Green slimer question

Justfbilly · May 2, 2019

i have a Green Slimer in my tank for about a year now and it’s growing but very slow and it’s not as vibrant green as the colony that it came from. It’s about half way up in the tank and I am running AI Hydra 52’s that are on from 10:00 am till 7:00 pm with a 2 hour ramp up time. Any ideas on what it might need?

Water parameters:
Temp 76
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 400
KH 9
Magnesium 1200
PH 8.0
Nitrates / Nitrites - undetectable

Fourstars · May 2, 2019

Food and nitrates.

MTBake · May 2, 2019

Perhaps longer photo period will help. It's full power for 5 hours only. I run my halides and Kessils for 11 hours a day with no ramp up or down. Different light but could have something to do with it.

I also agree with more food/nutrients.

Jon Fishman · May 2, 2019

Do you Reef-Roids?

Also, to piggyback on this..... what is the expected growth rate of a slimer?

Justfebreezeit · May 2, 2019

Looks starved in one way or another.

Ling_Thing · May 2, 2019

Yes most definitely starved. Believe it or not sps like a little dirty water. Get those nitrates and phosphate to detectable levels and it will start to color up and show some more growth. Feed feed feed and if you really need to you can dose n03 and p04.

Kyl · May 2, 2019

Justfbilly said:
Nitrates / Nitrites - undetectable

IMO there is your issue.

Jon Fishman said:
Do you Reef-Roids?

Also, to piggyback on this..... what is the expected growth rate of a slimer?

My slimer has grown from about a 3" frag with a couple small nubs into a ~6" multi piece small colony in a bit over a year, and suffered one rather large RTN event from falling over and touching another acro for about a day before I noticed.

rkpetersen · May 2, 2019

Mine grows like a weed. It is easily the fastest growing coral in the tank and I am constantly having to cut off frags so that fish can get back and forth across the center of the tank.
So FWIW, I have strong flow on it from both MP40s and a Gyre, LED and T5 lights with a ramping 13 hr photoperiod and PAR of about 400, calcium 450, alk 8, mag 1400, potassium 420, nitrate 1, phosphorus 10.
Entire tank gets Rods and LRS mixed reef food, and I also throw some reef roids in the return chamber of the sump just before I go to bed at night. Chaeto fuge probably also contributes to circulating microfauna.

Jon Fishman · May 2, 2019

rkpetersen said:
Entire tank gets Rods and LRS mixed reef food.

What are these? Link?

rkpetersen · May 2, 2019

Jon Fishman said:
What are these? Link?

https://rodsfood.com/

http://www.larrysreefservices.com/

MTBake · May 2, 2019

Rod's and LRS foods are top notch.

McFly · May 2, 2019

What are your settings for the AI Hydra 52?

Epic Aquaculture · May 2, 2019

I agree with others who have said you need detectable Nitrates and Phosphates. If you don't have these your corals will be pale, and will slowly waste away.

Justfbilly · May 2, 2019

I do use reef roads 1x a week to spot feed all of my corals. I will have to check and list the settings on my lights. I will start to up the photo period on my lights too.

Thanks for all of the help.

Gregg @ ADP · May 3, 2019

What is your PO4 level?

If you are going to be too low on either N03 or PO4, be too low on NO3.

Justfbilly · May 3, 2019

My lights are set at
White 10%
Violet 90%
Red 0%
Green 17%
D-blue 82%
Royal 85%
I’ve 64%

I just tested my PO4, it’s at 0. I did 3 tests just to make sure

homer1475 · May 3, 2019

Green Slimer, first SPS in my tank. Grows like a weed. You need some nutrients to color it up and allow it to grow.

0 or undetectable levels of No3 and PO4 is not a good thing.

SeaDweller · May 3, 2019

Gregg @ ADP said:
What is your PO4 level?

If you are going to be too low on either N03 or PO4, be too low on NO3.

Just curious why you state this, to be lower on NO3 vs PO4?

markalot · May 3, 2019

Green Slimer doesn't need nutrients IMO, though other acros do. The only thing that slows my slimer down is unstable KH or rapid PO4 drops. Take a look at the base of the coral. Is it growing (hard edge) or receding, thin skin, new white skeleton showing? If that slimer has been in your tank for a year something is seriously wrong and I suspect it's unstable KH or unstable PO4. Do you use GFO? Resist the urge to change anything until you know what you have is stable.