Gettting better growth out of softies?

[Zoanthids2152]

I want to get better growth out of my softies..Im tired of all my water changes that i do weekly for the few SPS i have and feel just like getting rid of some of the LPS i have and SPS and just keeping nice softies in my biocube..

Currently i have cheato algea which is doing great in the first chamber. And then i have carbon and phosgaurd in the 2nd chamber.

I do weekly 5g water changes to keep everything in check

The bioload in fish is

Manderin goby
2 Occ. Clowns
Randalli Goby
(Want to add like a wrasse or something,would that be okay?)

Current params are.

Nitrate-0ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Ammonia-0
Ph-8.2
Salinity-1.024
Calcium-420
Phosphate-0

 

[philosophile]

You have a mandarin in a biocube? How are you feeding it?

Are you spot feeding your softies? If you can find something that they'll take, and are able to give them enough time to eat it (you'll probably have to chase away the fish to assure them a good half hour of time), you'll probably get faster growth out of them.

 

[cloak]

You could try waiting 2 weeks before you do your water changes, maybe even 3 weeks. If you start to see some of your sps corals decline in any way then step up the frequency. Sometimes more nutrients in the water is not always a bad thing. Maybe both your softies and your sps corals will get a kick out of it. It's worth a shot.

 

[shifty51008]

skip on the wrasse it will compete for food with the mandrin and I think your really maxed out for that tank.

my best growth from softies came when my nitrates were in the 20ppm area

 

[andythorntonjr]

If you have a pretty good system with nitrates under 5ppm (due to Macro, live rock, etc), what's the best way to 'feed' soft coral? For that matter, I see a lot of mention on the forums of target feeding, but what do you use?


I've seen a lot of coral suppliment feeds such as Coral Snow, etc; is that what most people use? or just another dose of regular feed the fish get (ie. brine shrimp, mysis, etc)? Right now my coral are 'stable', but I'm really not seeing much in the way of growth, likely due to the low nitrate levels. Suggestions in the vein of this thread; getting better growth?

 

[shifty51008]

I have never spot fed any of my softies LPS on the other hand I may spot feed mysis once a month if I am bored.

 

[cjdevito]

The main thing you can do to get better softie growth is to give them the one thing most people will tell you that you don't really need: strong lighting.

With a few noteworthy exceptions - some species of mushrooms, NPS types (of course), etc - most soft corals will thrive at higher levels of lighting, and grow like gang busters.

 

[badguitarist]

Agreed completely with cjdevito, strong light and brisk water flow (25-40 times turn over per hour is a good place to start) will really help many soft corals, make sure to keep your bulbs and any covers clean. Soft coral is a broad term to use, if you gave specific genera or even common names it would be easier to give advice based on that group of animals!

 

[Nanook]

I definitely agree with the high lighting and moderate to high flow as factors to increase softy growth. The more light I have over my colts, leathers and other softies, the more they grow like weeds.

 

[Zoanthids2152]

I have a 150w Metal Halide over the 29g, i have a K1 and a MJ 1200 in there, i seem to get good flow.

As for he manderin, i already have 10000's of pods in there, i see them all over. and I can get pods if i need too.

 

[philosophile]

I spot feed my mushrooms things anything that they'll close up around the food for... They'll do that for fish pellets (I use hikari s), nutramar ova, some ignore brine and mysis, some love it. Nutramar ova in particular is liked by almost everything in my tank. (supposedly mandarins love it too)

 

[cloak]

High lighting and good water flow, huh. He said that he's got some sps corals. Don't they need that to begin with in most cases? Increasing the light can't hurt I guess, but I think it might be something else. JMO.

 

[shifty51008]

everyone told me I had had way overkill lighting for my 75 gal. tank. and it was as it was 2 400 watt MH's but my softies grew like crazy. here are some picks of my leather.

when I 1st got him he was a about 1.5" dia.

a year later

same with my shrooms and kenya trees they grew like mad I ended up getting rid of the shrooms and most of the kenya tree's due to they spread more fast than my liking.

 

[poohcl]

Very nice fish tank

 

[kissman]

I spot feed my softies I use what ever I am feeding the fish. I have a frag of cany cane that I am trying to get to grow. It has 2 heads on it and its the same two heads its had for a year now. What I do to make sure they get fed is I cut the bottom out of a coke bottle I put it in the tnak around the canes and squirt food into the the top and it just falls right down on top them. Let its it sit there till its done the let the hermits and snails in, lol!

 

[kissman]

I also dose Seachem Reef Plus and soem of my corals have started to take off and get better color

 

[RealReef7]

i run my softies just like how i would run sps(lots of light, good water movement). My 120 has 2x400w halides, not to mention 4 blues as supplement. I also like to run a good amount of flow. Seems to work really well!!

 

[ticklem]

Kinda hard to spot feed just plain softies but LPS can be spot feed very easliy. Most leathers, mushrooms, star polyps, and xenia what I consider softies won't grab the food.

 

[brad65ford]

HM's