maximize my coral growth

[alienspacepirate]

I have a small setup for the past two years and want to find some easy ways to get more growth going on. I have a 55 gal and a 10 gal that is setup in a cascade chain. This all falls into my sump (oceanic 35 gal). The 10 gal is my kid's frag tank.

I have CF lighting, new bulbs. I keep them on for 9 hours actenics with 5 hours in between for the 14k.

I have good flow with no dead spots.

I use RO/DI and red sea coral pro salt. Freshwater topoff gets Ro/DI with a calcium supplement (1/4 teaspoon per gallon). I will change out 5 gallons every 2-3 weeks.

For supplements I add iodide, calcium, and strontium/molybdenum daily on the lowest amounts since I have no test strips to see if the levels are low or what..

My nitrates are always <.03 and my ammonia is 0. My ph is usually around 7.8-7.9.

My question is would it br worth it to invest in more testing strips to test calcium and iodide? I basically have no idea how much is in my system and what other supplements would be necessary for growth? Things in my tank survive and do well they just don't seem to grow very rapidly.

[Europhyllia]

5 hours of usable light per day is not very much. In tropical areas you can count on about 12 hours of daylight with 8 hours of usable light.

[alienspacepirate]

I once had it on a 12 hour cycle and I heard that I was 'burning' my corals and I should scale it back to about this. How many hours do other reefers usually set for light times?

[Mr Cob]

Mine is:

15hours actinic (been playing around with this and think I'm happy at 15hrs)
7hours MH

I'd like to go 8 hours MH...but heat starts to become a problem at 8 hours for me.

[Europhyllia]

I used to have it on 14/12 hour cycle (actinic/daylight) and jsut scaled back to 13/8 hour cycle.
I just think imitating nature is a good way to start. Can't imagine CFs being anywhere near as bright as sunlight.

[alienspacepirate]

Ok, well good advice there. I will start scaling up the lighting each day so I don't shock the system too much. I tend to grow a lot of algae and diatoms when I mess around with the tank. Right now i've been moving things around to kill my glass anemone problems. (just about taken care of now).

My colossal snails are doing a good job with the algae, however. When they make it to the spot anyway... Have 6 in the main tank, one in the frag tank.

[Europhyllia]

how old are your bulbs?

[alienspacepirate]

I just replaced them last week. They had about 2 years on them previously and were getting bad.

[ballardjr2000]

Any chance on changing the CF's out for T-5's or even a single MH would do better. I run my lights for 10/8 my blue actenics on then an hour later all lights on, 12k and actenics then after 8 hrs i go back to just blue then off.

[alienspacepirate]

at some point I want to step up to a 75 tank and I will probably add MH and change my cf's to just be actenics.

[Europhyllia]

old bulbs could have contributed a lot to your algae problem...

[Salty]

12/13 Halide to Actinic on my 55, doing about .25in/month on my SPS and softies multiplying well.

[BIGBIRD123]

I am doing 14/10/14 on mine. Actinics, MH (250w) and moonlights in that order. I have a 2 hr overlap on the actinics and moonlights. My fuge light is on the same schedule as my moonlights. I'm getting about .25" growth also.

[drunkenclam]

pretty sure i am seen as just a tool on this site, ok with me.

but since the obvious was not asked (adding to the tool factor) and since relatively important to you question...................

what kind of corals do you keep?

[Salty]

pretty sure i am seen as just a tool on this site, ok with me.

but since the obvious was not asked (adding to the tool factor) and since relatively important to you question...................

what kind of corals do you keep?

^^^ I don't think you're a tool :bighug:

[Europhyllia]

he mentioned some photosynthetic LPS in another thread...

[drunkenclam]

^^^ I don't think you're a tool :bighug:

you may be the only exception
to the rule, thank you. lets keep it on topic, my pm box overflowith as is!

[drunkenclam]

he mentioned some photosynthetic LPS in another thread...


thank you. would seem i missed the thread. link please as so i could provide my insight?

[alienspacepirate]

pretty sure i am seen as just a tool on this site, ok with me.

but since the obvious was not asked (adding to the tool factor) and since relatively important to you question...................

what kind of corals do you keep?


That's ok dude.. I'm the biggest tool don't worry lol.


I've got all kinds of mushrooms, some zoa's of different colorings, green wesophelia, green candy cane.

Basically I don't have any SPS mostly softies and LPS

long tentacle anemone, crocea clam (i think) I do have one frag of an orange coral that is similar to sun coral just doesn't require feeding but the name escapes me right now.

[alienspacepirate]

and to add the weso sits on the substrate and does pretty happy. The candy cane I have moved way up high in the tank and it seems to like that much better and will puff out huge. Speaking of which I am going to try to feed it some little scallop pieces here in a minute.

oh and I forgot about all of my frogspawn that stuff really grows in my tank, has split heads 6 times in the last 2 years. Sorry for the bad picture quality-was from my video camera and it makes a bad still camera.


http://maast.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=195&pictureid=1573


http://maast.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=195&pictureid=1574

[alienspacepirate]

This is my tank setup. The 10 gallon has some softy frags. It gets an interesting flow.. cascades from the 55 into the 10 then out the box to the sump. Every minute or so the air builds up in the cascade tube and then pushes out a faster flow in the tank.. which gives a nice 'wave' effect.

http://maast.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=195&pictureid=1571

[hobogato]

cool setup, since you are trying to maximize coral growth, i would have to agree with others that pc lights are not the best choice. also, when you change as planned, you will be much happier with t5 actinics instead of keeping the pc lights for actinics - ime (i held on to those pc lights as actinics for years and when i finally changed to t5, kicked myself for not doing it sooner)

[alienspacepirate]

yeah the problem is I'm not exactly raking in the cash these days due to the economy.. job is paying now 1/2 of what I was getting pre 2008.

[ballardjr2000]

Then I would get a nice t-5 setup MH will cost MORE. I am running 2 (4bulb) fixtures on my 90g tank total light wattage of 432w. I have a cocera clam and plenty of corals all do well even my ricordia in deferent levels of the tank. The clam is about mid tank and has grown like crazy.

[ErikH]

I run 800 watts over a 75g 12 hours per day.

Maintain and test your Ca Alk and Mg. Keep a log of your daily dosing regimen.

Feeding helps be it zoas lps or sps.

[ballardjr2000]

HOLY CRAP 800watts on a 75 WOW. do your fish get sunburns lol

[alienspacepirate]

Update: I've been adding kent's superbuffer dkh daily to increase my ph (is 7.8) and then will do coralbuilder when its past ~8.1.

I got a calcium tester and my calcium is doing good 540ppm. I'm also going to step up my water changes to 5gal weekly. I still have a lot of diatoms and hair algae which would indicate to me that I still have a lot of nitrates even though they test negative (because they are eating it).

Right now I think I am on a right track just will need time and more 'husbandry' on my part.

[Europhyllia]

I got a calcium tester and my calcium is doing good 540ppm.

Is that a typo? (could it be 450 instead?)
what's your alkalinity.
If your alkalinity is higher your pH tends to stay higher. Higher alkalinity also helps precipitate phosphates so that would help with algae, etc.

[Salty]

Jack that pH up to at least 8.2. Test your alk like Karin said. I run mine at 11dkh and subscribe to higher is better school. What kit measured a 540 calc? If it is that high you likely have a really low alk situation. Which kit do you use for nitrate?

[drunkenclam]

Update: I've been adding kent's superbuffer dkh daily to increase my ph (is 7.8) and then will do coralbuilder when its past ~8.1.

I got a calcium tester and my calcium is doing good 540ppm. I'm also going to step up my water changes to 5gal weekly. I still have a lot of diatoms and hair algae which would indicate to me that I still have a lot of nitrates even though they test negative (because they are eating it).

Right now I think I am on a right track just will need time and more 'husbandry' on my part.

if your bulbs are new and power compacts your corals should do o.k.
but as previously mentioned if you want growth upgrading to t-5 or mh would be best.

from your pics it does appear you have an algae problem. since you stated you use ro/di (good filters?) you may have a nutrient problem.

for a 55 with low nutrient requirements the 5gal a week should show improvement. just watch the feeding.

what kind of skimmer you running?

[alienspacepirate]

if your bulbs are new and power compacts your corals should do o.k.
but as previously mentioned if you want growth upgrading to t-5 or mh would be best.

from your pics it does appear you have an algae problem. since you stated you use ro/di (good filters?) you may have a nutrient problem.

for a 55 with low nutrient requirements the 5gal a week should show improvement. just watch the feeding.

what kind of skimmer you running?


I don't know the brand of the skimmer.. but it does work and pulls out things. I may add a secondary skimmer though. The issue with feeding is that yellow tang. He is huge-normous and eats all the time. I was feeding him every other day and then he got so scrawny i thought i was going to lose him. Now I just feed him small amounts twice a day to fatten him back up.

Yeah the problem with him is he is just too big for the tank and needs food :/

[alienspacepirate]

oh I only use RO/DI water from the LFS...been that way since I set the tank up a few years ago. I wouldn't want to see how disastrous my tank would look with tap. LOL considering how well I grow algae right now.