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twomonsters

Slow growth?

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5 Comments
by
twomonsters
, 02-12-2014 at 04:09 PM (3007 Views)
So I've noticed since I restarted this tank which has been almost exactly a year, slow growth. And I am having trouble with LPS all of a sudden. Most of them are receding. I'm wondering if I am running too much light on my system?

50 3w Leds half royal blue half cool white
Blue is at 80% intensity
White 100% intensity
Run for 8 hrs a bit more if you count the ramp up and down.
3 inches off the surface with no optics


Here are also my parameters,
ALK 8 dKH
CA 440
Mag 1300
po4 .03
Nitrate always been high around 10
Temp 79 between 78.5 to 79.5
Ph 8.24

I've started my dosers back up to control the ALK, Ca, Mg. I close to my wits end, it just baffles me why theres close to zero growth. The only thing that grows ok is some zoa's.

Total water volume is 130, I do a 10 w/c every week
Run 2 Mp40w's
All dry rock when started Marco rock
All dry sand when started with Tropic Eden
Run a biopellet reactor TLF 550 w BRS biopellets
Carbon Reactor
Started GFO about a month ago in a BRS reactor w HC GFO for algae growth
Reef Octopus 150 skimmer
Doser 3 vial of each Prodibo biodigest and bioptim every 15 days.

Im getting some coralline growth on the rocks but none on the glass. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

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Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ NEED HELP STAT! , ‎ Water Chemistry , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. twomonsters's Avatar
    I've also noticed some hermit crabs dying off maybe due to lifespan or other. I also have 4 fish, 2 clowns, tiny yellow goby, and a small vliamingi. I also wonder if the fish load is to small and would benefit by adding more fish.

    There's also probably 100 lbs of Marco Rock
  2. melev's Avatar
    Perhaps your tank needs more nutrients for the LPS to feed upon. How often do you feed? Are you dealing with nutrient issues, like cyano bacteria?

    You might consider running the LEDs at 75% for the time being, and focus on feeding those LPS corals directly with some minced mysis shrimp.
  3. twomonsters's Avatar
    Currently I feed once a day. I feed frozen mysis every other day with Ocean Nutrition Prime Reef Flakes. The Mysis is rather low grade in my opinion, San Francisco Bay? The closest LFS is about an hour away. So when I run out I grab this type from Petco.

    I am dealing with some nutrient issues, I see the cyano slowing coming back from dosing the Chemi-clean a few months back. But I wonder if the biopellets have anything to do with that?

    I do feed my LPS but I have to admit its rarely. I have some Fauna Marin Ultra LPS Grow+ Color pellets. They seem to love it when I do feed. I feed this about once every 2 weeks.
  4. melev's Avatar
    Cyano is always present, but we don't like it when it blooms and is visible. If you have to treat a few times a year to get rid of the red blanket-like presence, my motto is to just resolve the problem and move on. Some people seem to put down using RedCyano Rx or Chemi-Clean, but I've never been in that group. You can always dose more bacteria to replace what was lost during the treatment process - although it never was something I could measure / verify. I was just happy the cyano was gone.

    To feed your LPS, I'd suggest you wait until lights out. Thaw some fish food in a small cup of tank water, and pour some of that flavor into the tank to elicit a feeding response from the corals. After 10-15 minutes, turn off the flow, grab a flashlight and feed the LPS corals one by one. Set a timer, 5 minutes later squirt more food at the waiting polyps. Set the timer again so you don't forget to turn your pumps back on. Do this at least twice a week, and you'll probably see some improvements.
  5. twomonsters's Avatar
    Thanks Melev, I will give this a shot!