Slow SPS growth and lacking polyp ext

[rzlinux]

Hello I have a fairly new setup beginning of oct. The tank is a 90 gallon with a 32 8 bulp watt PM over it. For flow I am using 1 mp40 with a eheim 1260. I picked up a few SPS in the last month or 2, Mostly frags but with good color some already healed. I am concerned about the lack of noticible growth and polyp extension. My daily maint is change filter sock. I also run a SRO XP 2000 cone skimmer semi wet. I have 7 fish I have experimented feeding heavy and feeding light but do not see any real diffrence. I do have some minor brown algea not diatoms it is not really that bad. I use only RO/DI with a 0 TDS reading. Below are my specs. What would be causing these issues? Any help would be great. My initial speculation was I was starving my SPS but I dont know how that would be possible if I have brown algea. I also run GFO/Carbon in a reactor and swap out monthly. I also perform weekly water changes. I also am slowly manually ramping up my cal, mag, and alk to get them where I want them so I can figure my daily usage and dose automatically.

Thanks for any help sorry for such a long post.

12-14-10
PH 8.1
Amm-0
Trite-0
Trate-0
Cal-400
alk-8.8
Mag-1200


12-15-10
alk-8.1
cal-415
mag-1280

12-16-10
Mag-1260
cal-415-420
alk-8.1

12-20-10
cal-400
alk-8.0
mag 1360

12-27-10

alk-7.2
mag-1355
cal-440
ph-8.1
amm-0
trite-0
trate-0

 

[marke]

Do you test for Phosphates? Whats your fish load? Are you overfeeding? How big is your skimmer?

 

[rzlinux]

Sorry forgot I do check for phosphates with a hanna checker and they always show 0. My skimmer is a bit oversized I belive for my bioload. I tried feeding Rods 2 times a day what I would consider overfeeding. I have also tried only pellots every other day. Right now I have a smaller tang, tailspot blenny, clown, firefish, 2 royal gammas 1 chromis. couple crabs and snails. 2 shrimp I also have a tunze ATO salinity was a bit low 102.2 but I have it back up to around 102.6

 

[rzlinux]

Here is a pic of some of the better polyp extention I was getting but last week or so that is not even as good.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bv4Rco2v-Y99wGwEPlfdTcV-_jWppnp0HMgHGCkpxCM?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_P-K4Jg5gz2U/TQAhUyS6zBI/AAAAAAAAAzM/nVir4H0XlWM/s800/IMG_1053.JPG" height="534" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/wilson.rodney/SaltTank?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbYyLiy4uieRw&feat=embedwebsite">Salt Tank</a></td></tr></table>

 

[clowndude]

Do you feed yours corals at all? Another thing I didn't see you mention is what kind of lighting do you have?

 

[smtank]

Can you give a brief list of the sps. And are you looking at night for the PE as well as during the day?

For what it is worth, I feed my acropora very slowly. It takes about 30 mins to see good feeding response, if you just feed all at one time by the time the acropora show a feeding reponse the food is already gone. I introduce a small amount of food to the tank and wait while and then feed the rest with a turkey baster, and it is Rods Foods.

 

[CleveYank]

When I am feeding to target my SPS, I feed them at about an hour after lights out when the polyps are really open. During the day, the only things that seemed to really react were my nathans millie, green and blue slimers. The rest just seem to not change PE. So I feed for the SPS only at night now.

 

[buy_baff]

Have you checked for Red Bugs?

 

[rzlinux]

I really dont feed my sps at all. I just assumed they all would put their polyps out during the day. Also I have checked at night and some are putting them out at night as well. I have checked for red bugs and I am pretty sure I am pest clear thus far. I have dipped each coral and qt'ed in a seperate tank to inspect. I really do not have the names for my corals though.

 

[Mizdog]

This is a very young tank. Just keep things stable and practice good reef keeping and things will grow. I wouldn't expect much with a three month old tank. Check the corals at night with a flashlight to see the polyps.

 

[Grant W]

Like mizdog said the tank is very young and it is going to take a while. Most tanks that are that young won't even support sps as they are still stabalizing so you are doing well just keeping them alive at this point so hang in there and keep things as stable as possible and they will take off in time.

 

[yeldarbj]

I agree with the previous 2 posters. The tank is too young to experience a lot of growth and PE on your sps. I had to start over about 18 months ago after a move, and I'm just now seeing my tank start to take off.

Any pictures of your brown algae? You might want to look up some threads/pictures of dinoflagellates to make sure that's what you don't have. They really set my tank back a while. Corals would survive but not thrive.

 

[rzlinux]

Ok I will just keep stuff stable I am seeing some growth as some of the corals are starting to cover their plugs. I never could get an ID on the algea I did look up dyno but Im not sure. Here is a couple pics. I Have slowed down on the feeding as well.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/M1ACPI96Bp3OqQENNs0WLsV-_jWppnp0HMgHGCkpxCM?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_P-K4Jg5gz2U/TQAhY1Z92fI/AAAAAAAAAzk/4slhaNSOIfc/s800/IMG_1061.JPG" height="534" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/wilson.rodney/SaltTank?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbYyLiy4uieRw&feat=embedwebsite">Salt Tank</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/SURfiB19NuKnSVrOvq8Pp8V-_jWppnp0HMgHGCkpxCM?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_P-K4Jg5gz2U/TQAhZRaj8xI/AAAAAAAAAzo/dTipMphIpy4/s800/IMG_1062.JPG" height="534" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/wilson.rodney/SaltTank?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbYyLiy4uieRw&feat=embedwebsite">Salt Tank</a></td></tr></table>
<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Dsi9OctrayJ_q5prfQ83b8V-_jWppnp0HMgHGCkpxCM?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_P-K4Jg5gz2U/TQAhZ-z9CoI/AAAAAAAAAzs/wcHQIjlJS04/s800/IMG_1063.JPG" height="534" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/wilson.rodney/SaltTank?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbYyLiy4uieRw&feat=embedwebsite">Salt Tank</a></td></tr></table>

The agea pics were taken with a macro lens. Any ID's Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[deezmarine]

i had the same thing in my tank, not sure what it is, but i just went a head and used a red slime control, and its gone now

 

[JamesJR]

I don't know if it is just me but the frag you posted looks bleached.

 

[rzlinux]

I don't know if it is just me but the frag you posted looks bleached.

I think it is pretty bleached. I belive it to me some kind of Green slimmer. It was mostly bleached when I got it and I did not light aclimate it properly. It is bottom half of the tank. I now keep all new corals on the bottom for 2 weeks before moving up with my lights.