First acro, advice please.

[Pennywise the Clown]

I have had a purple bonsai for about a month now, my first acro. As my 3 birds nests and a monticap were doing so well I decided it was time to give acros a go.
I thought that it was doing okay, very slowly encrusting, but today I visited my lfs and their remaining frags look so much better than mine. They have fully encrusted the plug, polyp extension is great and they have a lovely deep purple colour.
My frag looks a little brownish with little polyp extension.
I have positioned the frag high up under one of my hydra 26's and it is getting plenty of flow.
Here are my params
Salinity 1.025
Nitrate 5
Phosphate 0.08
Dkh 8.4
Calc 430
Mag 1290

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Photo added

 

[vpoiu1263]

Green slimer
The green one in the photo.

 

[Auquanut]

My bonsai took a while to really start flourishing. It's still one of my slower growing acros. I've got it placed high in the tank, with plenty of light and flow. Seems to me, if it's encrusting, it's not too unhappy.

 

[Tubbsiewubbsie]

Keep in mind yours had to make one extra move and adjust to that new enviroment. I'm no expert but from my limited experience my acros took 2 - 8 weeks to really adjust and take off. For me color came first then growth.

 

[jda]

Theirs did not have to move. They also probably have different lighting.

 

[road_runner]

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[road_runner]

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[road_runner]

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[road_runner]

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[PatW]

I have had acros sit and sit and sit some more. And then they wake up, gain color and grow. I find montipora to be easy. They grow pretty fast. Some of my acropora grow really well and some don’t and some die. You might go out and get a few small frags and see what works in your system. Your parameters look fine and if you have flourishing birdsnests and montipora, your system should be good for acropora as the next step.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Photo added

Photo added

It doesn’t look happy. Are you using nopox or gfo? How many hydras do you have? What size is the tank? How high above the water are they mounted?

 

[road_runner]

Deleted

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Am still confused why this reactor do not have the ability to go to zero flow..
In the past I used reactors that will have a gate valve that I can control flow from zero to full...

Huh? Are you in the right thread ?

 

[road_runner]

Huh? Are you in the right thread ?

Oh sorry, yes wrong thread ha ha.
Good call

 

[JCOLE]

Oh sorry, yes wrong thread ha ha.
Good call

Lol. I think you are in every thread.

 

[road_runner]

Lol. I think you are in every thread.

Ha ha ha, working hard my freind ha ha ha.

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

It doesn’t look happy. Are you using nopox or gfo? How many hydras do you have? What size is the tank? How high above the water are they mounted?

No nopox or GFO. I actually have to dose nitrate and phosphate occasionally to get a reading. 2 Hydras on a Reefer 250, mounted 12" above the water level. The acro is 6" under the water level, almost directly under one of the Hydras.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

No nopox or GFO. I actually have to dose nitrate and phosphate occasionally to get a reading. 2 Hydras on a Reefer 250, mounted 12" above the water level. The acro is 6" under the water level, almost directly under one of the Hydras.

Hydra settings?
How many fish? How much do you feed?

 

[Pennywise the Clown]

Hydra settings?
How many fish? How much do you feed?

I run a setting called Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a very blue setting but the lfs use hydras and blue only.
9 small fish, the biggest is a coral beauty. I feed one frozen cube of mysis a day.