sps growth.....or the lack thereof?

[dragonfisher33]

i'm beginning to question the growth of the frag of ponape birdsnest mounted on a frag plug and a frag of orange montipora w/o a frag plug that i got about two months ago. I have a quad T5HO (4X39watts, two white and two blue) over my standard 29gal with the depth of ~20inch. i don't dose any supplement and a ~20-30% water change every 2-3 weeks depending on my work schedule.

i have heard that if your sps is growing, the first sign would be some sort of encrusting around the plug. is that true? i can clearly see the polyps on the birdsnest but just no encrusting on the plug. also my monti didn't come with a plug and it's not encrusting at all. it's easily moveable. i have seen pics of monti where a portion of the monti is "glued"/encrusted onto a piece of LR or the wall, something my monti isn't doing. should i be concerned? some members from my local saltwater club got the same sps from the same source as i did have reported wild growth on their frags. although i understand different tanks have different setups and equipments and i do not know what their tank routine is, but my sps' lack of growth really concerns me.

what i'm about to say is very contradictory to my experience with the sps: my tank has coraline spots on the tank wall, which is usually a sign of something is right in the tank. my zoas are popping out new heads. my frogspawn has now split from three heads to four.

 

[Stlrockguy]

I'd try moving them to a different spot.

 

[dragonfisher33]

I'd try moving them to a different spot.

i understand they like med-high flow areas with high light, which is where i placed them. so I'm not sure moving them is a good idea

 

[Stlrockguy]

Yea that's true. I just got a chalice and its not happy anywhere.

 

[bribo12]

Birdsnest do not encrust, you will see white tips forming on it, that is a sign of growth. Both my monti caps encrusted before they started putting out growth. They as well will form white rims which signify growth. How long have you had both the frags? Sps corals can sometimes take a little while to get used to new conditions before they start to grow.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Birdsnest do not encrust, you will see white tips forming on it, that is a sign of growth. Both my monti caps encrusted before they started putting out growth. They as well will form white rims which signify growth. How long have you had both the frags? Sps corals can sometimes take a little while to get used to new conditions before they start to grow.

i have had them for more than 2months now. so did you glue your monti to a LR or something else before it starts to grow? my monti is sitting on a LR right now but not glued.

 

[bribo12]

i have had them for more than 2months now. so did you glue your monti to a LR or something else before it starts to grow? my monti is sitting on a LR right now but not glued.

Yeah I glued it down and then it encrusted over the glue and rock before it started growing outwards. Do you know what your magnesium, alkalinity and phosphates are?

 

[dragonfisher33]

or maybe a better question is: should i glue the portion of the monti where the fragmentation cut was made to sort of "induce" better chance of encrusting? the way it's sitting right now doesn't have the rim of the monti touching any part of the LR that it's sitting on

 

[dragonfisher33]

i hope this pic helps. you can see how it's just sitting on a piece of LR, like a cupcake sitting on a countertop

 

[bribo12]

I see some white fringes which indicates growth to me. I have heard of people not having theirs encrust though as well. You could glue the bottom down to see if it will encrust over that and onto the rock but it looks healthy to me. I'd probably just leave it be and look for white on the rims of it.

 

[Animal-Chin]

To grow, sps need enough light and enough calcium, alk and mg. If you get the right amount of these they will grow. I'd say your downfall here is the light. I had the same as you and it wasn't enough for my acro and it turned brown. For a birdsnest and Monti it may be enough light to keep it alive but the growth will be slow. Have you check your calcium? If your other coral are taking it out of the water and its low your sps wont be able to absorb any and grow. LPS like frogspawn are totally fine under T5s and if your LPS are growing they are using calcium from the water....

 

[Sniperhank]

I have a monti like that. It plates out like yours is doing. It's sometimes hard to notice sps growth and I sometimes don't even notice. Mine is at the back of the tank and once the growth hit the glass, it started to encrust. I did similar to a chip that broke off of it and it did minor encrusting over the glue and then plated out. Yours will keep playing like that, though more light def won't hurt it.

 

[dragonfisher33]

well, this is a nano tank and i don't feel like getting other light until i get a bigger tank. do you think it might help if i switch out one of the actinic bulb for a white bulb? my white bulbs are 10k, would switching them to 15k or 20k help with the growth?