SPS Skeleton Destiny

nimrods · Sep 4, 2016

Dear R2R Friends,

i have mixed reef (SPS, LPS, ZOA...)
i have noticed several of my SPS quick growing such as: Digitata and Montipora and some other SPS, grow quickly but skeleton is very fragile. if i to compare same type of corals i brought from store which are more thick and strong.

what should i do to make them stronger and less fragile ?

Thank you all !!

Nimrod

_________________________________________________
I dose:
Cal, KH, MG: Depend on consuming.
Calc powder.
Two Little Fishies Amino Acids, TropicMarine ProCoral Mineral as mention on directions.

I Use:
No water changes regulary.
carbon as mention on directions.
Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

my parameters are:
700 Liters two+ years (grow up from 400L for 4 years same stones and sand most corals are new).
Salitiny 1.025
KH - 9 Royal Nature Test
Cal 420 Royal Nature Test
Mg 1320 RedSea Test
Phospate: 0.12 hanna
Temp 25-26
PH: 7.9 (night) -.8.3 (day)
LED lights: 2 X 200W Zetlight 6600.
Ozonizer as mention on directions.
Protein Skimmer Deltec 702.

dragonfish · Sep 4, 2016

Following

Mark75 · Sep 4, 2016

What do you have for flow??

Blue Lip · Sep 4, 2016

Dijitata is fragile.

Graffiti Spot · Sep 4, 2016

More flow can help sps corals grow thicker brsnches. I have read strontium helps sps skeletons health or whatever but lots of people say it isn't needed. I still use it because it's not hurting anything when dosed correctly.

-Logzor · Sep 4, 2016

You sneeze at monitpora and they will break, no way around that. They will also break if you accidentally drop a pair of large bonecutters over your colony during a fragging session.

Acropora should be relatively robust. In cases where rapid growth occurs, they can be brittle, long spindly branches, occurs under LEDs sometimes. Check-out examples of LED grown acropora vs those grown under MH. Agree with others, more flow perhaps? More feeding?

nimrods · Sep 5, 2016

Mark75 said:
What do you have for flow??

Flow happens from several differet WavePumps:
Vortech Mp40 X 2 (75%) + Jebao WP 60 X 2 (50%) + Jebabo WP40 (75%)
strontium is a bit high.
i feed Microvore and many kind of Phyto\Zoo plankton twice per week.

Thanks to everyone !

nimrods · Sep 5, 2016

-Logzor said:
You sneeze at monitpora and they will break, no way around that. They will also break if you accidentally drop a pair of large bonecutters over your colony during a fragging session.

Acropora should be relatively robust. In cases where rapid growth occurs, they can be brittle, long spindly branches, occurs under LEDs sometimes. Check-out examples of LED grown acropora vs those grown under MH. Agree with others, more flow perhaps? More feeding?

Interesting about what you said, i will read about that.

Stigigemla · Sep 6, 2016

I have read that a lot of phosphate makes the coral sceleton weaker.
To little nickel might make the branches thinner.
But I believe circulation is the most important factor. By me I try to give them about 4 inches per second.

nimrods · Sep 8, 2016

Stigigemla said:
I have read that a lot of phosphate makes the coral sceleton weaker.
To little nickel might make the branches thinner.
But I believe circulation is the most important factor. By me I try to give them about 4 inches per second.

is my phosphate too high ? 0.12 for mixed reef ?
how to check nickel ?
i think i have nice circulation: 2 X Voetch MP40, 2 X Jebao WP60 , 1X Jebao WP 40.

nimrods · Sep 8, 2016

Stigigemla said:
I have read that a lot of phosphate makes the coral sceleton weaker.
To little nickel might make the branches thinner.
But I believe circulation is the most important factor. By me I try to give them about 4 inches per second.

is my phosphate too high ? 0.12 for mixed reef ?
how to check nickel ?
i think i have nice circulation: 2 X Voetch MP40, 2 X Jebao WP60 , 1X Jebao WP 40.

Stigigemla · Sep 9, 2016

As far as i know the only way to check nickel is an ICP-OES test. Tritonlab or similar.
With strong led light there is no problem with 0.12 phosphate.
It is easy to check the cirkulation. Just stirr the sand a little bit or make one strong blow on the stones and you will have particles flowing around the coral that you can see and follow how fast they flow.

hart24601 · Sep 9, 2016

I would say more flow and check the flow where the corals are. Might have a slower flow in spots.

You have a lot of power heads but they are not running max and are they constant or program? Reefcrest at 75% spends a lot of time at low power.

In my 120 mixed reef I ran 3 mp40s 100% constant and a gyre 100% constant.

Ike · Sep 10, 2016

Stigigemla said:
I have read that a lot of phosphate makes the coral sceleton weaker.
To little nickel might make the branches thinner.
But I believe circulation is the most important factor. By me I try to give them about 4 inches per second.

Where's the nickel claim coming from? Is there anything scientific to back it up?

To the OP, there's nothing wrong with your corals, it's totally normal for certain genus and species to be more fragile.