I think we've all seen plenty of "Why won't my corals color up/grow?" threads... I'd like to go down a different avenue with this thread. If you've been fortunate enough to achieve a growth/color breakthrough of some kind, please share what you most attribute that success to. Obviously it's hard to narrow this down to one thing, so please feel free to lay out the complete solution that worked for you.
I'll begin...
Problem:
My corals were very pale and some were beginning to STN from the base. My parameters were:
Salinity: 1.026 (Or so I thought)
Phosphate: 0.00
Nitrate: 0.00
Calcium 420 ppm
Alkalinity 8.8 dKH
Magnesium 1500
These parameters were right in line with many TOTM's. I didn't get what was going on and it was driving me crazy.
Solution:
I began to re-calibrate my refractometer after every use with calibration fluid. Turns out my refractometer becomes wildly inaccurate even after just several days of no use. While I thought my salinity was 1.026, it was actually around 1.027 or 1.028. After correcting the salinity, the STN stopped and tissue began to grow back.
My corals were no longer STN'ing, but were still very pale. Many TOTM's have phosphate readings of 0.00. While this may work for others, it didn't work for me. I bought several more fish, bought frozen foods (as opposed to only feeding pellets), and started feeding much more heavily. On top of that, I started doing weekly 10% water changes (instead of 20% monthly), and set the skimmer to skim more heavily as well. This worked for me and the results are getting better daily.
One of the best purchases I've made is the Hannah Po4 reader. I bumped up my phosphate to 0.04 and am going to try to keep it there. Strong nutrient import and strong nutrient export has worked for me so far. Besides that, making a conscious effort to complete maintenance tasks as they come due has also, I believe, attributed to the success I've had so far to overcome the color/growth hurdle.
I'll begin...
Problem:
My corals were very pale and some were beginning to STN from the base. My parameters were:
Salinity: 1.026 (Or so I thought)
Phosphate: 0.00
Nitrate: 0.00
Calcium 420 ppm
Alkalinity 8.8 dKH
Magnesium 1500
These parameters were right in line with many TOTM's. I didn't get what was going on and it was driving me crazy.
Solution:
I began to re-calibrate my refractometer after every use with calibration fluid. Turns out my refractometer becomes wildly inaccurate even after just several days of no use. While I thought my salinity was 1.026, it was actually around 1.027 or 1.028. After correcting the salinity, the STN stopped and tissue began to grow back.
My corals were no longer STN'ing, but were still very pale. Many TOTM's have phosphate readings of 0.00. While this may work for others, it didn't work for me. I bought several more fish, bought frozen foods (as opposed to only feeding pellets), and started feeding much more heavily. On top of that, I started doing weekly 10% water changes (instead of 20% monthly), and set the skimmer to skim more heavily as well. This worked for me and the results are getting better daily.
One of the best purchases I've made is the Hannah Po4 reader. I bumped up my phosphate to 0.04 and am going to try to keep it there. Strong nutrient import and strong nutrient export has worked for me so far. Besides that, making a conscious effort to complete maintenance tasks as they come due has also, I believe, attributed to the success I've had so far to overcome the color/growth hurdle.