Acan Not Growing

[Nolan99]

I have this acan frag that I have had for about two-three months. I am a beginner reefer. I have noticed that it has not grown at all. Can you explain why this might be happening? My lighting is two T5 55 watt bulbs. They are bulbs that have regular light and actinic. (If it helps it came with the Red Sea Max 130C). The bulbs are about 5 months old. Here are my water parameters:
Temperature: 78.5 degrees F
Salinity: 1.024
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Calcium: 340 ppm
Alkalinity: 9-10 degrees dKH
Phosphate: .25 ppm
Magnesium: 1170 ppm
Dissolved Oxygen: 7 ppm
I was wondering if it might not be growing because the calcium is so low, along with magnesium, and the pH. It is 5 inches from the bottom and I can’t really tell how much flow it is getting. I’d say it is probably getting good flow. Also, to get the calcium up, along with magnesium and the pH, could I just add Kalkwasser to my ATO? Please help because I am getting impatient about not a single amount of growth! Thanks for all the help!

 

[bribo12]

Feed it. Acans love meaty food and ime are one coral that definitely benefits it.


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[Nolan99]

Feed it. Acans love meaty food and ime are one coral that definitely benefits it.


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I feed it every other day. Any other ideas?

 

[bribo12]

How are your other corals? I just noticed your phosphate were at 0.25 which is pretty high and could limit growth


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[agfish12]

Low calcium is a big contributor. I'd add the Kalk. But you don't want to add too much too quickly


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[Sniperhank]

Low calcium and high phosphates. Phosphates slow the process of building calcium skeletons in corals.

 

[Nolan99]

How are your other corals? I just noticed your phosphate were at 0.25 which is pretty high and could limit growth


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My Zoas seem to be growing another little polyp every week or so. I just recently added a mushroom coral that seems to be doing alright. Fully extends out I just haven't seen it grow yet.

 

[Nolan99]

Low calcium is a big contributor. I'd add the Kalk. But you don't want to add too much too quickly


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What about the fact that the alkalinity is at its optimum level? Is it still alright to add kalk just slowly?

 

[Sniperhank]

My Zoas seem to be growing another little polyp every week or so. I just recently added a mushroom coral that seems to be doing alright. Fully extends out I just haven't seen it grow yet.

Soft corals don't use calcium to grow like LPS and SPS do so the phosphate levels won't have as major of an impact on growth when it comes to preventing calcium skeletal growth.

 

[Nolan99]

Soft corals don't use calcium to grow like LPS and SPS do so the phosphate levels won't have as major of an impact on growth when it comes to preventing calcium skeletal growth.

So I should just lower phosphate and add calcium in kalk even tho the magnesium is low? I have heard that if the magnesium is low the calcium can precipitate. I use the Red Sea coral pro salt and it says it adds 420ppm of calcium. Could it be precipitating out?

 

[Sniperhank]

Magnesium controls the balance of alk and calcium. It's the addition of things like alk can cause calcium to precipitate out.

 

[mr_X]

You need a two (or 3) part additive. Kalkwasser isn't the correct choice for this issue. How big is your tank? Bulk Reef Supply sells cheap additives and even dosing pumps if need be. If your tank is a nano you could just use the B-ionic from ESV.

 

[Nolan99]

Magnesium controls the balance of alk and calcium. It's the addition of things like alk can cause calcium to precipitate out.

So if I added kalk to my auto top off system would that then cause thee calcium to precipitate out because the alkalinity is already at its ideal levels?

 

[Nolan99]

You need a two (or 3) part additive. Kalkwasser isn't the correct choice for this issue. How big is your tank? Bulk Reef Supply sells cheap additives and even dosing pumps if need be. If your tank is a nano you could just use the B-ionic from ESV.

It's only 34 gallons.

 

[agfish12]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-06/rhf/


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[agfish12]

That link has a lot of good info. That being said. Try not to overdo it with dosing. How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?


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[Nolan99]

That link has a lot of good info. That being said. Try not to overdo it with dosing. How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?


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Every 2 weeks 25%

 

[agfish12]

Honestly I'd do 25% water changes weekly to get your calcium back up instead of trying to dose.


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[Nolan99]

Honestly I'd do 25% water changes weekly to get your calcium back up instead of trying to dose.


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Okay I will try that. I just read that article. What I got from that is in my situation if I were to use an additive of calcium and alkalinity to raise it to 420 ppm it wouldn't precipitate out of the water. I could then have good stable water parameters. The only thing low would be the magnesium. As the calcium and alkalinity are raised though, they will be depleted quickly, and magnesium may not be needed in such a small tank where the calcium will just be taken up before it is precipitated. If it happens to precipitate though, I could just add a magnesium supplementation. I had talked to someone at my LFS and they said I should dose this Reef Code A by Brightwell Aquatics. It is a balanced calcium and alkalinity for reef tanks. Should I first start doing the water changes weekly and see what that does? Then try this? Only thing is this says to use this only with 1300ppm of magnesium. But from this article, if I added this since my levels are so low, they wont begin to precipitate out. Right?

 

[agfish12]

Yes I would do water changes first instead of dosing. even if you dose your calcium might precipitate onto your heaters or power heard before the coral can consume it.


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