I hope others in the contest could give me some advice/offer theories as to why acropora (in this case the Sniper's Blue) will some times stall out after apparently thriving in my tank. Although not a realistic contest contender at any point, I was still quite pleased with the growth, coloration and PE with the snipers for the first 5 months in my tank, as shown in the composite photo below.
But then, from January until present day, the Snipers growth just halted. There has been some slow encrusting but no discernable branching growth.
There really were no significant changes in my maintenance routine, salt mix (Fritz RPM), flow properties, basic parameters (calcium/alk/magnesium/pH/specific gravity), lighting, etc. I sent off a sample to Triton to see if one of the minor elements was off, but that test really didn't show anything that I thought explained the change in the Snipers.
In May I tried increasing the water change frequency to every week instead of every 2 weeks, replaced my T5 bulbs (even though they were only 10 months old), but that didn't rekindle the Snipers. I am stumped....Why did the Snipers stall out when most of my Acros have continued to grow at their previous rates (although my 'blueberry' acro stalled out at about the same time and has actually faded to an ugly brown). I suspect there must be some unknown element that the Sniper's needs which was initially present in my system but then became depleted.
My Sniper's 1 year anniversary is coming up in 8 days so the contest is basically over for me, but I still would like to figure out how to 'revive' this beautiful piece. If anyone has some suggestions or theories about what happened to my Snipers, I'd sure like to hear them. I'd also be grateful if those contestants who have had such remarkable growth (Frizzles, MRX789, Hieger, etc) would be willing to share any details about their systems.
I sure have enjoyed being involved in this contest and wish you all reefing success.
