Coral growth

[TOXIC831]

I know that all factors matter when it comes to coral growth but which is most impoirtant for soft corals water quality,lighting,filtration, or movement?? i have green star polyps,green frog spawn,purple hammer coral,and yuma mushroom. I have 6watts of blue leds over my 10gallon 24/7. They seem to be happy.

 

[swannyson7]

With just about any coral, I'd say the most important factor is water quality. Soft corals are able to survive (but not necessarily thrive) under low light and with little water movement.

 

[florida reef]

You should try to turn the lights off for at least a few hours every night. It will help the corals grow better. I bet those LEDs make your LPS look sick!

 

[swannyson7]

+1 on turning the lights off for a while each night. IIRC, corals will grow the most during a lights out period.

 

[Captain Nemo]

Lights off = +1000 They have to have time to rest. The soft corals can grow with out as stringent quality of water, however the LPS you have needs to have the ALK and Cal on par for growth as they use it for the skeleton building. So water quality needs to be good for them. The GSP would grow if you put it in a sump...... joking. Anyways, lights off at night for a couple hours at least and good water quality and you should be fine.

 

[Me z]

also nitrates are big factor especially with some softies like gsp. If you have nitrates over (ime) 10ppm your growth will slow way down. There are a few corals that dont mind higher nitrates but generally speaking they like them as low as you can get. I have a mixed reef with two 400w halides and tons of flow they dont really care about the lighting and flow they adapt pretty well where as acros can be very picky about where they will do well in your tank. good luck.