Zero SPS growth?!

[Madcrazyroyboy]

First things first. Water Parm and lighting etc. 29 gal that's 1 1/2 years old. I have a 4 bulb t5ho fixture a total of 96 watts with an ati aqua blue special bulb, gueissman 6000k midday , guessiman pure actinic and a aquatic life actinic. Water Parms are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate .75 (red sea test kits) calcium 450 mag 1500 and alk 11.5 dKH. I have a mixed reef of softies and zoas on the left and lps and sps on the right side of the tank. And a ricordea r Florida laying in the center bottom. I don't see much growth it's extremely slow except on the tissue of my ephyllia and the growth ring on my blue polyped Monti. I know turbo snails use ca for their shells and they grew big and are mating. But anyways my Acan is growing tissue quite reguarly over the skeleton that was fragged so it's doing well IMO. Birdsnest not much growth that's noticeable to me. Flow is mp10 vortech and phos is 0 by the way. And I have a hob skimmer that is overkill on the tank as it's for a 60 gal I believe. (reef octopus bh-100). I do water changes once every week with top offs All the time. I use 2 slightly different salt mixes. Red sea and red sea pro. I test and dose what's needed for the tank. Any suggestions guys? I appreciate the responses. This is my first dive into sps but haven't seen a load of growth to any of my other corals during the last 6 months. IMO

 

[fort384]

What is your lighting schedule? I had problems for the first 6 months and an adjustment to my schedule made a big difference.

 

[Sniperhank]

I'd agree with fort's questions. But in my situations with my sps...I sat for weeks mad that my sps weren't growing at all...until I compared before and after pictures. SPS grow slowly and sometimes it isn't even noticable. This can effect how we see things and that we think that they aren't growing when they actually can be. If the levels are right, you are using a good salt mix, and high quality bulbs I'd see this as what is going on. I felt like an idiot when I noticed it.

 

[Phranque]

To back up the above points.... I have a blue polyp digitata along with a forest fire, and a green tipped birdsnest. I was running my daylights at 7 hours and kicked them up to 9, and that made a difference..... and Sniper is right, what's considered "fast growth" in the SPS world is still fairly slow. This ain't GSP you're dealing with.... I take pictures of my tank 2 to 3 times a week, and looking back through those is where the growth is noticeable.
Also, depends on how long you've had them.... I've read many stories of people having various types of Montiporas for a few months with little to no growth, but then all of a sudden they decide to take off. Seems like it may take a while for them to truly acclimate to a new system.

 

[Madcrazyroyboy]

I have the lights on for 8 hours. 11am to 7pm then the moon lights come on. I had a cyno problem from the new bulbs for a few weeks as well. You think bumping it up to 9 would work better? I didn't think of before and after pics. Maybe I shall do that too. Where I work the corals grow so fast you always see white growth tips on their corals. The only thing I actually noticed was the ricordeas since I have a pic of them when they were first introduced and now they are huge.

 

[Nole_87]

I have the same problem, LFS guy told me that the Cyano issue I had may have actually killed the coral by robbing it of light which it needs to grow. Not sure how bad your Cyano got but it was heartbreaking news to me.

 

[Rutrag]

Have you tested for phosphate? The cyano issue makes me wonder if you had a spike which coincided with new bulbs, and I have heard that phosphate can interfere with stony corals' ability to create skeleton.

 

[Madcrazyroyboy]

I only use ro water that was tested with no phos and I ran phos remover for awhile in the tank and I douse the red sea phos and nitrate remover every 2 days. It was a small cyno not too bad. It's gone now but only happened once I switched bulbs. Now I have a small patch of red slime cyno? It's between the one rock and the glass on the side of the tank out of the way. It hasn't spread at all though?

 

[Sniperhank]

How much do u feed?

 

[Madcrazyroyboy]

Haven't fed the corals in a bit. But the fish every few days. Its not alot because it's only 3 small fish

 

[Madcrazyroyboy]

I fed corals and fish a little bit ago. A few pellets for the fish and some oyster feast for the corals. I do about 20 small drops.