Poor growth from M. spongodes

[GroktheCube]

So far, I've had good luck with SPS corals in my nearl year old 120g tank. Other montis (cap, unduata, mollis, danae) have been doing well and growing very quickly, as have birds nest, stylos, and a. millepora. My spongodes has grown slightly, but only very slightly. Color is pretty good, but PE is poor. I have two small frags in two different spots, one higher up under modrrate to high alternating flow, and the other lower down under moderate trubulent flow.

My water params are as of this posting:
Temp: 78
pH: 8.06 night to 8.3 day
Salinity: 35ppt
Alk: 7.5 to 8dKH
Cal: 450
Mag: 1350
Nitrate: 0.00
Phosphate: 0.02

The tank has one 4" C binotatus tang, 1 helfrichi firefish, 1 tailspot blenny, and a pair of McCosker's flaher wrasses.

I feed fairly heavily, inclusing target feeding of corals several nights a week with reef chilli, rods food, and frozen cyclopeeze.

Flow is provided by tunze 6095, 6105, 6055 on a tunze wave controller. I also have a tunze wavebox I'm trying to get working.

Lighting is provided by an ati 4x54w T5 fixture, and 2 buildmyled.com "12k" 72w strips.

I run GAC (BRS ROX) and biopellets which dump into an AquaMaxx EM300 skimmer.

I use an apex to monitor/control, and run BRS dosers off of it using ESV B Ionic 2 part.

WCs are 30g every two weeks or so.

Spongodes has one of my favorite growth forms, so it's just my luck that it's the only thing that won't grow well for me. Anyone have any ideas? I could try slightly higher or more laminar flow.

 

[sbreefer]

any chance there is metal in the tank? had issues with this in past.

 

[GroktheCube]

I can't think of any way that there would be. I'll poke around in the sump just to make sure I didn't drop anything in there.

Is M. spongodes more sensitive to metals than other corals?

 

[Touring]

how far are the corals from the light? i placed mine about 36"-40 away from the light and im getting about a inch of growth a month

 

[sbreefer]

mine is about 10" from a 400W radium and I get similar growth. possible a trace element is depleted? every now and then I send water to aquairum water testing to get a full panel. they also test for Cu and Si. helpful to see and then correct if required. mine is in a high flow area.. yours?

 

[GroktheCube]

Hmm, perhaps I should be doing small WCs more often. Now that I think about it, the only other green SPS I have is a Hydnophora, which has also had somewhat lackluster growth. It wasn't in great shape when I got it (no PE, undergoing STN), so I always attributed it's slow growth to recovery from its original poor state. Given both are green SPS, you may be on to something with trace element depletion. I do have a tealish millepora that grows like a weed (sometimes I feel like I can see grow day to day), but it's much closer to blue than green.

I checked the sump along with all of my pumps and heaters, I see no way metal could have gotten in.

One of my frags is about 10 to 12" from the surface, so 20" or so from the lights, the other about 7" deeper.

Neither is in a super high flow spot, so I may try relocating one of them. I have some room in places with strong alternating flow, and strong laminar turbulent flow.

I've had a tough time tacking down info on what exactly these guys like. They've never seemed unhealthy, my other montis just all grow like weeds, and have all taken a week at most to settle in and start growing.

Trace element depletion may be the answer. I'll start doing weekly WCs for the next month or so and see if that helps. Do you think I should try moving one of them to a higher flow spot as well?

 

[sbreefer]

i really reccommend getting a full panel now and then. http://aquariumwatertesting.com/
more flow cannnot hurt. the spongodes will have white tips when it is growing strong.

 

[GroktheCube]

Thanks for the link, I'll look into that.

 

[scar79]

I've found that it loves to get blasted with light. I have a large colony only a few inches below the surface directly under a 250w halide