Og bounce 4 months no growth

[jdubya]

I purchased a baby og over the summer, it was about the size of a pinky nail, since then it has not grown at all, if anything it's bubbles have shrunk and it just never looks happy

I've tried moving it around the tank, but for past few months it's just been on the sand bed in low flow at about 90-100 par from an xr15 with diffuser on 8 hours a day.

My calcium runs about 430-450 and alk around 7, nitrates and phosphates show 0 in tests but I have a bit of hair algae so there's probably some present in the tank as I only do a 1 gallon water change every 1-2 weeks (10 gallon nuvo).

I have a momma jawbreaker also on my sand bed who has laid 4 babies and couldn't be happier. Rest of my corals (lps and softies and zoas) are doing great..I do have one other random bounce that grew for awhile then stopped growing and behaves similar to the og.

My tank is low flow in general, only run a sicce 1.0 no power head.

Any thoughts from shroom experts?

 

[Hemmdog]

Have more nutrients. Try aminos like reef energy a&b. Target feed reef roids occasionally.

 

[jdubya]

Have more nutrients. Try aminos like reef energy a&b. Target feed reef roids occasionally.

Thanks, I forgot to mention I feed roids once a week, early on they use to react during feeding by closing up into a ball but now they don't even react

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks, I forgot to mention I feed roids once a week, early on they use to react during feeding by closing up into a ball but now they don't even react

I see, yea give aminos a shot and boost nitrate and phosphate. Do you have any fish in there? Feed some messy(in a good way) foods like LRS Nano reef frenzy or similar.

 

[Jason boles]

Do you target feed?? My mushrooms love it when I squirt some food right on them.

I target because I worry my water is too clean for some of my guys.

 

[SPR1968]

The alkalinity level at ‘around 7‘ is right at the bottom of being ok, and taking into account test kit error margins, it could be lower into the 6’s. It could of course be higher and fine.

It might be worth raising this slightly to around 8-8.5 and see if that helps, and this may also help your other corals as well.

And as already said get some nutrients into the system.

 

[jdubya]

The alkalinity level at ‘around 7‘ is right at the bottom of being ok, and taking into account test kit error margins, it could be lower into the 6’s. It could of course be higher and fine.

It might be worth raising this slightly to around 8-8.5 and see if that helps, and this may also help your other corals as well.

And as already said get some nutrients into the system.

Thanks! Been dosing alk a bit but seems to drop a lot faster than calcium..also thought weekly water changes would be enough given my tank isn't very fully stocked.

I am guessing added nutrients got in when I was on vacation and my auto feeder over fed a bit. Grew a ton more hair algae than normal, but mushrooms stayed same though ticked off some other corals

 

[jdubya]

Do you target feed?? My mushrooms love it when I squirt some food right on them.

I target because I worry my water is too clean for some of my guys.

I do target with reed roids but they don't seem to react anymore..food will just be sitting on the skirt with no movement

 

[SPR1968]

Thanks! Been dosing alk a bit but seems to drop a lot faster than calcium..also thought weekly water changes would be enough given my tank isn't very fully stocked.

I am guessing added nutrients got in when I was on vacation and my auto feeder over fed a bit. Grew a ton more hair algae than normal, but mushrooms stayed same though ****** off some other corals

Stability is the key, and especially with alkalinity you need to select a level and then maintain it by either automatic or manual daily additions of whatever your using.

If you’ve currently got high nutrient levels (after the auto feeder incident), you don’t really need to add reef roids. My nitrates are around 20 and I stopped adding coral food a while ago as the corals get enough food from the fish and light.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I realize these are not fancy bounce so take my experience with a grain of salt. I’ve normally kept my nitrates really low but since the introduction of several gorgonians as well as other filter feeding corals I’ve have to feed LOTS more which has made keeping my nitrates below 30 dang near impossible. So I quit trying and have just continued with my regular water change routine. My nitrates now hover around forty and since then my Yuma and rhodactis have exploded in size and some I have gotten huge bubbles in them. But that’s just my tank and not yours. So it may or may not work for you. My Zoe population has also increased.

 

[jdubya]

I realize these are not fancy bounce so take my experience with a grain of salt. I’ve normally kept my nitrates really low but since the introduction of several gorgonians as well as other filter feeding corals I’ve have to feed LOTS more which has made keeping my nitrates below 30 dang near impossible. So I quit trying and have just continued with my regular water change routine. My nitrates now hover around forty and since then my Yuma and rhodactis have exploded in size and some I have gotten huge bubbles in them. But that’s just my tank and not yours. So it may or may not work for you. My Zoe population has also increased.

That's awesome thanks for sharing! How do you combat algae with high nutrients? Seems if I feed a lot my algae takes advantage in 2-3 days.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

That's awesome thanks for sharing! How do you combat algae with high nutrients? Seems if I feed a lot my algae takes advantage in 2-3 days.

Mostly I think it's lack of Realestate. I had more algae before my nutrients were this high. But I keep green crabs, blue legged hermits, and the best lawn mower of all time a Doabella sea hare.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Those last huge mushrooms the rhodactis. When I got them they were dark brown on brown. They'd been in a very low nutrient system under all blues. After I had them for several months, more nutrients less blue light, they've lightened up and now have blue and purple in them.

 

[jdubya]

Bump..

Been dosing nitrates past few weeks to get to 5ppm, however still not the slightest sign of improvement. Light is still around 100 par and located at the bottom back of my tank with low flow (she barely sways if anything)

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Bump..

Been dosing nitrates past few weeks to get to 5ppm, however still not the slightest sign of improvement. Light is still around 100 par and located at the bottom back of my tank with low flow (she barely sways if anything)

Nitrates or food. I mean actual food. And in my experience, mushrooms are happier around 10-20 ppm. My Yumas explode at 40ppm.
Now that I have the new tank and no nitrates built up everything is sad. I'm feeding but I can't do it as much as usual until my biofilm catches up.