Little to no growth

T

Tgionet

New member
Been struggling since I set the tank up a year ago. Corals seem to die off slowly. Acros STN over a period of 2-3 months, with full PE the whole time. montipora kick the bucket fast. Caulastrea don't grow at all with retracted polyps. Zoas plateau after a bit then >slowly< start to die off. Most LPS have no change from frags but retain color with no growth. Acans have either done nothing or had polyp bailout after 8 months or so. Very little coralline growth overall. BTA is happy but grows slowly.

Aiming for an SPS dominant mixed reef

Tank is 36x18x21
Lights are a Kessil AP700 with an ATI coral plus and blue plus supplementing
Flow is provided by a pair of mp40s turned all the way down on reef crest (works out to about 40x turnover)
This morning's parameters are
165ppm alk (Hanna checker)
420 ca (Red Sea)
1400mg (Red Sea)
1ppb phosphorous (Hanna checker, ULR)
0 nitrate (Red Sea nitrate pro)

Those parameters haven't changed in ages.

Lighting schedule is ap700 ramping from 20% @1pm to 45% @2-6pm down to 20% @7pm 5% @9pm and off at 11 pm
T5s run from 2-6 pm

Feed Reef Frenzy, PE Calanus, PE Mysis, Reef Chili, live phytoplankton
Started the new KZ coral program last week and picked up the nano power package from BRS. Very noticeable effect on PE since I started dosing that.

Minor hair algae problem with a persistent bubble algae problem.
CUC is 40 blue leg hermits, 3 emerald crabs, 5 nassarius snails and a tuxedo urchin.

Tank is currently on day 50 of a fallow period due to ich. Pair of clowns and a small one spot fox face will be going back in. Lost fish due to an ammonia spike in QT.
 
Phosphates and nitrates seem low to me,particularly for acans and caulastrea but for sps too wit halk in the 9dkh range ;perhaps limiting.;though the feeding could compensate for a phosphorous or nitrogen deficiency. FWIW, PO4 0-.02ppm to 0.04ppm per hanah 713 and NO3 around 0.2ppm per salaifert works well for me for a variety of corals in my sps dominant system with minimal nuisance algae.

How are you managing to keep them at near zero levels?
 
Last edited:
Not enough nutrients. How long have the sps been in the tank? Are you seeing any encrusting?


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So do they not only don't grow, they actually die?

Are they bleaching from the tips? Or from the base? Or are the flesh sloughing off?


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Tgionet said:
Fuge, skimmer, currently fishless.
Click to expand...

Fishless? So you are also adding no food to the tank either correct? I would add some nutrients. I have ran ULNS before to the point of having to add KNO3 to my tank on a regular basis or my SPS would not grow and just turn pale to white and die if I let them.

Actually the picture of the SPS on my profile was taken after I started adding the potassium nitrate. You can see the color starting to come back but it turned white and growth stopped from going to low on nutrients. So sounds like to me you need to add some fish or nutrients somehow.
 
If you are going to run at such low nutrient levels then you might want to lower the alkalinity a bit. Some nitrate would be useful as well but things will probably pick up when you add some fish back into the tank. The corals are probably starving over time.
 
At this point, I agree that lowering the alkalinity to around 125 ppm might be worth a shot. Some people do notice better results at such lower levels.
 
I think this tank is still on its way to maturity. With all the coral die off, however IMO, I feel as though there were way too many changes all at one time which stressed out your tank. A mature tank may be able to deal with most of your changes: bare hands in/out of the tank moving things around.... in a closed system this often causes unseen damage that we as hobbyist do.

Being that your coral line algae growth is low. I would say to focus on allowing it's growth before adding additional corals or fish into your system. Basically, hands out of the water and allow the equipment to work.

How well is your protein skimmer? And maybe coral placement/lighting was an issue....allow this time to let your system to mature. Also, I will suggest that a BEEFIER clean up crew be employed to deal with the algae issue. Having a variety of inverts for a clean up crew will help with keeping the system free of die off.

Above all else, just keep us all updated on the outcome of all that you've tried to fix the issues.

Larry
 
Are you acclimating corals to your lights? I was running an AP700 at 18 inches over the tank at 40% max on a 4 foot tank and I got growth. You are also supplementing with T5s - that's a lot of light compared to what I used.
 
Well, it's not that simple.

Again, aim to have your CORALLINE ALGAE show up to the party first.....then look for your pod population at night when the lights are out with a flashlight....during this same hour examine your corals for polyp extensions....if there's PE target feed a small bit with the circulation off.

I usually feed my corals around 2-3am while the rest of the world is napping/sleeping.

What does your equipment consist of? Skimmer, Chiller, Reactors?

IMO your CUC can use a few more players to take care of the algae bloom issue - SNAILS, Starfish.....

Insert patience and you'll be fine.


Larry
 
waterman78 said:
Well, it's not that simple.

Again, aim to have your CORALLINE ALGAE show up to the party first.....then look for your pod population at night when the lights are out with a flashlight....during this same hour examine your corals for polyp extensions....if there's PE target feed a small bit with the circulation off.

I usually feed my corals around 2-3am while the rest of the world is napping/sleeping.

What does your equipment consist of? Skimmer, Chiller, Reactors?

IMO your CUC can use a few more players to take care of the algae bloom issue - SNAILS, Starfish.....

Insert patience and you'll be fine.


Larry
Click to expand...



PE is basically 24/7. Feeding tentacles are almost always out as well, more so at night of course. Coralline grows fine in the sump, I question whether the urchin eats it in the DT, since it's only in places he doesn't often visit. Pod population is healthy to the point of being unsightly.

Reef octopus 152 skimmer
GFO and Carbon reactors. High capacity, and rox 0.8 carbon.
 
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