How fast do corals grow?

O

orcafood

Member
I have had a frogspawn frag with two heads for about three months now. It has split the fleshy parts of the heads a few times, but the actual stony structure has not grown at all. My Candy Cane coral has done nothing. How long does it take for them to start growing?

Also my Zoas that I have had for around two months haven't done anything either.

The API test kits read.

Alk - 9
Calcium - 500
Nitrates Nitrites Ammonia - 0
magnesium - 1300

Is this normal?
 
Yes this is normal, some corals take longer to grow more heads then others. They have to like everything about the placement in your tank to do well--how much light they are receiving and how much flow besides your parameters which are excellent.
 
are you feeding your corals?


frogspawn and candy cane like to eat zooplankton (cyclopeeze) from the water. Twice a week I turn the main pump off and after the halides have gone off I feed the frozen cyclopeeze and mysis.I let the power heads circulate it for about 45 min
 
I will try feeding cyclopeeze. Right now they are both in low to medium flow areas and they are both placed about 15 in directly under the metal halides.

I just noticed a new Zoa head! :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11929608#post11929608 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by orcafood
I will try feeding cyclopeeze. Right now they are both in low to medium flow areas and they are both placed about 15 in directly under the metal halides.

I just noticed a new Zoa head! :)
Click to expand...

zoos kind of grow anywhere. Frogspawn should be up higher and not receive high flow. It should be separated from other coral because it has long tentacle stingers
 
Well my frogspawn is very spread out and large while lights are on. It is just not growing its stony part. I have never noticed any stinger tentacles lights on or off?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11931273#post11931273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by orcafood
Well my frogspawn is very spread out and large while lights are on. It is just not growing its stony part. I have never noticed any stinger tentacles lights on or off?
Click to expand...

oh it has them--very white hair thin ones with a small stinger head on the end of them

do you mean its not producing any new heads?
 
Whats the ammonia and PH and Salinity and Alk.Calcium a little high. Are you adding anything?
Whats used for flow?
Flow can be more improtant then lighting . http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/1/aafeature/view

Heres a pic of my hammer.Bought with 2 heads a little of a year ago. Its been fraged once and needs it again.

DSC01628.jpg
 
I dont like powerhead placement and in a 90 i would add another one. I would place one on the right side pointing toward the front center and about 1/4 or 3/4 the way down and the other on the left side faceing front center and below or above the other one. You want total tank circulation and rock placement helps.This plus more food.
 
When I put in my other one and aimed them, I did it just like you said. All the corals, including my anemone shrank back? Are they just not used to it or what? Also all of my fish hide in the rock work and didn't come out.

If I do add a third with the setup you described, where should it be?
 
Adjust flow for total tank health first.Then place coral around it.THe BTA will move on his own. You will have prime spots for coral but may need to do some readjusting.
 
demonsp just curious about how many heads you think are on it now and how many heads you think you may have removed.

Thanks,
Jon
 
They accelerate. They don't like moving, they don't like change: when things stabilize at least into repeatable cycles, and once they've sat and healed from the fragging that brought them to you, some mysterious day they'll start wanting to 'eat'. The calcium use of your tank will accelerate from half a teaspoon every few days to tablespoons-full daily. Mine sat a while. Now after 2 years and a house move and a near-crash my 3-4 head candycane is a globe the size of a softball with some heads dividing 3 ways; my 3-4 head hammer is the size of a soccer ball and I am going to HAVE to frag it because it is taking up a major part of my tank...
Don't let them wobble in their mounts: they hate that. Keep softies away from them, especially upstream. Softies spit. And if you have lps don't be afraid of a little dirt in the water. If sps, they like their water clean of light-obstructing particulates. Both eat about anything that will fit in their mouths, so fish poo is fair game, especially if pre-processed by bristleworms, who some researchers have found produce particulates just optimum size for corals.
 
Wow very intersting, bristle worm poop the perfict coral food. Happen to have a link to that article? Researchers may think they have "the answer", but I would like to be play 20 questions with that statement.(only way to really learn about something and understand it is to ask questions)

I'm really hoping to find before and after pictures clear enough that I can count polyps with dates. And then ask who posts what the conditions were. I think it may be best to start a new thread about this and ask for specific posts.

Thanks for your response. I think I need to glue down my candy cane and get it away from softies. It has sat in egg create for about a year and a half and been knocked around by turbos and conch. Very helpful info. I knew I wasn't feeding it enough, but didn't think about all that other stress I have put it under. It is obvious why it hasn't grown much.

Thanks again,
Jon
 
I wish I could remember what internet article I got that from, but basically the worms' poo produces a particulate size that pretty well fits the sps corals needs. The expert in question suggested that it was a case of the worms fitting with the corals rather neatly. What I would ask first is how frequently bristleworms in nature actually occur near corals...they sure like them in our tanks. And who knows? Maybe the corals exude something the bristleworms like that attracts them to the area...I'm curious, too. The bit about preventing wobble is something I learned: had a real growth spurt after securing some of my pieces that had been non-falling, not stable either, sort of like the situation with eggcrate. Based on what i found, if I were doing a frag tank with eggcrate, I'd use reef putty or square pegs to be sure nobody wobbled around. COnsidering they respond to gravity and light as they grow, unsteadiness of position has to muddle things up a bit for them, is my best guess.
 
It is strange because I was told when I was in the caribbean by locals that their were bristle worms ALL over the place. I think I may have noticed them one time. At the same time I wasn't flipping over rocks looking for them the whole month.

The other thing is how did they collect there data? If they dissected many genera of SPS and looked at the size of prey and then assumed that was the ideal size and then measured the poop.... I dunno still the consistency of "poop" isn't often solid matter and you would think it would fall apart a bit as it was being captured. It just sounds like a generalized statement that has too many variables to even get close to using the word perfect. Maybe something along the lines of, "This species of worm seems to have defecate that matches the size of the prey this particular genera consume on average and also matches similarly in nutrient content."

I'll have to see if I can google that article when it's not 2:30am Perhaps I'll become a worm rancher if this is the "perfect" sps food. As we all know most people who keep SPS for more then a couple of months have money to spend on anything that might even possibly be good for there animals, lol.
 
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