Getting corals to grow in Biocube 29g

[mrhankuk]

Looking for some advice guys. Have a Biocube 29g that up until recently I've been running as fish only. I've added a few corals a couple months ago. Almost all died off except for a couple you see in the picture. Talked to my LFS and they recommended I change out the lights. Rather than replacing the stock bulbs I put in a Nanobox retro LED kit. It's been in there for 2 days. I'm running a program Dave has built into the Bluefish controller.

My parameters are well within range.
My temp is constant 78.3
My salinity is 1.026

I'm not testing Calcium or magnesium.

When will I see my corals start growing with my lights? Is there anything I can do to that someone suggests?

 

[schneidergarret]

It takes patience as coral takes time to acclimate to your tank and parameters and think of it this way the coral in the ocean takes thousands of years to get where it is. Also take a picture now and take a picture in a month you see it everyday might be hard to notice growth

 

[JVan82]

test Cal MG and Kh regularly, dose as needed to keep these 3 parameters in their ranges especially for LPS, and SPS. I have had good like with reef-roids for target feeding corals.

 

[mrhankuk]

Thanks guys for chiming in. Because I killed off the first batch, I've been a bit wary of adding more.

I'll be more patient and make sure I'm testing the other params.

 

[BClute]

Thanks guys for chiming in. Because I killed off the first batch, I've been a bit wary of adding more.



I'll be more patient and make sure I'm testing the other params.

What type of water are you using for water changes and top off? I had the same problem and even with LeDs saw little growth in till I made some small tweaks


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[LQT]

I ran Nanobox lights on my Biocube 29 without issue. Grew everything, even acros and millis just fine. Now that you have quality lights, you need to focus on stability. As others have noted, you need to keep an eye on the big 3... Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium. Aim for 8 dKH, 420 Ca and 1350 Mg. Regularly monitor these parameters, keeping them stable over time. Initially, you will be able to maintain these parameters through regular water changes, but as things grow and your corals’ consumption increases, you will have to begin dosing. Have a regular water change schedule (I did 5 gallons every week on my BC29) with RODI water and a quality salt mix. Keeping up with routine maintenance is a must for nano reef tanks. As you progress with keeping coral, you will learn that it takes much more than lighting to have a successful reef tank.