has been in the 455-485 range and never waivered. I use all Salifert kits. All my params are good, except as noted, my alk is high. Seawater is 8dKH and my water is like 11dKH. I don't know what that means.

Regarding Lighting and Flow
Lighting for this 4 foot long tank is provided by (2) 250W 14K MH lights operating for 7 hours a day. So that is 500 Watts or 4.2 watts per gallon. Flow for my 120g display is 20x or 2400 GPH, 600 GPH through sump, and 1800 GPH from Tunze stream pump. Most texts I have read claim that the monti cap is a merdium flow. As a side note, should the flow be hitting the corals directly? My corals are to the side of my turbelle stream but don't get hit by it directly. Should I move them "into the line of fire"?

Regarding "something wrong with the tank"
I did have a firefish die 3 weeks ago, but this is one firefish in 140 gallons of volume and I recovered his remains, so I don't think there was any pollution due to that.

My tank did have a messy cycle and my sand and rock are covered with brown rock death. Once a week I go in with a powerhead or turkey baster and blow this crud into the water column in an attempt to get it into the overflow and mechanically removed through the filter sock. If chemistry is our indicator, this dirt has posed no problem, unless it is the cause of my high Alk.

I don't know what "two part" is.

Thanks
Josh

 

[kevensquint]

I have noticed that for some reason I get better growth when my Alk is somewhere between, 8.5 and 9.5 DKH, as opposed to higher levels. I don't know why, its just my observation.

 

[Fmellish]

Thank you kevensquint.

I am kind of new to this. So I have two questions now.

1. What could be the possible reasons that my Alk is higher than it should be?

2. How can I go about lowering my Alkalinity?

Thank you
Josh

 

[Fmellish]

From the article here: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

My higher than normal calcium and alk don't seem to be a problem. Having one high and one low is an issue, but both high is not an issue.

And this may explain why my crabs and shrimp are molting every week.

From my limietd understanding, my corals should be flourishing, (and the softies are). It's just that my SPS aren't growing any.

maybe 3 weeks is too short of a time to tell. I'll keep waiting.

Josh

 

[impur]

I think the problem is that your tank is still not mature. That doesn't mean you can't have SPS corals, just they will not look or do as good as in a mature environment. How long has the tank been running? Do you have snails to take care of the diatoms? What kind of skimmer are you running? The key to SPS is clean water, good lighting, flow, and skimming. Sounds like you have the lighting and flow down.

Sometimes it takes awhile for SPS to acclimate to your tank. Keep in mind the corals could have been adjusting for a solid week or 2 if they came from a significantly different environment. Just keep your water as clean as can be, alk and calcium in check and give it a few more weeks IMO.

 

[DMK]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6798889#post6798889 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sacramentodots
On the SPS forum, yesterday someone had mentioned that their SPS didn't grow very well until they got a CA reactor and switched from two part.

having a CR will not give u better growth than 2 part and no CR. all that matters for growth is that your Ca level is sufficient and stable. i use b ionic since day 1 and i have a 16" monti that came from a quarter size frag, within 2 years.

 

[Fmellish]

Thanks for the information.

My tank has had salt water in it since the end of December. Live rock and live sand Since Jan 1st, and finished cycle Jan 10th or so. So about 1.5 months old if you start counting from the end of the cycle.

I have an AquaC EV180 skimmer, rated for 180 gallons. It's an awesome skimmer and I'm feeding it from an Eheim 1262 900 GPH pump. I produce 1.5 liters of skimmate a week, using a 1.5 liter waste collection jug.

I have 10 snails. They are always busy. I could probably use a few more. But the snails don't clean the sand, only the rock and the glass. I have a sand sifting star, have had him since day 1. He stays in the sand all day surfacing at night. But not even the star or hermits will eat the dirt on the sand.

Josh

 

[Dubbin1]

Hey Josh my sps took some time before they started showing any growth but once they finally started they went nuts Just give it time.

 

[duec22]

It sounds like it's just not stable quite yet. The "dirt" on the sand bed is probably diatoms or cyano, and I don't know of anything that will eat either of them...Just keep up on your water quality and they should go away fairly soon. As far as the SPS go, give them some time untill your system stablizes.

 

[cchoffman]

Did you use pre cured rock, if not you probably only went through one spike of the cycle. 10 days is not very long to cycle.

1.5 liters in a week is a ton of skimmate. You may need to adjust your skimmer a bit.

 

[GMAX]

(and the softies are).

This could be your problem. You may have a chemical war going on in the tank between the softies and the SPS. Are you running carbon or any other chemical filtration? Probably need to if you want to have a mixed tank.

 

[The_Reef _Man]

Get a few conches for your sand. They work really well. The star you have mostly eats the little critters in the sand but a conch will clean the stuff off of it. Give it a try.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Patience, young jedi

I know I found significantly better results with Acropora once my tank was past a year mark ...and at about 1.5 years it took off like never before.

There's so many things that could be going on - and likely while it's not testing as `cycle' ... there's still `settling' going on. Despite `testing zero' ... that just means the bacteria is keeping up, not that there cannot be still some sponge deep in the rock rotting.

IMO, give it 6 months, then worry about slow growth.

 

[Biscutz]

Just a heads up, the sand sifting star will not have enough food for it to survive in your tank because it is so new. Sand sifting starts eat the small critters that are alive in an established sand bed. If your sand bed is as new as your tank, you will not have enough food to sustain your starfish. I would suggest trying to supplement feedings for it. If not it will slowly starve to death.

 

[RBU1]

Another important test to coral growth is Magnesium. You want to check and maintain your magnesium in the 1300-1400 range.

 

[examiner]

I agree w/ Mark, I think your parameters and setup are fine, it's just a case of expecting too much too soon.

"Messy cycle"....tank "1.5 months old"...."sps".....I think you answered your own question. Softies can do quite well in that type of environment, SPS (even the easier ones) are a bit more demanding. I also note from your web log that you are stocking up pretty fast for the age of your tank.....

And, it's also my experience that fresh cut frags will encrust over the mount prior to showing any real vertical growth

As far as lowering your alk, a mature, properly running tank will use up alkalinity on a daily basis. That's why you'll need to dose something like "2 part" or limewater. Your alkalinity and calcium will lower over time (alk probably faster than calcium). Keep monitoring until you get to where you want to be, then determine the daily dosing regiment necessary to keep it there.

I know it gets boring looking at a semi-empty tank, but I respectfully suggest maybe it's time to slow down a bit and let the tank catch up to you.