SPS Growth

1191 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by flynnstone, Apr 28, 2012

Dave3420

Discussion Starter · Apr 26, 2012

This question is for us with no grow out tanks, not big time reefers or what have you. Lol. What is a normal amount of growth to be expected for a SPS. I have a birdsnest that I see tons of new little branches coming off from it and my caps seem to double size in a short time span, but I don't "see" growth on my purple stylapora or sunset Milli yet. Have had them both for over a month. Just curious. My system does not have a Cal reactors or ATO. I am keeping topped off and dosing daily. My sal is 1.025, temp 78-80, calcium around 420, alk is 11, ph is 8.2, nitrates around 10 ppm, ammonia and nitrites zero. Have other SPS also and am seeing little to no visible changes. They polyp good, have good color no real noticeable growth though. Any advice?

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jamey1010

· #2 · Apr 26, 2012

Have you checked the base on those ones you don't "see" the growth on? My millies work hard on there base first. Also I would say it's perfectly normal to see nothing for some time and I have heard stories where it took a year with little or no growth than took of like mad.

I think it's just the strange complexity of sps corals and I don't see anything you could change other than how's your lighting? Or maybe move the corals around the tank a bit, higher/lower more flow/ less flow.

Your nitrates are a little high 5 would be ideal, and check into your phosphate level.

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Dave3420

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 26, 2012

My nitrates are usually lower, never get to 10, but that would be Max. I have a 150g (5x2x2) and 40l sump holds about 25g. Has a small refuge section. My spaghetti algae is bright green and healthy but does not grow very much. The tank has a skimmer rated for 250g plus. I have 4-4ft vho and 2-175 halides....20k xm. I dose every other day calcium and alk. And do weekly 20g water changes

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lemonjello

· #4 · Apr 26, 2012

i have the same growth characteristics. my millis and stylos grow on the slow side while my birdsnest and monti caps and digis grow like weeds.i m thinking that the stability of a higher quality system is what will give these harder or shall i say "more advanced" sps a better chance at growth . i also will point out that some coral acclimate to your system faster than others , that also has an effect on when growth actually starts.so many factors play a role its just narrowing it down to what ones are important to your situation.

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blasterman

· #5 · Apr 26, 2012

Gonna throw my .02$ in on this one because I have the same problem with Acros after migrating to smaller tanks after running bigger ones for years.

When I had bigger tanks I never had a problem with Acros. Heck, I could keep them growing with just water changes. Then I became an apartment dweller and moved to a couple 20 gals and I haven't had anywhere near the same growth since.

No matter what I keep my water params with dosing nothing helps. I repeat, it doesn't matter. Low nutrient -vs high nutrient, four different brands of salt, three different test kits, slow acro growth. Some of my montis grow kinda slow, others quickly but at least they're growing. I know a lot of other small tank converts with the exact same problem. I betcha if I moved back to my 90gal, hooked up my old reactor, and used the same everything else I'd have Acropora growing out my eye sockets.

Corals are not complex creatures, and they respond to a very narrow range of water conditions. Which leads me to conclude there's water variables we can't test for. One suspect I've been looking at more intently is the ratio of different types of calcium disolved in water and the type / amount of substrate to keep them buffered. I've noted that tanks I've had with strong Acro growth had generous amount of substrate while my old bare bottom tanks had stagnant growth even though calcium levels tested the same. Calcium is present in many forms in sea water, and even more forms in captive tanks where we dose. You have calcium hydroxide (kalk), calcium chloride (dow flakes) and good old calcium carbonate which is supposed to be at saturation level, but is it really? Then there's calcium bicarbonate, which might be the quiet 'ringer' in all this, but no way to test for it.

Sorry for the rambling, but this issue has driven me nuts, and I really think it's caused by calcium / bicarbonate variables we can't test for. The more people try to figure it out the quicker we'll resolve it.

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tdb560reef

· #6 · Apr 27, 2012

.

I have a BB and get amazing growth. To the OP it seems as tough your nutrients are high. Consider Vodka and tuning your skimmer and a Kalk drip which is cheap you can get Mrs wedge pickling lime at walmart. With Kalk I started with a 5 G bucket that dripped into my sump. 1 drip every 2 seconds and had amazing growth there after.

blasterman said:
Gonna throw my .02$ in on this one because I have the same problem with Acros after migrating to smaller tanks after running bigger ones for years.

When I had bigger tanks I never had a problem with Acros. Heck, I could keep them growing with just water changes. Then I became an apartment dweller and moved to a couple 20 gals and I haven't had anywhere near the same growth since.

No matter what I keep my water params with dosing nothing helps. I repeat, it doesn't matter. Low nutrient -vs high nutrient, four different brands of salt, three different test kits, slow acro growth. Some of my montis grow kinda slow, others quickly but at least they're growing. I know a lot of other small tank converts with the exact same problem. I betcha if I moved back to my 90gal, hooked up my old reactor, and used the same everything else I'd have Acropora growing out my eye sockets.

Corals are not complex creatures, and they respond to a very narrow range of water conditions. Which leads me to conclude there's water variables we can't test for. One suspect I've been looking at more intently is the ratio of different types of calcium disolved in water and the type / amount of substrate to keep them buffered. I've noted that tanks I've had with strong Acro growth had generous amount of substrate while my old bare bottom tanks had stagnant growth even though calcium levels tested the same. Calcium is present in many forms in sea water, and even more forms in captive tanks where we dose. You have calcium hydroxide (kalk), calcium chloride (dow flakes) and good old calcium carbonate which is supposed to be at saturation level, but is it really? Then there's calcium bicarbonate, which might be the quiet 'ringer' in all this, but no way to test for it.

Sorry for the rambling, but this issue has driven me nuts, and I really think it's caused by calcium / bicarbonate variables we can't test for. The more people try to figure it out the quicker we'll resolve it.

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flynnstone

· #7 · Apr 28, 2012

blasterman said:
Gonna throw my .02$ in on this one because I have the same problem with Acros after migrating to smaller tanks after running bigger ones for years.

Corals are not complex creatures, and they respond to a very narrow range of water conditions. Which leads me to conclude there's water variables we can't test for. One suspect I've been looking at more intently is the ratio of different types of calcium disolved in water and the type / amount of substrate to keep them buffered. I've noted that tanks I've had with strong Acro growth had generous amount of substrate while my old bare bottom tanks had stagnant growth even though calcium levels tested the same. Calcium is present in many forms in sea water, and even more forms in captive tanks where we dose. You have calcium hydroxide (kalk), calcium chloride (dow flakes) and good old calcium carbonate which is supposed to be at saturation level, but is it really? Then there's calcium bicarbonate, which might be the quiet 'ringer' in all this, but no way to test for it.
QUOTE]

i must agree with the above post. i have had minimal algae growth and average SPS growth with my Ca reactor and 4" sand bed. my CO2 tank ran out and i started adding the Brightwell Kalk manually ( 1 tsp slurry dumped in each morning into 180g) my acros took off and my gracillaria and cheato algea started to grow rapidly. all the LPS started to expand more too. my CaRX had the parameters rock solid for months, the algae should have loved the extra Co2 in the water.
personally i dont believe all the hype about higher nutrients, or at least the ones we can test for. i have seen acros in tanks with 40ppm nitrates, and the new growth is obvious. i have seen tanks with higher Phosphate levels ( .8 ppm ) with good growth and no algae anywhere.
we simply do not have all the knowledge we need at this time.

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