Living but not thriving Biocube

[bartledoo]

I am now a year into corals with my biocube 8. My corals are surviving but not growing as rapidly as i would have imagined. the only thing that is going wild is my gsp. I do weekly ~2 gallon water changes. for filtration i removed the bioballs and put in chemipure elite and floss on top. I replaced the mediocre pump with a minijet 606 to combat the reoccurring cyano from poor water movement. I replaced the bulbs a month and a half ago. My water parameters are ph 8.4, nitrates 10ppm, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, calcium 475 ppm, magnesium 1520, alk 8.6

Livestock list:

maroon clown
blood red fire shrimp
cuc
frogspawn
gsp
red mushroom
orange ricordea
green mushroom
hairy mushroom frag
toadstool leather
zoanthid frag
candy cane coral

 

[Russellaqua]

First off, welcome to R2R! Your alkalinity, Ca, NO3, NO2, and NH3 look good. Your pH at 8.4 is on the high end of acceptable. Seawater averages 8.2. Your magnesium is ok, but is about 200 ppm above the average in the ocean too. What is your salinity level? Keep in mind that all the corals you listed do grow slower than GSP in my experience, especially the LPS. Were the bulbs new when you put the corals in? The Biocube uses compact fluorescent bulbs that have a very limited life span. I wouldn't recommend using PC bulbs for any more than 9 months before changing them.

 

[bartledoo]

forgot the salinity, i keep it at 34 ppt, and yes the bulbs were new, i replaced them a little over a month ago.

 

[Russellaqua]

34 per mil is good. Do you have good polyp extension on everything?

 

[bartledoo]

yes, everything is extended. i guess my biggest wonder is if there is any change that i need/can do to make them pop.

 

[jonbar1]

How much and how often are you feeding the corals that show a feeding response?

 

[bartledoo]

i use coral smoothie every other day, a couple squirts up stream

 

[jonbar1]

That would be my guess. If you want good growth turn the pump off and spot feed at least twice a week. When I had ricordea and mushrooms they all eagerly ate. Some zoas do some don't but the ones that do grow super fast when fed. Caulastrea and frogspawn eat a lot, and growth is quite obvious when spot fed. You'll probably have to squirt a pile for the fire shrimp, mine always stole from all the corals if I didn't feed him his fill first.

 

[_sludgefactory]

Seachem reef plus works really well for boosting growth too. I actually stopped using it for a while cause stuff was growing too fast.



Tank thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81000

LG P999 EaglesBlood 2.8, Trinity ELPmax

 

[bartledoo]

thanks for the info. everything is responding very well to the spot feeding with the pumps off.

 

[Rockadile]

I think you will find your coral with do some noticeable growth pretty soon now. Seems for me it takes 6 months to a year for them to get settled in. But once they start, they sure do make up for lost time.