Acro's surviving but not thriving

[MGarrison]

Hello All,
I have a Green Slimmer and a Blue Milli that are surviving but not thriving. Compared to the Monti's I have in the tank that have at least doubled in size in the past 8 months. The milli has zero polyp extension even at night.

Added 11/07/2020

Today

Added 11/07/2020

Today

Added 11/01/2020

Today

Tank Parameters are as follows (Sending out an ATI ICP today as well)
pH = 8.0 - 8.2
Phos = 0.089 - Hanna HI736
Nitrates = 3 - Nyos
ALK = 8.96 - Hanna HI755
Cal = 426 - Hanna HI758
Mag = 1440 - Red Sea Magnesium Pro
Salinity = 35 ppt - Milwaukee MA887
Temp = 78 - 80

Tank is 224 gallon (72x30x24) Using 3 G5 XR30 PRO and 2 OR3 150 Blue +. Have not used a par meter, but the Acro are about 6" under the lights.

 

[T-J]

Typically the monti will need less light than most acros. It could be a lighting issue and/or a flow issue as well.
Check your flow and borrow a PAR meter.

 

[MGarrison]

Working on trying to get my hands on a par meter. How would I go about checking flow? I have two XF350's on each end and 2 Tunze 6095's on the back walls. They ramp up to the point where the sand move just a little.

 

[Loosechangereef]

how old is tank, do you have coraline algae all over glass?
Sounds everything looks good

 

[MGarrison]

Almost 1 year (Cycle started Aug 29, 2020). Yes, I have a ton of coralline.

 

[saltyfins]

FWIW, I blast my acro with flow. Grows like crazy! New growth monthly and one that I thought was a goner, is now colored back up and also growing well. all either at the top, or 2/3 up. I have 3 A360WE Kessils.

 

[Loosechangereef]

Almost 1 year (Cycle started Aug 29, 2020). Yes, I have a ton of coralline.

mmmm , sounds good,
my experience with acros, they usually start to take off around 1.5 year mark,
But looking at at your monti picture im confused , they are very hardy,but the monti does not look too stressed

 

[ScottB]

Those are solid SPS parameters so of the things we can test for, you're fine. Have to believe your flow is fine as well; those four move water fine in a 6ft tank.

Your monti digi seems to growing just fine and the acro has encrusted okay. I guess two things I would say could accelerate growth a little more.

a) Time. Diversity of bacteria and micro-organisms. If this was a dead rock start this is even more important.
b) Light. You are likely right on the margin of sufficiency, but only a PAR meter can confirm that. I would have 4 myself.

I hate shading. So here is a pic of the coverage I reach for with three Stratons over a 60" tank.

 

[Loosechangereef]

Also are you dosing , and with very few acros , tryto watch for alk spike,
On newer tanks i ran my tank around 7 dkh, your call

 

[Koigula]

Thanks for bringing up this topic. It is a key question in the key challenge of SPS keeping!

I had had tanks that thrived and tanks that stalled. It is certainly a combination of thing leading to attrition of those corals that will take off and even thrive.

Stability is a key concept here. What does this actually mean though? I started using google sheets to log stability and care to a new level so I can say with some certainty that I am stable. I attached google sheet here to show what I mean. One simple measure of success doing this is seeing alkalinity increase. Most tanks are simply not stable.

Filtration is also key but far less defined. 2lbs of actual live rock per gallon was a norm in past. Now people do minimalism with dead rock. I am all for aqua scaping but have a huge sump and still use 2 lbs per gallon at least of rock. Dead rock takes a year or more to stabilize which is a bit nuts and not told when they sell you rocks from Florida. Sometimes running a FOWLR system at low nutrients for a year is a decent way to go around this.

More controversial is LEDs are not forgiving. There was once a recipe of 4 t5 and 250 MH per 2 feet of tank and stuff just grows. Now is it is a science experiment. Just get a T5 fixture with one cord and leave LEDs to others.

Chasing pH is also a revived concept. Corals survive at ph 7.8 to 8.1 and grow at 8.1 to 8.4. This is more a well study fact at this point. I use carefully metered kalk as simple and effective and cheap. It is not a go to anymore as it need control to work effectively.

Moving corals after 4 months as suggested here is also a good move.

 

[MGarrison]

Those are solid SPS parameters so of the things we can test for, you're fine. Have to believe your flow is fine as well; those four move water fine in a 6ft tank.

Your monti digi seems to growing just fine and the acro has encrusted okay. I guess two things I would say could accelerate growth a little more.

a) Time. Diversity of bacteria and micro-organisms. If this was a dead rock start this is even more important.
b) Light. You are likely right on the margin of sufficiency, but only a PAR meter can confirm that. I would have 4 myself.

I hate shading. So here is a pic of the coverage I reach for with three Stratons over a 60" tank.

Great looking tank you have there!
Mostly dead rock, seeded with 20 lbs of Live Rock from LFS. Used Microbactor 7 to cycle and added in a bunch of stuff from IPSF.

 

[ScottB]

Great looking tank you have there!
Mostly dead rock, seeded with 20 lbs of Live Rock from LFS. Used Microbactor 7 to cycle and added in a bunch of stuff from IPSF.

Thank you. I am recovering still from a complete demo of the rockscape, but getting there.

OK good thinking on the LFS rock and IPSF. To me this is a critical -- but often overlooked feature -- for acro keeping in the early years.

 

[Loosechangereef]

Great looking tank you have there!
Mostly dead rock, seeded with 20 lbs of Live Rock from LFS. Used Microbactor 7 to cycle and added in a bunch of stuff from IPSF.

Great looking tank you have there!
Mostly dead rock, seeded with 20 lbs of Live Rock from LFS. Used Microbactor 7 to cycle and added in a bunch of stuff from IPSF.

Looks good and sounds good , your acros look healthy, the older the tank gets the acros will start take off,

 

[MGarrison]

Also are you dosing , and with very few acros , tryto watch for alk spike,
On newer tanks i ran my tank around 7 dkh, your call

I am dosing 5.5 ml of phosphate a day to keep those from dropping to zero. Two weeks ago I started dosing 10 ml/week of acropower. I was dosing two part was targeting 8 dkh, but for some reason it was creeping up over the last month so pause dosing two part and it has stabilized at ~9 dkh.

The thing that gets me is that the milli has zero polyps. I don't recall when it stopped.

 

[X-37B]

Post a FTS.
How many fish and how much do you feed?
Your parameters are good as long as you keep them stable.
My green slimer based out for a year and was a very slow grower compaired to others in the tank.
I looked at your build thread and noticed alot of hair algae.
If its still present it will keep your po4 down and dosing it will only feed it.
My 120 has 14 fish and I feed 8 cubes a day.
I am a big fan of live rock.
I used 50% live on this build.
Tank is 2 years old.

 

[MGarrison]

Post a FTS.
How many fish and how much do you feed?
Your parameters are good as long as you keep them stable.
My green slimer based out for a year and was a very slow grower compaired to others in the tank.
I looked at your build thread and noticed alot of hair algae.
If its still present it will keep your po4 down and dosing it will only feed it.
My 120 has 14 fish and I feed 8 cubes a day.
I am a big fan of live rock.
I used 50% live on this build.
Tank is 2 years old.

That GHA issue was just the uglies. it was gone in about two weeks.
Fish are:
1 foxface
1 blue hippo tang
1 sailfin tang
2 clownfish
1 royal grama
1 yellowhead jawfish
1 Biota Coral beauty
1 Tomini Tang in QT

Feeding:
Avast Plank autofeeder runs three times a day for 2 minutes (drops about a quarter size of food) mix of PE pellets, PE flake, freeze dried mysis shrimp. Also feed 2 cubes of frozen at least every 2 days, I try to do everyday.

 

[Loosechangereef]

I am dosing 5.5 ml of phosphate a day to keep those from dropping to zero. Two weeks ago I started dosing 10 ml/week of acropower. I was dosing two part was targeting 8 dkh, but for some reason it was creeping up over the last month so pause dosing two part and it has stabilized at ~9 dkh.

The thing that gets me is that the milli has zero polyps. I don't recall when it stopped.

Go minimum on your 2 part, all acros don’t always do good in newer tank, for example I count keep stylophora and some acros in a newer tank,your milli has no polyp extension but your other acros look ok ,like I said acros like old tanks with a lot of flow,your on the right track

 

[X-37B]

That GHA issue was just the uglies. it was gone in about two weeks.
Fish are:
1 foxface
1 blue hippo tang
1 sailfin tang
2 clownfish
1 royal grama
1 yellowhead jawfish
1 Biota Coral beauty
1 Tomini Tang in QT

Feeding:
Avast Plank autofeeder runs three times a day for 2 minutes (drops about a quarter size of food) mix of PE pellets, PE flake, freeze dried mysis shrimp. Also feed 2 cubes of frozen at least every 2 days, I try to do everyday.

Nice system. Dont be in a hurry as it takes time.
I have had some corals that grew into weeds and have been removed, with others growing very slow.
Keep an eye on the foxface.
Mine was nipping on my green slimer colony tops.
It took a month to get it out.
They get big fast too.
Slimer is in second pic on the right today.
First pic 8/19.

 

[E.intheC]

Something else to consider - your foxface and / or coral beauty may be nipping at your corals.

 

[Loosechangereef]

2.5 year old tank