coral growth secrets

[Rob&Gab]

if your using nutri sea water it isnt really ocean water

i no that it does add things back into the water. But she does also do her daily dosing of 2Part A&B and Everything else.

 

[Moneymaks24]

When I started this hobby everyone always said sps this and sps that is difficult to take care of. WRONG all my sps grow like weeds but zoa and shrooms won't and I have the dirtiest tank on this forum probably.

This hobby is one big PITS!!! Oh and blasto that I got 2 years ago still no growth. This ain't the brag about my crazy growth thread like go make one if that makes u happ this is for BEGINNERS who need HELP growing a MUSHROOM

 

[basiab]

My 2 cents on the growth of corals.
1. Lighting makes a very big difference. Those corals that like your lighting will grow better than the others.
2. Water changes should be able to supply the nutrients you need in a 34 gallon. If you dose you better test and understand results.
3. Some corals really need feeding to grow well. Feeding means real chopped up fish, shrimp etc. not flakes or pellets.
4. Corals fight with an unseen weapon; chemicals aka allelopathy. In a small tank there is little volume of water to dilute this. The winners of the war are those corals that thrive. I have a 24 gallon and keep just LPS and try to keep only certain families. But the more different types you have the more warfare you will have and you can not see or test for it.
I had a blasto for 2 years and no growth. I changed to LED's and now it has at least 12 heads the size of half dollars and I have fragged about 10 heads.

 

[Moneymaks24]

I feed Lps pellets to mushrooms n blastas. Chopped up seafood to RBTA and Duncan's ( grow like mad). I'm asking about mushroom not coz I love riccordea but because I have sore higher end aussie and hairy mushroom and also would like a jawbreaker but untill I figure out why mushrooms aren't thriving in my tank I won't waste another penny on coral.

 

[KathyC]

My 2 cents on the growth of corals.
1. Lighting makes a very big difference. Those corals that like your lighting will grow better than the others.
2. Water changes should be able to supply the nutrients you need in a 34 gallon. If you dose you better test and understand results.
3. Some corals really need feeding to grow well. Feeding means real chopped up fish, shrimp etc. not flakes or pellets.
4. Corals fight with an unseen weapon; chemicals aka allelopathy. In a small tank there is little volume of water to dilute this. The winners of the war are those corals that thrive. I have a 24 gallon and keep just LPS and try to keep only certain families. But the more different types you have the more warfare you will have and you can not see or test for it.
I had a blasto for 2 years and no growth. I changed to LED's and now it has at least 12 heads the size of half dollars and I have fragged about 10 heads.

Great post Sam..I especially point # 4 as so many folks don't understand this aspect of coral keeping (not to say this is necessarily the OP's issue)

 

[lnevo]

This ain't the brag about my crazy growth thread like go make one if that makes u happ this is for BEGINNERS who need HELP growing a MUSHROOM

Your in the wrong thread...this one isnt your mushroom one..

 

[Moneymaks24]

As for chemical warfare I run carbon (stuffed between filter pads) and change every 3 days so idk what more I can do.
Also Inevo your the man bro hamster.

 

[saltwaterinbrooklyn]

Hey maks what salt are you using?

 

[Geraud]

Depending on your lighting (I do not know the type of LED you have), zoas could actually die from getting too much light. If I were you, it your SPS's are growing well, I would wait for these to grow, and then when they provide enough "semi shadow" on the sandbed, try and put zoas and co there.

I have killed Sympodium before from putting it under too much light, now in the back wall of my aquarium, it is growing fairly fast.

 

[Rob&Gab]

My 2 cents on the growth of corals.
1. Lighting makes a very big difference. Those corals that like your lighting will grow better than the others.
2. Water changes should be able to supply the nutrients you need in a 34 gallon. If you dose you better test and understand results.
3. Some corals really need feeding to grow well. Feeding means real chopped up fish, shrimp etc. not flakes or pellets.
4. Corals fight with an unseen weapon; chemicals aka allelopathy. In a small tank there is little volume of water to dilute this. The winners of the war are those corals that thrive. I have a 24 gallon and keep just LPS and try to keep only certain families. But the more different types you have the more warfare you will have and you can not see or test for it.
I had a blasto for 2 years and no growth. I changed to LED's and now it has at least 12 heads the size of half dollars and I have fragged about 10 heads.

Nicely said!. A+ to that.

 

[Cvaughn1062]

sounds like you have mostly soft corals right? let the nitrates go up someone will probably bag on me for saying this but IMO zoas/shroooms etc LOVE nitrate and the dirtier the water the happier they are. I also think leds are crap unless ur spending big bucks, I get better growth from T5

 

[basiab]

As for chemical warfare I run carbon (stuffed between filter pads) and change every 3 days so idk what more I can do.

There is no way to know if carbon helps for this. The only thing you can do is limit the different types of coral. Orrr get a bigger tank@!$@$@# But even then there are going to be some things you can not mix.

 

[Rob&Gab]

I also think leds are crap unless ur spending big bucks, I get better growth from T5

Thats not true about LEDs you dont have to spend big bucks to have nice color and really good growth. Just my words. and 300$ is not big bucks. Just saying maybe 600$+

 

[evolution21]

I didn't feel like reading a million post so...... I feel like my zoas go into hulk mode just after a cut....for example if I have 4 polys of whatever and I got 2...I find the original 2 have 2-3 babies budding each within a month....but without the cut growth seems slower in my tank

 

[Moneymaks24]

Evolution21- interesting theory I'll try that, I found tht the best growth I've gotten last year was the 1 time I took a polyp of the frag and glued it to a different rock.

 

[evolution21]

Evolution21- interesting theory I'll try that, I found tht the best growth I've gotten last year was the 1 time I took a polyp of the frag and glued it to a different rock.

I've notice that too...not that it makes sense but I feel like polys I glue directly to live rock as oppose to leaving on frag plug grow faster with the exception of when I cut

 

[edd]

Evolution21- interesting theory I'll try that, I found tht the best growth I've gotten last year was the 1 time I took a polyp of the frag and glued it to a different rock.

i find zoas growing off the plug. if i cut the stem and mount plug on rock they will grow off the plug and onto the rock. the same with ricordia and yuma. i have lost numorous from them leaving the plug and getting blown away. as if they don't like the un natural plug.

 

[Moneymaks24]

I gave up on trying to grow mushrooms nothing helps. Low light nothing high light nothing. Easy coral my ***

 

[Dan_P]

I admit that I did not read all 117 posts, so, please pardon the question if asked already. Did you post pictures of your coral that aren't growing? I would be interested in seeing how extended or scrunched up the animals looked.

Also, if your setup is only several months old (did I get that right?), that is not a long time to wait for things to take off. I think you also reported coralline algae not growing vigorously. I am thinking that is a good reporter species for the overall condition of your aquarium ecosystem.

 

[Moneymaks24]

Dan p- tank is 7 monthly old, coraline just started to be visible. The corals that aren't growing r zoa and mushrooms. I just started dosing amino acids. What a huge waste of money that was lol. Whatever