coral growth secrets

[Moneymaks24]

For some reason im not getting the growth of corals that other members always speak of.

Simple "beginner" corals like mushroom ( riccordea and ultra red) have not spread or got bigger in 5 months!

Certain zoanthids wont grow new heads( blue hornet) in 5 months!

What am i doing wrong??

Water parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 10
Phosphate .02
Ph8.1
Calciu 420
Mag 1300
Dkh 9

Equipment:
Pacific Sun 145w led s ( on 65% intensity)
IM Reactor (gfo)
Tunze skimmer 9002
Wp25 and 2 nano koralia pumps.
Hob refugium. Ac70 diy.


I add calcium and alk from BRS daily.
Add phytoplankton sometimes to water
Add 1 drop of iodine daily

Have a 34 gallon solana tank.

Please only helpful Advice ( you know who u r)
Leave ur insults somewhere else thanx

 

[xclusive252]

I would like to follow this thread.

 

[duke62]

Whats your temp? How much are you feeding a day? Whats your light cycle? Do you use RO/DI water? How long have the corals been in the tank? You need to Lower po4 to 0 if you are getting .02 on a regular test kit it will be much higher using hanna checker. Just trying to help dont get upset. I like helping others

 

[Moneymaks24]

Duke u actually want to help me? I thought we enemies lol. Jk

Temp is 79-81
I use rodi water 0 tds i check.
Photoperiod is from 9 am to 8 pm.

I used to have my lights on manual mode from 12 pm to 8 pm. But now its on a "Bali" program and i cant change times.

I feed my fish 2 times a day small amounts of flakes pellets n frozen mysis

Sometimes feed reef frenzy to corals.

 

[duke62]

Are you growing any coraline algae yet? Im not enemies with anyone. I love all my reefers the annoying ones too I want to see everyone succeed including myself I ask for help all the time and listen to everyone and do what I think is best. What works for me the most is patience

 

[Moneymaks24]

Im not seeing coraline except maybe small spots on a wave maker. My corals been in this tank i would say 4 months. I only recently started adding alk and calcium ( only last week)

Before i only relied on 10% wc coz that worked on my 8 gallon nano w no issues.

I tested dkh and it was low at 5dkh! So now i dose alk and cal to keep it steady at 9 dkh.

 

[troywalkerphoto]

following.
Your water looks ok I would get a second site test from a friend. Test kits have a shelf life and there is contamination that we rarely think of.
Have you varied the positions to the coral. I had some stuff on the sandbed with 6 t-5 bulbs and no joy. Placed them mid to top and they took off

 

[Moneymaks24]

Only real difference from my tank to everyones is the Pacific sun leds 145w

And also i used a "dead" home depot paver stone as a base to my acrylic rod built aqua scape rock work. Maybe this is leaching phosphates

Or the lights r no good ( but i checked par and its at around 100 where the middle of tank is. This is similar to radions or ai vegas.


Plus its full spectrum leds so i dont get the problem

 

[troywalkerphoto]

whoops you updated the water per.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

you used what from home depot in your tank , BAD move........

 

[annanymous]

you used what from home depot in your tank , BAD move........

Mike Palleta said it was fine to use! :meow:

 

[Moneymaks24]

I saw some guy on youtube who is a popular reef veteran and he used paver stones and acrylirc rods to stabilize his unique structures. Thats where i got the idea. Although he mentioned he left the stones outside for a few months i just washe them w RoDi water.

Its only 1 stone btw . Maybe 5inch by 10 inch

 

[Moneymaks24]

Troywalker i used to have my blue hornet zoas on sand and no growth now they're on too and still nothing :? They're still on the plug and my 1 attempt of cutting a zoa head resulted in it floating around in the tank untill i lost it.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

i don't care how many years they have in the hobby. Its my tank and i would never put anything but dead rock or live rock in my tank that cost me thousands ...

 

[Moneymaks24]

Isnt a paver stone just a "dead rock" except its flat so i think thats y he uses it as a base.

Also wouldnt any " rock " turn "live " after a while in saltwater tank?

 

[Tonyscoots84]

when you come to understand the scientific aspect of the hobby, the stuff we add into our tank may leach things that we do not want in our tank. You already have it in your tank so end of that story....

 

[troywalkerphoto]

that happens

Troywalker i used to have my blue hornet zoas on sand and no growth now they're on too and still nothing :? They're still on the plug and my 1 attempt of cutting a zoa head resulted in it floating around in the tank untill i lost it.

Its hard to say. Some ppl can keep LPS but no luck with sps and vice versa. Me I cant grow a Zoa to save my life. I will say that I am Angel fish lover and they love to nip zoa so that is probably the real problem. Im starting a nano and only stocking it with 2 or 3 small fish and shrimp. So I should have betted luck. As for the floating frag id say that you should hookup with a reefer that has success with Zoa and the processes involved with them.
(get a reef buddy!)

 

[troywalkerphoto]

Also. Never put anything in your tank that is not tank related. There is plenty of dead rock out there that's cheap enough. You can hack saw it with a decent blade and get a flat base. Why take the chance on anything else?

 

[knugenx]

My questions are why are dosing iodine each day? Plus dosing at all if you are not having any growth. Where are all the nutrients going that you need to replenish so often?

 

[Dimitrios91]

following.
Your water looks ok I would get a second site test from a friend. Test kits have a shelf life and there is contamination that we rarely think of.
Have you varied the positions to the coral. I had some stuff on the sandbed with 6 t-5 bulbs and no joy. Placed them mid to top and they took off

Yeah I moved zoa's up and they took off as well. All my zoa's are mid tank under 250 halides, and they thrive. I think changing levels just to see will possibly work. I've had phos issues big time, and typical shrooms didn't care. Now as for a ricordia, hmm not to sure, aren't those listed around the lower lps-leather category. I got a ricordia yesterday actually lol, woohoo