When safe to “tip”?

[Cflow]

I have a few frags that have gone pretty much dormant after a power outage a few months back. The survivors are starting to color up again but no obvious signs of growth. I’ve put a few new frags in the tank since that seem to be doing good but also no obvious signs of growth as well. One frag I tipped a few weeks back has healed great and has nice color. Is now a good time to “tip” the remaining frags to “wake” them up? Everything has been stable since the outage but I feel like some frags just aren’t waking up.

 

[F i s h y]

I've heard of the idea of tipping to try to stimulate growth. I'd start with parameters first, what are your big 3 levels? Alk, cal, mg. Try tweaking them a little, tweaking photo period or intensity, etc. I've had some coral that have appeared dormant for many months suddenly take off. Sometimes a small change like new bulbs is all it took. Tipping is def an option. Assuming everything else is stable should be safe to do so.

 

[jda]

I don't do it unless it has been like a year and everything else is thriving beyond my satisfaction - meaning, plenty of time and no reason why it should not be going well with evidence that everything else is. Usually, I don't have to do this, but I will every once in a while. If everything is still stalled out, then I would guess that you will hurt more than you help.

 

[mtraylor]

Yeah i would lean more towards patients. Give them more time. Wouldnt risk loosing them. Ultimately its up to you. If you are thinking about it now...tipping may be in there future. Have you had success with that method before?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I only tip if i get good service. Lol
D

 

[Cflow]

So I found a possible contributor to the lack of growth. I while back I added a couple of emerald crabs to take care of some bubble algae. I’ve caught them perched up on a few of my corals before but they appeared to be picking the algae off of the base of the plugs. Tonight I saw one mount my brand new pinky the bear frag and pluck a polyp right out of one of the coralites. I watched it literally snip a bit of the bony part off. I guess it was tipping them for me. That explains lack of pe on a few frags. So, they have been removed. Hopefully I’ll get some good pe in the next few weeks. No tipping for me yet.