no growth

[pickle311]

I'm not seeing any growth out of my corals and it's getting frustrating. I haven't added any frags in months. Everything I've added has encrusted, but most have shown no growth. Some have shown a little growth, but not as much as I'm used to seeing on other tanks. Everything has great colors and PE out of this world.
The tank is 130g Bare Bottom
lighting is 2 DE 250W Phoenix 14Ks and 2 95W VHO super actinics
Parameters
SG 1.025
Temp ranges from 80 to 80.7
Ca 400 - salifert
Alk 9 DKH - salifert
Po4 o - nutrafin
Mg 1350 - red sea

bulbs were changed 4 months ago from coralvue 14ks btw

any suggestions?

[hammondegge]

have you tried 10k's

[JimD]

Out of this world polyp extention isnt necessarily a good thing for sps depending on the species, it could be a sign of stress, meaning the coral is having to work harder to collect food, etc. Also, most sps will encrust at the base to form a solid mount first before sprouting new vertical growth. Your perameters look to be in order, maybe patients is the key here. Break off the tip on one of the coral branches and monitor it over time to see if it heals, if it does, its growing. And of course, the 14k's wont give you the growth of 10k' or 6.5k's either.

[pickle311]

I haven't tried 10ks, but I will with my next bulb change. It is possible that they don't get enough food I guess. I feed my fish 2 or 3 times a week and I feed DTs and Cyclopeeze about once per week. I like a clean tank and I'm always scared of overdoing it.

[matt]

Supposedly the phoenix 14ks are comparable to most 10ks in PAR; I checked on Sanjay's site before buying 'em. So, you might start seeing more growth.

Stony corals don't eat DTs. If you have a good skimmer and clean up crew, try making some of Eric Boreman's coral mush and feeding that at night.

The one thing you didn't mention is flow, which for stony corals is super important. Unless you're really confident you have good flow around your corals, try tossing a few powerheads in. The Borneman book has a great secction on flow.

[pickle311]

Sequence Hammerhead on eductors and my return pump is turning over about 1000gph, I have monster flow

[TexasTodd]

How often do you do water changes and how large?

You're feeding pretty light. Do you have a completely clean tank bottom? No areas under rocks where any detritus can hide?

If they're encrusting....they're growing. Many sps can take around a YEAR to lay down a good base then grow like crazy. What species of corals are you talking about?

Todd

[greatwit]

Maybe the're just getting thicker and not taller. Sometimes it takes awhile for sps to take off and they have to have a certain critical base to grow. Do you have any known fast growing sps in the tank like green slimer or montipora digitata?

[fishypets]

If color is good, P.E. is good and all your params are good I'd say give it some time. Also if you have some pics of the frags when you first set up the frags look back and compare. I sometime don't see growth on my sps then I look back at some old pics and say "WOW"

[gjuarez]

I have to agree with Todd on this one. You are feeding very lightly, some people feed their fish 2-3 times per day. Corals need a little nutrients too.

[pickle311]

I do a 30g water change every 2 weeks at this point. I have one place in the tank where detrius collects and it's a very small ammount. The bottom of the tank stays very clean.
I will kick up the feeding a bit and see what happens.
Thanks

[GaryP]

I'm feeding my corals 4-5 times a week and the fish twice a day. My biggest problem is doing calcium and alkalinity enough to keep up with the growth. Do I have some nutrient control problems? Yes. Do I have problems with growth? No. That's why I'm try to get rid of some frags. My corals are crowding each other out. If I have to chose which problems I would rather deal with I will go with too much growth. Nutrients are a lot easier to deal with then starving your tank. How? Aggressive skimming, carbon, phosphate absorbers, physical filtration, siphoning, water changes, and a refugium.

[TexasTodd]

As others have stated, I think they're probably doing better than you think.

1. Take some pictures now as Clint suggests.
2. Put a Green slimer in there if you don't have one. I can always tell how things are going by if mine has nice 1/2+ long white tips or not.
3. Bump up the feeding....some, don't go nuts. The oyster eggs are a nice way to feed without putting too much extra in.
4. As you bump up the feeding I'd go to a little larger water changes every two weeks.

Give us updates! :)

Todd

[Bug_Power]

so are you guys saying corals don't eat phyto? That's what DT's is!

[fishypets]

SPS eat meat.....Can you post a pic of your corals? I would like to see what the Oregon Blue Tort looks like. It is also my experience that starvation=poor color on sps, you said yours was good.

[GaryP]

so are you guys saying corals don't eat phyto? That's what DT's is!
Clams, feather dusters, gorgonians and some soft corals (like carnations) eat phyto. Not SPS. I feed mine a mixture of cyclopeeze, daphnia, rotifers, baby brine, & oyster eggs. Some corals may only eat a specific sized food, that's why I feed the mixture. Sort of a shotgun approach. I also feed at night. In the wild, plankton migrate vertically. They sink down to deep water during the day and come up to the surface where the corals are at night. That's why you get better polyp extension on some corals at night. That's their natural time to feed.