Coral growing ?

aerialdronemaster · Apr 25, 2020

hello
I have few corals and I don't really see any progress ( growing)
Hoping should I wait to see any progress ? Maybe the placement is wrong ?
I have nano cube 24 gallons , light are on for 8 hours a day , I feed them once a week with marine snow
I had them for month .

Euphyllia97 · Apr 25, 2020

Hi! I guess you are new to the hobby? I will start of by telling you that in this hobby, patience is key!

Normally the corals will need a certain period to adapt to your tank before they start growing. The corals in the pictures don’t need to be fed and it’s probabely best to just leave them alone for the moment.

One day you’ll be cursing that Xenia and GSP for growing too fast.

Once again, just give it some time! A month is not a lot for a newly introduced coral, it’s normal you don’t see much growth yet.

Only remark I have is that it seems like your xenia is reaching a bit for ligt, so you might try to put it a bit higher to the lights. And BTW xenia are known to be very fast growers, however in some tanks they just don’t grow (I have that issue). They like some nutrient-rich water.

good luck!

HB AL · Apr 26, 2020

Be happy they are alive and happy. If they haven't been in the tank for long it could take months sometimes before they start showing noticeable growth.

Jake_the_reefer · Apr 26, 2020

My gap took months to even get off the frag plug. Once it got off the plug it started growing a few inches per month

bryanfuel · Apr 26, 2020

What test kits do you have? And what are the latest levels for them?

Hockey Stick · Apr 26, 2020

Some corals will take a few months to adjust to your tank's lighting and parameters, once the acclimate to that they will take off. Good luck!

aerialdronemaster · Apr 27, 2020

Thank you all

aerialdronemaster · Apr 27, 2020

bryanfuel said:
What test kits do you have? And what are the latest levels for them?

I am using app. I have good results
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
Calcium 440 to 460
Phosphate 0

Crustaceon · Apr 27, 2020

You’ll want to get those nitrates and phosphates up a little. Corals need some fertilizer!

5-20ppm nitrates / .03-.1ppm phosphates

If you aren’t cleaning algae off of your glass at least every 4-5 days, you probably don’t have enough of either.

aerialdronemaster · Apr 27, 2020

Crustaceon said:
You’ll want to get those nitrates and phosphates up a little. Corals need some fertilizer!

5-20ppm nitrates / .03-.1ppm phosphates

If you aren’t cleaning algae off of your glass at least every 4-5 days, you probably don’t have enough of either.

ok

I may have phosphates 0.03 , I don't know, I am using ATI, so it is hard to say from looking at colors.

I had nitrates like 10-20 but I was able to lower them to 0 or almost zero, I was under impression that it should be 0

thank you

Crustaceon · Apr 27, 2020

aerialdronemaster said:
ok

I may have phosphates 0.03 , I don't know, I am using ATI, so it is hard to say from looking at colors.

I had nitrates like 10-20 but I was able to lower them to 0 or almost zero, I was under impression that it should be 0

thank you

You’re probably fine on phosphates and I wouldn’t trust anything aside from a hanna checker or an ICP test on that, especially how low we like to keep our phosphates. Reefers originally thought having zero nitrates and phosphates was a good thing because these are at undetectable levels when using hobby-grade test kits on natural sea water. It’s since been proven otherwise due to the fact that our tanks are not the ocean.