Limited coral growth if any...

[Wbflyer]

Hey all, my zoo's are not growing, my sps is just barley showing growth, not much color. My birdsnest was growing like crazy for the first 4 months then bleached out and died. I have a 50 gallon with 2 800gph power heads and one 400gph so flow is pretty good. Lighting is a provided by 2 Viperspectra's 165 blues at 40% whites at 10% PAR is 350 at the top of the rocks and around 200 near the bottom. I have the Seneye so I can get a good idea of light. No sand bed, water changes ever 4 weeks to clean up detritus with my RO/DI using Redsea Pro salt. I'm suspect of the lighting but maybe that is me just wanting a new light

Also, coralline has slowed down... that's a red flag. However, my parameters are pretty good so I am at a loss and frustrated.

Alk: 10dkh
SG .026
calc 425
PO 0
PH 7.8
temp 79
Nitrite/nitrate 0

 

[Futuretotm]

Im no expert, but zero nitrate zero phos may be your problem
Get some fish and feed them generously (ofcourse ramp up slowly)

 

[92Miata]

Im no expert, but zero nitrate zero phos may be your problem
Get some fish and feed them generously (ofcourse ramp up slowly)

Yup - this.

High alk, low nutrients - and all the symptoms.

 

[Tamberav]

+1 above. It is because you have no nutrients and high Alk + 0's = going to have a bad time.

If your corals were growing before under those lights, theres no reason to think they would be the issue. They are a popular value fixture that has worked for others.

I try for NO3 5-10 and PO4 0.03-0.1 - Whatever you can keep stable.

 

[Wbflyer]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have 5 fish, 6 hermits and 2 emerald crabs. So why do you need those, what about frag only tanks.. they don't have any fish right? I thought the cleaner the better but maybe not!

 

[Wbflyer]

I have a protein skimmer and a Phosphate reactor going. I guess I should stop the reactor...

 

[Futuretotm]

The fish aren't really needed, however NO3/PO4 are.
Fish = source of NO/PO
Otherwise you may have to dose those two.

I would slowly take it offline, you don't want an explosion of PO4...

 

[MightyMO]

My tank is slow growing at best... If everything is healthy, just keep doing what your doing...