Coral Growth... Meh...

[BBoley24]

This maybe blasphemous to most of the community.

I, as much as the next, would love to see my colonies explode and look as natural or unnatural as possible. But honestly, Im not really that concerned with coral growth. If the tank is healthy, I really don't feel the need to spot feed religiously or dose incredible amounts beyond a balance to increase growth rates.

Over my rimless 75g, I have 124 LEDs on a diy RapidLED exclusive 9 color light setup. I run carbon and skim heavily. I feed tons of different foods and throw in some coral frenzy from time to time. I do monthly water changes and monitor my temp, ph with an APEX system. I think I have my basics covered. I feel as if I have my tank setup to succeed.

I do have optics on my LEDs but purely for color pop and spread. My carbon is for clarity of water for viewing experience. My refugium is to make sure my fish have a source of food and nitrate expulsion My lights are for pure color and im sure they throw down some PAR but ive never bothered finding out how much. Because it just doesn't matter to me.

I am not saying that it's wrong to promote maximum growth or that im ignorant to the steps needed to do so. Im not lazy nor do I skimp on any products.

What I am saying is that I enjoy the reef, even in infancy and don't really concern myself with roiding out my tank to increase growth.

Does anyone share my sentiment? Or am I an apathetic aquarist that doesn't care about the life of my coral?

 

[Isoprene]

With what your doing it seems your setting yourself up for really good coral growth imo.

 

[CaptainRon]

Health over growth for sure. But like isoprene said, I think if you do the former, the later will definately come on it's own.

 

[cdness]

Hmm... Balance... LED Lighting,,, good maintenance regimen... not adding snake oil to the tank...

Sounds like a healthy and stable system to me. In the beginning you may not see exponential growth but when it has the growth spurt, you are prepared and have a good thing going so they will like being in your tank.

Personally I too am not overly concerned with growth rate as when they grow I need to frag. When I frag I need to install more racks. When I install more racks I make "the boss" unhappy, which in turn makes me unhappy...lol.

 

[BBoley24]

My thoughts exactly. I feel as if I have set myself up for as natural growth as I can without reactors and injections of anything. Carbon is about as far as I go.

As for more racks and making the boss happy... I just busted out laughing at panera. So true.

Do most of you measure your par levels and dose?

 

[Isoprene]

i only dose Kalk+2 from brightwell to keep my Mg / Ca/ and Alk in a range that wont hurt my corals. Provide sufficient light, food for fish and coral and keep the salinity right. Stability = health, healthy = growth. Just like in any organism this holds true. A stable diet of light/food and chemicals means there is nothing left to do but pass on your genetic code, just like the natural drive of any organism, by sexually multiplying or in corals case....growing!

 

[ritter6788]

I don't measure my par levels but I dose because my tank would crash if I didn't, not to add some miracle growth to the tank. A few days without dosing and all my sps would die from low alk. A system without many stony corals and clams may not ever need to be dosed if regular water changes are done. A sps tank will need to employ dosing to keep it alive. Water changes alone can't keep up in a heavy stony coral tank.

 

[BBoley24]

I see! My tank is definitely on the softer side. Which is probably why I am so patient with my growth. Im sure you SPS'ers stare at the stonies forcing your will upon them to grow!!!

 

[fragmatic]

I'm aboard. I do not run as much LED wattage as most. My coral are happy, I'm happy. Some corals do better than others, well dauh. So I am learning which corals like me and my tank. So far it seems to be mushrooms, frogspawn, and recently I have learned that apparently Goniopora (flower pots) like me. My next test is hammers. Feather dusters (easy) are a favorite and they do well in my waters, so that makes me smile too. Zoa's do OK but aren't really all that excited in my display tank, and you know that is a disappointment but is OK because plenty of other really cool coral like me, -wink-.

But, here is were I totally surprised myself this AM. I realized I do not really want a frag tank. I had gone to the trouble of building one on my desk that is plumbed into my system. I removed the acrylic frag rack I had carefully built and placed some live rock and stony coral skeletons in it and need to get a small bag of sand. I am now adding my ex-frag tank to my refugium team. (I have a sump and a refugium) But, this time I'd like this tank be a display refugium. My plans are for lots for algae, shrimp, and clams. I haven't a clue about clams and will now need to read up. I guess what I want is a refugium for some important eco creatures for my system's diversity that are interesting and on display. Am I nutz or do some others of you get this feeling? Any ideas or comments in this direction are welcomed.

EDIT: I failed to give my candies credit for liking my tank. I hope they don't get mad at me.
I have been hanging out in the clam folder while I learn about and google clams.

 

[Zack]

All my sps frags are doing great, and i have a fairly simple.system as well, i do dose alk, cal, and mag, which is absolutley vital for sps. But besides that i run a small amount of gfo.
Ive always wondered if zeovit system or something similar would.make a huge difference but i hope to achieve a tank full of healthy acro colonies with a system that is simple.as possible. But growing fast would.be a big plus!!

 

[Nano sapiens]

This maybe blasphemous to most of the community.
Does anyone share my sentiment? Or am I an apathetic aquarist that doesn't care about the life of my coral?

In nature, one can have the same coral species grow fast in one area and relatively slow in another. Health wise, they can both be perfectly fine. Primarily, I want to see coral health and good color. Since I have a small mixed-reef 12g Nano, sometimes explosive growth can be a problem as the corals combat each other for space. Measured, steady growth is just fine by me.

 

[infinite abyss]

As long as the tank is healthy, everything will grow as it should right? I think consistency is important
also to maximize growth volume. I think everyone would like the stuff in there tank to grow fast lol.

 

[Swine]

For me, it seems easy enough to make a stable tank where everything will be ok. But when you get growth it means youre doing everything really right.. For instance I had a $10 green polyp leather about 2.5 months into starting my tank and something happened to the middle where it shrunk and no more polyps would come out. So even though the levels I had tested for were good something was still off. Now my leather is growing back and looks happier than ever. To me that is a reassuring sign. So if my colonies start to grow I'll be very glad