Gabe, Paul and others, I do apologize for my abrupt comments above and certainly do not imply that I know everything or have it all figured out. After reading a very similar thread on another forum earlier and having just spoken with a new to the hobby local Club member who had just removed all of his expensive sand bed because of someone 'in the know' telling him that 'that's your problem, the sand is killing your new corals' When the truth was, his tank is not ready for Coral or the dosing this person had him doing either. My whole point was/is that unless your heavily over feeding and using a crushed coral bed without a good CUC that traps excessive amounts of detritus 'The Sand Bed' should not even be in the top 10 reasons one should look for fault. Looking over Paul's postings I see what to me looks like the most obvious factor out of norm to be lighting or lack there of. If this is a std 55g 48x12x22 and only using 24 3w emitters for a total max of 72 watts if ran at 100%. Looking at the avatar cannot tell if this total number of LED's is spread out over the two fixtures or that each one contains 24. Adding more to the overall spectrum would help a little but just blue and white will grow coral fine. I do not see that there is an excess nutrient issue going on although would be curious to exact numbers on Nitrate, Phosphate and Mg. with a quality test kit. Also what exact species of Corals are growing so slowly, normally fast growing Montipora and Seriatopora species?
My comments on Coral Chop Shops was a little out there or abstract but again point was to bring up the fact that our Corals (symbiotic algae within) need nutrients to live and grow. Obviously, I hope by now that we all know these nutrients cannot be at toxic levels but must be present and are at the very bottom of the food chain thus very necessary.
As Reefkeepers we are in charge of a very fine balancing act within our systems with their lives at stake, I wish there was an easier or more simplified explanation to help everyone figure this out. Having a strong Biology background has helped me immensely but more than that it has been the 40+ years of keeping aquariums, 32 years of Reefkeeping with all the trials and tribulations that came with.
Paul, I'll take a read through of your build thread to get a better/bigger picture of what all is going on and post any suggestions if I have there.
Cheers, Todd
