stability

[drewstaxplaya]

im not getting the growth i want in my tank and i feel like its due to a lack of stable water parameters. its a 29 biocube. i have zoas, some acros, 2 acan frags, a hammer frag, some shrooms and a chalice. i have a 600gph pump going over a frag rack, and another 200 gph pump for circulation, as well as the return for the filter. water sits around 77*. lights are chinese black box. i dont run really any equiptment. no skimmer or doser or anythingnlike that. i usually get my water tested every two weeks. last test was:

alk-8
cal-460
mag-1260
no3-1
po4-.03

wondering what equiptment i could add to get the most stable parameters and to keep them at that level, or what i can do to obtain optimal coral growth. any suggestions? thanks in advance.

 

[CodyRVA]

Do you know your PAR levels? Can you elaborate on the type of zoas, acros, etc you have? All sps, zoas, etc do not grow at the same rates.

 

[BoomCorals]

How long has the tank been set up? Dry rock, live rock, or mix when you started?

 

[drewstaxplaya]

no im not sure of par levels. have a mix of some high ends zoas and low ends as well as palys. a no name acro, a wd, some other named pieces of acros as well.

tank was bought established but has been in my possession for about 14 months now

 

[tjnorthdakota]

I'm not an expert but temp seems a bit on the lower side for a tropical reef, higher temp means you raise the metabolic rate of the corals. 77 degrees vs 79 degrees might be the difference between summer and wintertime temperatures for the corals. I saw the best growth out of my sps when I stopped doing water changes, dosed to maintain water parameters and over fed the tank to keep my nitrate up around 5-10. A skimmer and the use of nopox allowed me to do this however without my po4 and no3 getting out of hand.

 

[CodyRVA]

Salinity? Can you share your parameters over the last several tests? Typically unstable parameters would go far beyond slow growth to RTN/STN. Unless you're running ULN, which can have an affect on growth rates. Knowing your PAR values would help. I can't imagine flow being an issue as each of the corals you listed require slightly different flow rates.

FWIW i've had no name acros grow very slow and expensive "high end" acros grow quite fast. Same with zoas and palys... some grow faster than others; only sometimes is this relative to price. Keep in mind, if nothing is dying, don't change too much or you run the risk of stressing your coral and losing them entirely when you were simply trying to help. If it isn't broke don't fix it.