Discouraged as why corals aren't growing

[SolarEclipse]

Hey everyone, so have had my tank set up for about a year and a half or so. My corals have always been colorful, but never really have shown any growth, especially my Bali Green Slimer, which I find odd. People claim it is super fast at growing. Another thing, I dipped some sps in freshwater with iodine ( i know bad, never doing it again), that was about two weeks ago, one sps is fully back from looking casper white bleached, to polyps extended with color. 90 gallon with Elos planet II, with the 2 Elos LED stripes in it and four t-5s. 2 mp40 vortechs. I am dosing MB7 along with vodka, and have been doing this for about three weeks, things have been looking better. Use RO/DI water. Do ten gallon water changes once a week.

temp:very stable at 79-80
pH:8.4
kH:7.5
Mag:1250
Cal:450
Salinity: 1.024
Nitrate:0
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0

 

[gon08]

Did you test for Phosphate? Your Alkalinity is a little low also?

 

[acroholicreefer]

Did you test for Phosphate? Your Alkalinity is a little low also?

ditto. Alkalinity is really the measure of "life" in your systems. (carbonate and borate) Bump this up a little bit and you should see some signs of new growth, assuming that everything else is in line.

 

[Wrench]

What fish do you have and what, if anything, are you feeding your corals? Pastel/faded colors and slow growth are indicators that the corals may not be receiving what they need nutritionally.

 

[aqua80]

do you have pictures before and now to see what kind of growth you have and what the corals looks like ?

 

[gon08]

ditto. Alkalinity is really the measure of "life" in your systems. (carbonate and borate) Bump this up a little bit and you should see some signs of new growth, assuming that everything else is in line.

Exactly. Phosphates will also inhibit calcification. If PO4 is high along with low Alk then there will also be little to no growth. PO4 will also brown out corals.

 

[chefzif]

I would raise my salinity and mag also! Salinity to 1.026 and keep mag around the 1400 mark!

 

[SolarEclipse]

I don't test for phosphates, but I do know I have to have some since I have some small patches of cyano on the sand.

 

[SolarEclipse]

ditto. Alkalinity is really the measure of "life" in your systems. (carbonate and borate) Bump this up a little bit and you should see some signs of new growth, assuming that everything else is in line.

I have some two anthias. Three wrasses. Two chromis. Two cardinals. A clown. Regal tang. I also feed the tank oyster feast for the coral.

 

[SolarEclipse]

do you have pictures before and now to see what kind of growth you have and what the corals looks like ?

I don't have any before and after pics. Bad camera and bad phone camera. I've seen some growth, I think my issue is stability. I need to find that sweet spot, but I have trouble staying there.

 

[chrishayes]

as do the rest of us bud!

 

[SolarEclipse]

I always have trouble with my mag, should I swich to a salt with a higher mag concentration? Buying mag suppliments will get pricey, and there is no mag flake where i am. I am using seachem salinity, it says the mag concentration is 1345 "guaranteed analysis."

 

[Fieroguy19]

What are you using to keep your KH and CA levels up? I have to agree with the others that keeping your KH stable is key. I would raise KH to 8-8.5 to be on the safer side and your Mag to 1400 and then figure out a way to keep things stable. I have been using two part and BRS dosers with great success but there are many ways to get the job done. You can buy magchloride and magsulfate fairly cheap from BRS to raise your mag.

 

[SolarEclipse]

I am using kalk in my ATO to keep it up, but either i'm not adding enough kalk, since it used to be at 8.5 kh, so if its dropping i'm assuming i need to add more.

 

[OneReef]

Plenty of people have beautiful SPS tanks with alk that low. You don't have to have high alk to keep SPS looking good. Some of the TOTM's have alk around 7.5

 

[SolarEclipse]

So I just buffed it up to 8.5 and I'll try to keep it there and see what happens. Something isn't right in my tank. But why would my corals not grow in 7.5 and other tanks would?

 

[Fieroguy19]

Plenty of people have beautiful SPS tanks with alk that low. You don't have to have high alk to keep SPS looking good. Some of the TOTM's have alk around 7.5

I know that there are plenty of people with great tanks running at 7.5, however they have excellent control and their alk level never changes for months to years at a time. Since the OP is having trouble stabilizing things it is safer to try and keep alk a little higher since if he has a 1dkh swing per day the corals may just RTN at dkh of 6.5. Not that they like a 1dkh swing to begin with.

So I just buffed it up to 8.5 and I'll try to keep it there and see what happens. Something isn't right in my tank. But why would my corals not grow in 7.5 and other tanks would?

I know that some people can keep both Ca and alk stable using just kalk but others including myself have problems with alk dropping faster than Ca when trying to use kalk only. You should be able to grow things at 7.5 if you can keep it stable. Just remember to adjust your alk slowly.

 

[SolarEclipse]

I got my alk to where I want it, I also adjusted the amount of alk I put in my ATO. I'm gonna test and see from here where I need to make the adjustments. Then once that's squared away, gonna work on my way to the mag side of things. Calcium has always been between 400-450( knock on wood)

 

[MammothReefer]

Plenty of people have beautiful SPS tanks with alk that low. You don't have to have high alk to keep SPS looking good. Some of the TOTM's have alk around 7.5

Gotta wonder though what tests kits they are using, and API or ELOS 7.5 is not the same as a Salifert or Hannah.

 

[SolarEclipse]

Personally my test kits are Elos. Don't know if you wanted that info but thought I'd throw it out there.