Trouble growing corals with sps ab

[greg5578]

I've been running the sps ab schedule for 6months now and just don't have any growth on montis, and sps corals.

Light is an XR30W G4 pro, hung 9-10 inches of surface of water.
Tank dimensions are 48x18x24.
Sps ab at 75% intensity, running from 9am to 10 pm. Peak from 12pm to 6pm.

Fishes are fed frozen brine shrimp on mondays, wednesdays, and Saturdays. The other days i feed them with a homemade seafood mix.
Twice a week i feed corals reef roids with polyp booster.

Parameters are;
Mg- 1290
Cal- 400
Alk- 7dKH
No3- 0
PO4- 0
Temp- 25-26c
1.026sg

The only thing that seems to grow in my tank is algae. Starting to get a lil frustrated as I've seen cheap black boxes grow corals like crazy but i can't seem to grow anything with radions.

 

[ycnibrc]

Another case with zero nitrate n phosphate raise it to 10ppm and 0.1 ppm then u will see some grow

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Start feeding the corals more try 5 days a week and see what happens also try amino acids

 

[greg5578]

Another case with zero nitrate n phosphate raise it to 10ppm and 0.1 ppm then u will see some grow

Thanks ycnibrc for the reply.

Actually my nitrates have been at 25ppm n phosphates were at 0.1 for the past few months.
Just added nopox last month and nitrates decreased to 0ppm.
But even at 25ppm there wasn't any growth

 

[greg5578]

Start feeding the corals more try 5 days a week and see what happens also try amino acids

Spot feed or broadcast feed?

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

You may be blasting your corals too much. As others have suggested try feeding your corals, but also maybe keep 2ppm nitrates, and also raise your alk from 7 to 9 (slowly ) and calcium to 440-450. How steady is your alk and calcium and how often do you have to dose it? I have to dose alk and calcium every two days.

As far as the radions go, maybe put them back into acclimation mode. How do the corals look, and are all their polyps out when the lights are on?

 

[greg5578]

Hello,

You may be blasting your corals too much. As others have suggested try feeding your corals, but also maybe keep 2ppm nitrates, and also raise your alk from 7 to 9 (slowly ) and calcium to 440-450. How steady is your alk and calcium and how often do you have to dose it? I have to dose alk and calcium every two days.

As far as the radions go, maybe put them back into acclimation mode. How do the corals look, and are all their polyps out when the lights are on?

Hello Sarah!

My calcium is usually between 400-420, adding 20g redsea ABC+ powder every 2days. As for Alk i use 1 teaspoon of baking soda to bring it up to 8dkh everytime it drops to 7dkh. I'd say every 4days.

I've got a few acros with some PE but no growth. As for the forest fire digi, it seems to be losing polyps from bottom to top

 

[rob safron]

I’m running 1 nitrate and 0.02 phosphates(not on purpose but it’s working) and have great growth. I tried AB setting and got nowhere. I now run my lights around 45 peak white and that seemed to help me. Have to trim some things now.

 

[Sarah24!]

Hello,

Loved the pics FYI. The forest fire digi is normally red and turns green sometimes. I have to look up why it turns green because I just am brain dead today. Maybe you don’t have enough flow and I have never used baking soda. Every four days though means the corals yes are co summing it but not very fast. I have to dose three times a week, every week and my forest fire digi just grows like a weed. It’s also the nice fire color. It’s driving me crazy not knowing why they turn green. I think (and stress think lol) it’s because of flow and or not high enough lightening. But your using radions so not enough light wouldn’t make sense.

Just my thought I would say it’s more chemistry than lights, but would still turn your lights to acclimation. I run the marine orbit marine pros (not the ic loop ones) and my brights are at 45% and if I have them past that my corals hey very amgery at me. My acans won’t open, my sps polyps stay in, but as soon as I drop it to 45 they are super happy. I have tried doing acclimation on mine to go higher and nope they just won’t have it. Mine really colored up also using lower light (but can not say you will have same results).

 

[vegamedic]

water flow is just as important (some argue more) than lighting. what types of powerheads and and what intensity do you have going?

 

[greg5578]

Hello,

Loved the pics FYI. The forest fire digi is normally red and turns green sometimes. I have to look up why it turns green because I just am brain dead today. Maybe you don’t have enough flow and I have never used baking soda. Every four days though means the corals yes are co summing it but not very fast. I have to dose three times a week, every week and my forest fire digi just grows like a weed. It’s also the nice fire color. It’s driving me crazy not knowing why they turn green. I think (and stress think lol) it’s because of flow and or not high enough lightening. But your using radions so not enough light wouldn’t make sense.

Just my thought I would say it’s more chemistry than lights, but would still turn your lights to acclimation. I run the marine orbit marine pros (not the ic loop ones) and my brights are at 45% and if I have them past that my corals hey very amgery at me. My acans won’t open, my sps polyps stay in, but as soon as I drop it to 45 they are super happy. I have tried doing acclimation on mine to go higher and nope they just won’t have it. Mine really colored up also using lower light (but can not say you will have same results).

Many thanks Sarah. Really appreciate the input. I'm sure they looked better before i got it [emoji37]

I'll try on bumping my calcium, and alk and feed it more often.

 

[greg5578]

water flow is just as important (some argue more) than lighting. what types of powerheads and and what intensity do you have going?

Hi vegamedic,

I've got a reef octopus varios 4 but it's on the lowest speed setting as my overflow pipe is quite small, about 3/4in so can't bump up the speed on the return pump.
Also, I've got 1 RW-15 and 1 RW-20 on each side of the tank. They both meet at the centre of the tank.
Tried running it on random flow mode but my hammer and frogspawn wasnt happy at all. Got it running on W1 and the both are quite happy. Rw-15 at full speed and RW-20 at 3 or 4 bars of power.

 

[smokin'reefer]

I had slow to no growth when my mag was low like yours. I'm no pro by no means, but looking at your parameters reminds me of mystruggles to get mag up.

I kept bumping up according to Red Sea recommendations, but it never would climb up to 1400. I finally just had it o e w/e and just kept adding mag supplement til it pushed thru to 1400. Basically used all supplements I had and a couple bottles I could scrounge at lfs's.

Just my experience. Hope it helps.

I also agree with the flow factor. Somehow my Vortechs got turned up and were literally rocking my tank. But man my sps were digging it.

Good luck.

 

[greg5578]

I had slow to no growth when my mag was low like yours. I'm no pro by no means, but looking at your parameters reminds me of mystruggles to get mag up.

I kept bumping up according to Red Sea recommendations, but it never would climb up to 1400. I finally just had it o e w/e and just kept adding mag supplement til it pushed thru to 1400. Basically used all supplements I had and a couple bottles I could scrounge at lfs's.

Just my experience. Hope it helps.

I also agree with the flow factor. Somehow my Vortechs got turned up and were literally rocking my tank. But man my sps were digging it.

Good luck.

Hi smokin'reefer,

Yes I'm actually struggling to bring my mag up. Been dosing 100ml a day and it still wont move. Even did water change and it still didn't move.

Do you blast your sps with direct flow?

 

[leepink23]

I get great growth with that schedule, only difference is I have diffusers on gen 3 pro at 90%. My tank is 48x24x30. I try keep nitrates around 5 and phosphate between 0.01-0.03

 

[Tallison]

I've been running the sps ab schedule for 6months now and just don't have any growth on montis, and sps corals.

Light is an XR30W G4 pro, hung 9-10 inches of surface of water.
Tank dimensions are 48x18x24.
Sps ab at 75% intensity, running from 9am to 10 pm. Peak from 12pm to 6pm.

Fishes are fed frozen brine shrimp on mondays, wednesdays, and Saturdays. The other days i feed them with a homemade seafood mix.
Twice a week i feed corals reef roids with polyp booster.

Parameters are;
Mg- 1290
Cal- 400
Alk- 7dKH
No3- 0
PO4- 0
Temp- 25-26c
1.026sg

The only thing that seems to grow in my tank is algae. Starting to get a lil frustrated as I've seen cheap black boxes grow corals like crazy but i can't seem to grow anything with radions.

If I had to guess you are blasting them too long and too hard. I'd drop them to 55% and reduce your on period to 9 hrs total. I used to blast mine for 11 hrs and the only thing I could grow was algae. Mine ramp 12 to 1 till they reach 50% then at midday hit 55% and ramp back down at 8 to 9 pm. Less viewing time but I can actually grow SPS now

 

[greg5578]

I get great growth with that schedule, only difference is I have diffusers on gen 3 pro at 90%. My tank is 48x24x30. I try keep nitrates around 5 and phosphate between 0.01-0.03

That's beautiful mate!

 

[greg5578]

If I had to guess you are blasting them too long and too hard. I'd drop them to 55% and reduce your on period to 9 hrs total. I used to blast mine for 11 hrs and the only thing I could grow was algae. Mine ramp 12 to 1 till they reach 50% then at midday hit 55% and ramp back down at 8 to 9 pm. Less viewing time but I can actually grow SPS now

Many thanks mate. What template are you using?

 

[Tallison]

Many thanks mate. What template are you using?

I'm using coral labs AB SPS+ as well though adjusted for intensity. I follow there schedule to a T though, 1 hr ramp up 7 hours on with a midday peak and then 1 hr ramp down. I'm convinced this will help with algae and growth

 

[greg5578]

I'm using coral labs AB SPS+ as well though adjusted for intensity. I follow there schedule to a T though, 1 hr ramp up 7 hours on with a midday peak and then 1 hr ramp down. I'm convinced this will help with algae and growth

Cheers mate. I'll give it a try.