SPS Growth

[dave57]

I was going to say your po4 is to low for that alk level. I had to dose nutrients as well for about 2 weeks but things leveled out after a while. But I also only run my Refugium light 8-12 hours a night. And I don't run any kind of filter socks. I'd pull them. Or maybe just half of them if you have more than one. My levels stay consistent at 8.5kh, 5 ppm no3 and .1 po4. I feed twice a day pellets and 1 cube frozen my sis every other day. I only have about 7 fish on my 125. And use a tiny bit of reef roids once a week. Just takes time and patience for everything to balance out.

Feed your fish more. If you are not at home, get an auto feeder and some New Life Spectrum pellets - Ehiem feeders have been used for decades.

The ammonia/ammonium from the fish waste will do wonders.

I would not chase anything else until you do this.

Auto feeders are awesome. Another recommendation I’m going to start making as well (where appropriate) is that folks get a handful of anthias. Not only are they amazing fish, but they force you to both be diligent about feeding and automate feeding because they need to eat multiple times throughout the day.

Thank guys I stopped my phosphate dosing... things looking good so far. I'm planning on adding a automatic feeder and monitoring my nitrates and phosphates more closely with the addition of more food. I do run my cheato 24/7 and it seems to be doing a really good job at pulling things out. I don't have any filter socks but run some filter cups with cheato inside them to filter out bigger particles. otherwise I appreciate the advice and recommendation!

 

[biecacka]

Auto feeders are awesome. Another recommendation I’m going to start making as well (where appropriate) is that folks get a handful of anthias. Not only are they amazing fish, but they force you to both be diligent about feeding and automate feeding because they need to eat multiple times throughout the day.

i have tried anthias numerous times with no luck. Maybe now with the auto feeder and a more mature tank I could again but they always die off for me.

corey

 

[Rick5]

i have tried anthias numerous times with no luck. Maybe now with the auto feeder and a more mature tank I could again but they always die off for me.

corey

I've kept Lyretail and Dispar in the past (years ago). Most recently, I purchased five Bartlett's locally. As I understand it, Bartlett's are more aggressive than some of the other varieties and it shows. They were eating NLS pellets at the LFS and I've continued to feed them a mix of dry food and frozen. While it's too soon to speak to their longevity in my tank given that I only recently acquired them, it looks promising. Hopefully I don't end up with four male anthias, though. If space permits, I like the idea of keeping a large group, especially insofar as it may help curb/disperse aggression amongst them.

 

[SeaDweller]

I've kept Lyretail and Dispar in the past (years ago). Most recently, I purchased five Bartlett's locally. As I understand it, Bartlett's are more aggressive than some of the other varieties and it shows. They were eating NLS pellets at the LFS and I've continued to feed them a mix of dry food and frozen. While it's too soon to speak to their longevity in my tank given that I only recently acquired them, it looks promising. Hopefully I don't end up with four male anthias, though. If space permits, I like the idea of keeping a large group, especially insofar as it may help curb/disperse aggression amongst them.

They really aren't that aggressive, all but 4 of my females turned male (out of 20) and they're all fine. They're some of the prettiest anthias out there.

 

[Rick5]

They really aren't that aggressive, all but 4 of my females turned male (out of 20) and they're all fine. They're some of the prettiest anthias out there.

That's surprising and impressive. Agreed that they're stunners. If I don't completely sabotage my SPS tank, I may upgrade to a larger tank and keep an assortment of anthias. They're also fun, eat constantly and tolerate flow well.

I haven't seen them defecate yet, though. Constipation is plausible.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Feed your fish more. If you are not at home, get an auto feeder and some New Life Spectrum pellets - Ehiem feeders have been used for decades.

The ammonia/ammonium from the fish waste will do wonders.

I would not chase anything else until you do this.

Does uneaten fish food break down into ammonia/ammonium as well as poop?

I wonder if we can just dose ammonia/ammonium rather than wait for food to get transformed into it?

 

[jda]

That depends what eats it, I think. I dose ammonium hydroxide into my fuge where the are clams, but not fish... just a few times a week.

I do not know if dosing nh4oh is necessary if you have fish that can do this, but I think that it probably does more than dosing nitrate on the back end.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

That depends what eats it, I think. I dose ammonium hydroxide into my fuge where the are clams, but not fish... just a few times a week.

I do not know if dosing nh4oh is necessary if you have fish that can do this, but I think that it probably does more than dosing nitrate on the back end.

My use for it would be to deal with low to zero nitrates when I have an algae outbreak. Under normal circumstances (algae not covering 90% of your tank), I’d expect food alone to satisfy the corals.

 

[jda]

I am sure that you know that I do not recommend dosing nitrate or even worrying about it, as long as it is not too high. At .1 residual N (have to use a IC test to detect it), nothing is growth limited in my tanks, including algae... my export does equal my import, though.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I am sure that you know that I do not recommend dosing nitrate or even worrying about it, as long as it is not too high. At .1 residual N (have to use a IC test to detect it), nothing is growth limited in my tanks, including algae... my export does equal my import, though.

I have noticed that during my current algae outbreak (I’m slowly beating it back) that my nitrates read at 0 on my tests. If I don’t dose Nitrates, I notice the “fire” in my corals diminishes. Dosing a bit of nitrates brings this “fire” back after a few days. Just wondering if I could dose something else that wouldn’t benefit the algae also.

I’m fixing to startup some Chaeto in my sump to continue fighting back this algae outbreak I’ve got, but need something to use to limp along with for a bit.

 

[jda]

You supply building blocks to one, you do to the other as well. Algae can use ammonia and ammonium just like corals can. High tide lifts all ships.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

You supply building blocks to one, you do to the other as well. Algae can use ammonia and ammonium just like corals can. High tide lifts all ships.

Dern. I’ll just have to knock this mess out then...

 

[jda]

Most tanks will just evolve past the algae phase, but people don't seem to want to wait. Check out the tank in my signature... I had algae issues, just waited for nature to do it's thing and now I am past it. I have no idea how old your tank is, but if is less than a year with live rock, or two years with dry/dead rock, then time might just do it.

Urchins and siphoning do not hurt anything either.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

Most tanks will just evolve past the algae phase, but people don't seem to want to wait. Check out the tank in my signature... I had algae issues, just waited for nature to do it's thing and now I am past it. I have no idea how old your tank is, but if is less than a year with live rock, or two years with dry/dead rock, then time might just do it.

Urchins and siphoning do not hurt anything either.

It’s a little over two years old now. Started with live rock from my lfs. Algae hadnt been a problem until I went overboard feeding the tank. I was dosing pellets and reef roids at one point. My fish were like “oh no, more food...”. I also took my skimmer offline.

I had bought the wrong regent for my Hannah ULR phosphorus meter. Just keep putting food in the water thinking I had super low phosphate. After the explosions of algae, and corals losses, I did an ICP test and saw 0.22ppm phosphate.

 

[Coral Me Impressed]

The levels you listed look good but with the alk only being stable for 3 weeks they could just be adjusting. In the past when Ive had alk swings it tended to stunt sps growth for a short time. My bet is they take off over the next couple weeks.

 

[Gordon Cashmore]

Guys I just have this comment. I have some pretty powerful lighting from Aqua life. My things were not growing much the last year. I tried all the things you are suggesting. Nothing really helped. Then, I decided to tinker with the intensity and light that is in the tank. They are LED's and 3 banks over 450 Watts of lights. I lowered them form 65% on blues, IR and White to about 45% and I took the 10k white down to 20%. It did wonders. Things are opening up way larger now and polyps are extending much bigger. My Acans are expanding way more than before as well as my hammer. It could be too much light......It worked for me. Every tank is diff. I have a 90 gal .