I have been working hard on my reef tank for a while now trying to get everything perfect to get coral growth where it should be. First, I have done my water changes with tap water with prime used for the chlorine, but do have a RODI filter (have new filters on the way, old ones got old). Tap water has lead to some diotom algae. I have only mushrooms, daisy polyps, acans, green stary polyps, an assortment of zoanthids, some colt coral and frog spawn, and a few other soft corals. Fish are very minimal with only a couple chromis, a clown and a coral beauty and a six line wrasse. I have a 90 gallon reef (36 inch long tank and 24 wide/24 deep), with a twenty gallon sump and separate 10 gallon refugium with chaeto. One hundred pounds of live rock are in the tank. Lighting is a six T5 setup with two 10000k bulbs, 1 18000K, 16500K and two actinics. I am running a five hour photo period of the white bulbs and a nine hour period for the actinics. For skimming I have a reef octopus skimmer rated for 110 gallons and skim 24/7. I ran the chemical tests today. Ph is 8.3, dKh is 8, calcium is 460 and the saltwater is 1.024. I have two sicce 3 powerheads without a wavemaker. Nitrates are 0 along with ammonia and nitrites. I have been adding coral builder supplement to maintain the ph, kalk +2 for calcium, and reef fuel for minerals and other supplement. I did a magnesium test the other night and found the magnesium is very low in the tank and I began adding brightwell aquatics magnesion as directed today. I also am using brightwell aquatics iodion solution as directed but am switching to lugols solution. From my reading on forums and such, my aquarium is testing well. Any ideas what might be holding back coral growth? One last thing, I keep the temp at 78 with one heater in the tank and one in the sump. Thanks for your input. Sorry for such a long description. Just want everything included for better advice.
very slow coral growth?
- Thread starter bluticSC
- Start date
jimmy frag
New member
salinity is low, and your phosphates are high seeing as you are adding them with your tap water that is loaded with heavy metals. coral may servive for a while but will not thrive. you really gotta get your self a rodi unit. please read up on rodi units. dont mean to sound like a ***** but it sounds like you already know the answer
thanks for the quick reply. I knew phosphates were not good but other than contributing to algae did not know they stunted coral growth. Glad you told me this. I have a Rodi unit but with the holidays have been holding back from buying the much needed filters. Thanks for the input. Guess I will be getting those tonight. Thanks for the input on the salinity also.
skyshrimp
New member
Read,read,read, then read more. This way you can come up with a list of things you may be doing. Begin a process of elemination of these things and more than likely you will find your problem. I had slow coral growth in my tank but since reading and asking on the forum i did this and my problem was that i ran very strong lighting and ran it too many hours a day. Since correcting this i have good growth that is noticable every couple of weeks.
aaronnohren
Member
An RO system is like a controller, you think you can live without it until you have one. They're not too expensive either.
Thanks to Jimmy Frag for the great reply. Salinity has been increased as suggested. I also have ordered a Phosphate reactor (two little fishies) and have redesigned my refugium for more flow through the chaeto algae to increase effectiveness. I also have bought some distilled water until the new filters for my RODI unit come in. While doing the suggested reading, I read a ton about magnesium and tested this. This was low. I have been dripping a stock solution of magnesium into the tank using an iv line from a gallon jug. Hopefully with decreased phosphates, and more magnesium in the tank, I will see more coraline algae growth and happier corals.
reefinghabit
New member
quick recipe p04 should be 0 ppm, mg should read 1300 ppm,calcium 420 ppm,alk 10-12 dkh,n03 under 10ppm,po4 inhibit calcium carbonate growth.be careful with the lugols as its very strong,it will also add to the algae growth.as stated ro/di is a must,im a fan of spectrum ro/di filters. max cap is a good one.
needmore-reef
New member
using kalk calcium hydroxide has been reported to lower PO4 levels. just a thought.
Also there was a study that acropora grow in high levels of PO4. densities were low but had the most growth. Im sure they also turned brown. lol
Also there was a study that acropora grow in high levels of PO4. densities were low but had the most growth. Im sure they also turned brown. lol
