Little or no growth? What the?

[Robert Patterso]

Tank has been up and running since Sept. 09. It's a 140, 48x24x29. 2 400w radiums on coralvue dimmable ballast.
SG 1.026 refrac. meter
Ca 450
alk 8-9
No 3 <5
Po 4 undect. no hannah
Do water changes bi weekly, 15%
Run gfo in reactor and carbon in bag.
Recently lost all monti caps, was convinced it was reeflux bulbs going bad after 8 or 9 mos. Swithed to radiums. Colors are decent but not great. More importantly VERY LITTLE GROWTH. I have been in this hobby for over twenty yrs and can't for the life of me figure out why I can't make this thing work. Thinking about sending a water sample out. I have to clean the glass about every 3-4 days. Flow is an eheim 1262 w/1" returns with eductors. Closed loop with 4 returns on a Dart pump. 2 Korilla 4's. My last tank did great, smaller 70g, right up to the power outage, lost everything. Anyway, What the bleep now...........

 

[Grant W]

Do you ever feed your corals?

 

[Robert Patterso]

just fish poop. have a sohal that really, well you know. plus 2 other tangs and 2 wrasses, gold blenny, anthias, etc.

 

[pencil3]

What does your PH look like? When mine drops below 8.0 (due to high co2 in the house) growth slows and my montis take a hit.

 

[Robert Patterso]

My top off is kalk. Don't check it to often. Last checked it was 8.3 during day.

 

[mike_cmu04]

If your magnesium is low corals will not grow because they are unable to use the calcium I would test that.

 

[Robert Patterso]

If your magnesium is low corals will not grow because they are unable to use the calcium I would test that.

Just checked Mg. 1300. Elos kit. Pulling hair out I'm missing something just can't figure it out. Going to take a water sample to lfs and have them check everything. Anybody know where to send sample for testing?

 

[Uncle Luke]

What's your temp at? Does it fluctuate a lot? Might be worth a shot. Read here a while back that some reefer had the same problem and found out his temp guage was bad at the temps were at 86-87

 

[Robert Patterso]

runs 80 -82. just bought a chiller to keep it in check better. 79 - 80. might be the digital temp gage is off.

 

[ryanrid]

highish P04 can hinder growth also. do things encrust and then not grow?

 

[Paulca916]

highish P04 can hinder growth also. do things encrust and then not grow?

Good point had the high PO4 problem was testing with a well known test kit showing around .01 changing my Rowa Phos every 2 months then tested with a hanna tester turned out being .25 since I have lowered my PO4 to around .03 to .04 my SPS growth is comming back but one of my chalices and one Rainbow delight Oxypora took a hit problly from the drastic drop in PO4 I Think.
The are also comming back thou slowly

 

[WhiteLightsaber]

Have you calibrated your refract lately? High salt could stop growth.

 

[Robert Patterso]

Calibrate the refrac. meter every water change. I keep gfo running at all times. change it every 2-3 wks. But yes everything has encrusted real good but no upward growth. Hmm maybe I need a hanna meter.

 

[WhiteLightsaber]

I'd get a Hannah meter. You can pick them up for about the price of a decent test kit, and it helps eliminate all the guesswork. Order extra powder packs when you get it!

 

[Robert Patterso]

I'd get a Hannah meter. You can pick them up for about the price of a decent test kit, and it helps eliminate all the guesswork. Order extra powder packs when you get it!

Yep that's at the top of my list of things to do. You know where and who has the best price?

 

[fijiblue]

I would look more towards PH than PO4. Corals can still calcify with PO4 to a point - it is just slowed down. If PH drops past a certain point, the corals will not calcify much at all. I have noticed that when we have the windows closed during the summer, my PH drops and my growth is minimum. I drilled a hole through the wall and now feed my skimmer with outside air - keeps me at around 8 for my low instead of 7.8.

 

[ZurichOne95]

I bumpe my mag higher and everything is basing and growing alot faster now. All my parameters were fine, also might be the bulb, my last bulb washed out all my monti's and most blues and greens, the digis were fine and softies. Bulb was a dud. Replaced it and everything looks good again!

 

[Robert Patterso]

Made the mistake of hooking up my chiller in the house, in a closet next to the tank. Holy you know what! I had no idea they put out that much heat. Heated the livingroom and kitchen area 3-4 degrees. The air conditioner never turned off. The wife about blew a gasket, can't say I blame her. Going to move it out on the closed in porch. Live in an older pier and beam house so going to plumb it under the house and out to the porch. The porch has plenty of windows so the heat can exit out the windows plus the fan makes to much noise.