LPSs : how to fatten up Hammer and Torch

[potatocouch]

My tank is 55 gallons with water param as follow:

Salinity 1.026.
Temp 26c.
Mg 1,350.
Ca 450.
Alk 8.5.
No3 5 ppm.

I used to have 80 ppm of No3 and ever since that I've reduced graduallu by using Nopox and now it's sitting at 5 ppm.

1x A360WE Kessil mounted at approx 30 cm above water surface. 9 hours lighting, ramping up to 75% intensity and 70 % colour.

Flow moderate high.

Shallow Sand Bed approx. 3 - 5 cm.

I would expect the hammers and torch should be happy with those params but they are still not growing.

I heard some people's experience that no feeding required and no amino acids required.

What's your take on this?

 

[kimba]

I spot feed my corals. I think they might not NEED to be fed, but I think they grow better, have better color and look better when fed. I have a mix of softies and LPS so 1x a week I use Phytoplex and 1x a week I feed Zooplanktos-L. I also do frozen mysis shrimp every now and then, my cleaner shrimp loves the stuff!

 

[TheEngineer]

Your flow might be too high. They like motion but not to be blown around.

 

[potatocouch]

Your flow might be too high. They like motion but not to be blown around.

Hmmm ..... good point ....

I saw in the LFS, some hammers are fully blown and they still fat .... are these different type of hammers? i would assume not.

 

[TheEngineer]

There's a lot of things it could be. Try one thing at a time and after a few days see how it goes.

 

[pickupman66]

I have hammers and frogs pawns and torches. Of the three, the torch loves a good strong current. The others like enough to make them move. I swear my torch gets bigger with more current

 

[dewboy1127]

feed your hammers,torches,frogspawns,elegance,acans,etc anything with decent size mouth PE Mysis and watch them grow over time ...it is some work but will accomplish growth...this is assuming parameters are stable

 

[Kershaw]

How high is your hammer. My hammer likes to be on the sand. My kessils run at 90% if I move them up like a1/4 of the way they don't extend very far.

 

[potatocouch]

How high is your hammer. My hammer likes to be on the sand. My kessils run at 90% if I move them up like a1/4 of the way they don't extend very far.

So to give you a picture, it's 60 cm height tank. The Kessil is mounted 30 cm above water surface.

Substrate is approx. 85 cm from the light; this is where zoanthids and morphs are located.
Torch on the left hand side is approx. 80 cm from the light.
Green hammer on the right hand side is approx. 70 cm from the light.
Yellow hammer on the right hand side is approx. 60 cm from the light.

Total lighting 9 hours .. ramping up to 75% intensity and 70% color then ramped down.

feed your hammers,torches,frogspawns,elegance,acans,etc anything with decent size mouth PE Mysis and watch them grow over time ...it is some work but will accomplish growth...this is assuming parameters are stable

This will be the last avenue considering all my params above are stable and I do believe they're good enough to support LPS corals, which is exactly why I post this thread as I'm confused as hell what's happening.
The problem with my hammers, I don't think their tentacles are sticky enough for the food to stick.
Feeding with reef roids ... not sure whether that will grow them up.
if they don't take it, it will just pollute my water.

 

[Kershaw]

Ok I'm lost with cm. but seems like there low lol. Try turning your light to 50% for a day see how it dose.

 

[potatocouch]

Ok I'm lost with cm. but seems like there low lol. Try turning your light to 50% for a day see how it dose.

even at 75% it's doing no good .... it's not fattening up .. are you saying it's too powerful ?

Let me translate it for you to inches:
Substrate is approx. 33" from the light; this is where zoanthids and morphs are located.
Torch on the left hand side is approx. 31" from the light.
Green hammer on the right hand side is approx. 27" from the light.
Yellow hammer on the right hand side is approx. 23" from the light.

Total lighting 9 hours .. ramping up to 75% intensity and 70% color then ramped down.

 

[Kershaw]

Actually I would try going a little brighter. Then a little lower. And mine seems to prefer bluer light maybe a just color.
Try turning you color up to 90 for a day see how it reacts. My friend had a hammer with two heads in 7 months it has 11 under a a350w I gave him. If I remember he had color and intensity kinda on the purple side.

 

[potatocouch]

Actually I would try going a little brighter. Then a little lower. And mine seems to prefer bluer light maybe a just color.
Try turning you color up to 90 for a day see how it reacts. My friend had a hammer with two heads in 7 months it has 11 under a a350w I gave him. If I remember he had color and intensity kinda on the purple side.

Right ... so a longer period of high intensity and blue-ish color @Kershaw ?

At the moment, I'm trying to simulate the sunrise, peak then sunset .. total of 9 hours.

The thing is, I also have pink birdsnest and I don't want to upset it by using a longer period of blue. Not sure if SPS love blue or white.

 

[pickupman66]

My torch LOVES the light. It's up top. About 6 inches below water surface with led about 14 inches above the water. I run a lumentek pro 240 at 70% blue and 40% white.

 

[pickupman66]

And on the sps. They like light. Lots and lots of it for the most part. Adjust your blue to the level pleasing to your eyes. I like about a 14k look. Too blue is like windex and imo corals don't do as well. Too little blue and colors don't pop to my eyes.

 

[Kershaw]

Your tank is pretty deep for the lights. So try turning them up a little. Also feed corals reef roids is good. Mine ramp up and down for sunrise sun set. So I have it very blue in the morning then my tank gets very white then, goes to even mix in the evening. Just do one thing at a time. And see how it responds hammers react pretty quick to changes

 

[Kershaw]

You can even just move coral in tank a little higher maybe a different flow. I have to say my hammer reacts to flow mostly

 

[brent.cherie]

My hammers are about 30" from the light in the sandbed and seem to do great under the eBay blackbox 165 watt LEDs. Never really feed and have moderate flow, I just broadcast aquavitro fuel couple times a week. Nice full extension on the hammers but frogspawn does not survive in my tank no matter what I do.

 

[dewboy1127]

You would be suprised as to what things are actually able to hold onto ..try some mysis if the corals wont take it which i highly doubt that they wont then your cuc or fish will eat it...your also saying you dont want to have dose nitrates well what food thats not eaten by anything will eventually break down into nitrates which still going to supply food to the tank

 

[Stigigemla]

Maybe it can depend on no phosphate. (Would make the Euphyllias pale) Acroporas will grow.
Little fish - high skimming. Is the tentacles sticky to your fingers?
With a small skimmer= lot of food in the water they are not sticky.
If you have big leathers like Sinularia or Kenia tree they may poison some corals.
Can be avoided with carbon filtering.