Acans not growing - have had for over a year.

[Treefer32]

I've had several 1" acan frags for over a year. One of the frags my have grown a new head or two but that's about it in the past 12 months. I know acans can grow faster than that. I've tried target feeding once a week, reef Energy AB+ - which caused some of my other LPS to grow rapidly but not my acans.

My alk is between 9 and 9.4 whenever I test. Calcium is 450-480, mg is around 1500-1600. I use regular instant ocean salt for two 10% water changes a week. I have a 350 gallon system with a turf scrubber, 25 micron cannister filter, and a diablo skimmer. Running AI Hydra 52 (3 LEDs) and aquatic life fixture with 4 80 watt T5 HO lights. Nitrates (red sea pro test) test between 10 and 20. Salinity at 1.025-1.026. ph runs between 8.1 to 8.30 daily. I have them in a moderate flow area just around 4 inches from the sand bed. Pictures attached of the two 1 year old frag colonies:

 

[Hermie]

do you feed them?

 

[NY_Sea]

Try feeding mysis shrimp at lights out

 

[CCauthers]

do you feed them?

OP already said that he has tried feeding them once a week, as well as dosing ab+

 

[Pistondog]

What other corals are in the tank?

 

[crocodile receptionist]

How's the flow?

 

[Treefer32]

Lots of stuff. Next to them I have this which has tripled in size since I started feeding reef energy AB+ I thought it was dieing, but he's seriously doubled, maybe tripled in size. It was just an oval shape a few months ago. Now it's got three ovals.. Lol.

I've got a huge 8-10" Stunner chalice at the center of the tank probably about 18" from the acans. I've got Duncans, hammers, stylapora (multiple colors), 3-4 acropora that are growing amazingly well, Bonsai coral 6-8" above the acans that's growing amazingly well. One of my Hammers has 4 new heads growing right now I don't spot feed them anything. I have a huge rock full of GSP. Another rock a few inches from the acans full of bubble mushrooms and xenia. I have a toadstool that's huge. probably 10" around doing amazingly well. I have a CBB that decimated thousands of Aiptasia. I've never seen him picking at the acans. Not to say he doesn't. I've never seen him do it and I watch the fish a lot now with nothing else to do . ha!

I probably need to try hand feeding the acans more. My tangs are pigs and steel the food from corals. So, my feeding attempts may be less than stellar.

 

[Treefer32]

How's the flow?

It's moderate, I've rotated the rocks some now to reduce some of the flow. an mp40 blowing through a rock tunnel from back to front on them. (3feet deep so, it's reduced some, but might be too much).

 

[Hermie]

OP already said that he has tried feeding them once a week, as well as dosing ab+

Saw that but he said " tried " which implies he no longer does it but it's unclear so I asked again. I am still waiting to hear back.

Also, AB+ I don't consider feeding.

Feeding an LPS is when you put foods in their mouths and confirm they are "eating" otherwise it's not really feeding.

 

[tnewell]

Give them super calming flow, and look into feeding them at night. Actually had a similar acan, 12heads or so, close up and refuse to eat. Once I moved him into a little lower light and less flow, he didn’t open all the way up, but to the point where I could feed one head, which lead to a healthy recovery of all the heads.

 

[tnewell]

Do you have any shrimp in your tank?

 

[Crashnt24]

Lots of stuff. Next to them I have this which has tripled in size since I started feeding reef energy AB+ I thought it was dieing, but he's seriously doubled, maybe tripled in size. It was just an oval shape a few months ago. Now it's got three ovals.. Lol.

I've got a huge 8-10" Stunner chalice at the center of the tank probably about 18" from the acans. I've got Duncans, hammers, stylapora (multiple colors), 3-4 acropora that are growing amazingly well, Bonsai coral 6-8" above the acans that's growing amazingly well. One of my Hammers has 4 new heads growing right now I don't spot feed them anything. I have a huge rock full of GSP. Another rock a few inches from the acans full of bubble mushrooms and xenia. I have a toadstool that's huge. probably 10" around doing amazingly well. I have a CBB that decimated thousands of Aiptasia. I've never seen him picking at the acans. Not to say he doesn't. I've never seen him do it and I watch the fish a lot now with nothing else to do . ha!

I probably need to try hand feeding the acans more. My tangs are pigs and steel the food from corals. So, my feeding attempts may be less than stellar.

Yes, try target feeding with LPS pellets, mysis or reef roids in a syringe. There are a couple youtube videos that really helped me learn the best way to target feed with reef roids. Try giving that a watch.

 

[tnewell]

Yes, try target feeding with LPS pellets, mysis or reef roids in a syringe. There are a couple youtube videos that really helped me learn the best way to target feed with reef roids. Try giving that a watch.

Listen to him^, BUT MAKE SURE TO FEED YOUR SHRIMP FIRST, the shrimp will steal the food out of the scans mouth and pick at the acan itself.

 

[Treefer32]

Listen to him^, BUT MAKE SURE TO FEED YOUR SHRIMP FIRST, the shrimp will steal the food out of the scans mouth and pick at the acan itself.

Ha! I think I still have two pistol shrimp, but I haven't seen them in months. There's signs of there work as my sand keeps moving around under my rocks. New holes, then old ones filled in. They don't come out though. My Dragon Wrasse doesn't like them and wants them for lunch. So, I've never seen them come out to take food from anything. I just make sure to overfeed so they're able to find food.

That said, I tried reef energy AB+ mixed with my home made frozen food last night. one of the heads caught a little bit as a let the food rest on it's mouth for a bit. The rest couldn't catch anything really. So, I squirted some of the reef energy and let it just dust the acans. I'll keep doing a small amount daily to see if I can get them feeding at a similar time daily. Pavlovs tests put to work! I've gott some pellets and reef roids too. So, I'll try to mix it up every couple days.