Something's Missing...

[coondog]

I have a 240 gallon with 60 gallon sump and refugium, mixed reef tank.
I probably have over 25 sps frags and only two are growing. (Some of these frags are 6-7 months old) All my sps have decent color with great polyp extension. I don't know what I'm missing so that I can get decent growth. They just sit there. They may encrust a little at the base but that is it. Polyps out, pretty good color but no growth. I don't get it. I would think that they should be growing like mad the way the look and act with polyps out.

I run 2-250 watt halides and a 400 watt halide with t-5 supplementation and actinic led strips. I run gfo, bio pellets, doser, 2 tunze 6105 with 7095 controller, 2 1600 koralias on red sea controller, and RO xp 5000 cone skimmers. All my parameters are stable.
My parameters are:Alk-8.2 Red Sea Calcium-390 Red Sea
Mg-1300 Red Sea Phosphates-.04 Hanna
Salinity 1.026 PH-7.95 (night) 8.05 (day)
Nitrates- undetect API

What gives? I work my a$$ off on this tank. If any one can help it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SpinyReef]

I often think the same thing about my tank and I find taking pictures is the way to confirm whether or not there's significant growth; sometimes its just our minds playing games with us. You also need to keep in mind that acropora growth is an exponential function. Tiny frags take a long time to make noticable progress, while colonies give the impression of explosive growth, but proportionally, I would argue they grow at the same rate. Then there's PAR. Not all halides are created equally; what bulb, ballast and REFLECTOR you use can make a big difference.

On another note, phosphates are known to inhibit calcification.

 

[DopeCantWin]

I have a 240 gallon with 60 gallon sump and refugium, mixed reef tank.
I probably have over 25 sps frags and only two are growing. (Some of these frags are 6-7 months old) All my sps have decent color with great polyp extension. I don't know what I'm missing so that I can get decent growth. They just sit there. They may encrust a little at the base but that is it. Polyps out, pretty good color but no growth. I don't get it. I would think that they should be growing like mad the way the look and act with polyps out.

I run 2-250 watt halides and a 400 watt halide with t-5 supplementation and actinic led strips. I run gfo, bio pellets, doser, 2 tunze 6105 with 7095 controller, 2 1600 koralias on red sea controller, and RO xp 5000 cone skimmers. All my parameters are stable.
My parameters are:Alk-8.2 Red Sea Calcium-390 Red Sea
Mg-1300 Red Sea Phosphates-.04 Hanna
Salinity 1.026 PH-7.95 (night) 8.05 (day)
Nitrates- undetect API

What gives? I work my a$$ off on this tank. If any one can help it would be greatly appreciated.

I've had the same issue. Your Ph is low for that Alk, which means you likely have too much CO2. To find out if this is true is a cheap and simple job. Extend the air line coming into your skimmer to go out a window. Just slightly open it and insert the tube through it, so all the air the skimmer is using is coming from outside. You should see your Ph get bumped up to go between 8.3 and 8.5. Keep it this way for a week or so to see if your tank is happier.

 

[Acronic]

Try raising the cal to 440ppm aswell. Do you feed the sps?

 

[coondog]

I agree with taking pics of frags. I do take pics then download them on my computer so that I can really look and see if even one polyp has gotten any bigger.

I have fed oyster feast a few times but i"m afraid that it is going to make my phosphates spike. I don't know whether or not to feed them. How do you tell if they need to be fed?

Thanks for the input on PH. I can easily run a air line outside from my skimmer.

Thank you.

 

[mc-cro]

did I read that correctly, you are running more than one skimmer, gfo, and bio pellets?

my guess is that your blasting them with light, but not giving them enough nutrients to grow and color up.

I would consider dropping one of the skimmers, (if you are actually running more than 1). I would also consider dropping the bio pellets unless you have an absolute need for them, like you are overstocked.

speaking of which, what is your fish load? I find you need lots of fish poo to get SPS to grow and color up

 

[Acronic]

All corals need to feed, some are just more self sufficient feeding off their zoox. Since you arr using BP if the sps are pale they should be fed if not, feed anyway to see what happens.

 

[coondog]

I am running one of each SRO XP 5000 skimmer, 1000 ml of bio pellets in a reactor, and rowaphos in a gfo reactor.

Fish load consists of 6 medium tangs, pair of ocellaris clowns, pair of flame wrasses, two lyretail anthias, borbonius anthias, blue mandarin (I've had for a year that looks like a bug he's so fat), and couple of yellow tailed damsels. The tank is an 8 ft tank.

 

[power boat jim]

How long have had the frags? sometimes they just take a looong time to acclimate.

 

[tripdad]

+1 on feeding more. I have recently tried this to correct some issues myself,was scary when considering adding all the nutrients to my "clean" system I worked so hard to get. So far looks like it's working as my colors are improving. Make sure to keep up with nutrient export.