Need advice on coral growth

[ClownsRCoo]

Hello everyone. I see so many of you posting photos of crazy growth in a short period of time and I can't figure out why mine won't do that. My Params are alk: 9.6 ca: 420 mg:1480 salinity 1.025. At these levels I've been able to keep my Params stable which was harder to do while I was trying to bring my calcium up.

I switch from LEDs to T-5s about 6 months ago and my colors have really improved and all corals look great. They have encrusted a lot and have good extension but they just don't seem to grow any bigger. They do look like they are getting thicker. I have 2 stylos, 3 monti digis, birdsnest, and 2 acros. I wish they would start branching out and growing more into a colony rather than just frags.

I kind of feel like I should lower my alk to around 8 and may make it easier to gety calcium up as well. I'm hoping that would help my corals take off. What do you all think I can do to get them to take off?

 

[NeverlosT]

To be honest, I had the same issue for a bit, i put on some supplemental LEDs for a bit more PAR and some colonies that had just been encrusting started putting up arms. It is often a very small change that spikes up the growth. Good luck!

 

[organism]

Are you dosing anything for alkalinity? Putting a tablespoon of kalk per 3 gallons of water into your ATO bucket can make an enormous difference.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I dose 2 part to keep my levels where I posted.

 

[organism]

I keep my alk higher than yours so I'm not sure that's the issue... Is it all of your corals or just a few? I've had some that sat there for almost a year and did nothing, then one day they just took off and have been growing like crazy ever since. Another thing is sometimes SPS like to really encrust and thicken up before branching out, especially if your flow is really high...

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I borrowed our local clubs par meter and took readings in my tank for the first time. I think that is telling most of my problems is just not having enough par at my corals. My bulbs are 9.5" off the water but the tops of my rocks where the majority of my corals are are about 11" below the water line. So my corals are about 20" under the lights. At my upper level of corals I was only seein about 200-215 par readings.

That I think is my main downfall. Second is that I think like you said most and still encrusting and haven't begun to really branch out yet. My colors have gotten exponentially better and corals are growing thicker but no branching from anything other than my birdsnest. I'm seeing good PE on all and I have the white tips on everything showing that growth is forming but they have looked that way for months now. I think I'm going to continue to move my lights down 1" a week and get some more light down to them. Since I've only got a 6 bulb fixture I may just drop the actinic bulb and put a second coral plus or something of higher par.

I'm just kind of disappointed in my readings. My assumptions were based just off of others readings and discussions on here but I figured I'd see 300-350 in all of those places but fell far short of that.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

Well I found another main reason why Im experiencing slow growth and I cant believe i didnt check this sooner. When i switched from LEDs to this T5 i had no idea what kind of PAR values i would experience so i only had my full spectrum of lights on for 6 hrs a day. They would come on after i left for work and be on well into the night. I think i just overlooked the fact that they werent turning on until well after i had left.

I have bumped my lighting period up and am pretty confident i will see much better results by giving my coral a much longer photo period to benefit from.

 

[organism]

I only have my white bulbs on for about 6 hours a day, but what gets me the best color and growth is having the actinics on for 12 hours a day. The whites don't necessarily drive your growth imo...

 

[ClownsRCoo]

As I thought my slow growth was mainly due to only running my lights for 6 hrs a day. It's up to 12 now and since the change I have seen more growth than I have in the past 3 months. Really wished I would have thought to check that sooner.

 

[swk]

What size tank? I run a 6 bulb ati on a 75 gal. Light is about 7" off the tanks frame and I get PAR at about 330 on the sand in the middle of the tank. Bulbs are 4 blue+ and 2 coral+

 

[ClownsRCoo]

90g. I run 4 blue+, 1 coral+ and 1 actinic

I know the actinic a are low par but I wouldn't have thought they would have dropped my numbers that much with just one bulb

 

[swk]

90g. I run 4 blue+, 1 coral+ and 1 actinic

I know the actinic a are low par but I wouldn't have thought they would have dropped my numbers that much with just one bulb

If it's a standard 18" wide 90, then a 6 bulb fixture is perfect for that width. That's what I'm running on the same footprint only shorter. I would drop your fixture a few inches and get that actinic out of there. Should be more than enough light for this tank IME

 

[ClownsRCoo]

I just really like the combo I have visually. If I didnt already have an upgrade in mind in the future I would add a couple BuildMyLED strips to the fixture, run 4 B+, 2 Coral+ and use the LEDS for extra PAR and to get the visual effects I like. Next tank ill be using the 60" 8bulb powermodule LED fixture. I wish it was offered in a 10 bulb.

 

[ClownsRCoo]

When my actinic needs replaced ill probably stick something else in there just to see what kind of different it will make.