Best tips for coral growth?

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Ok, so what are the best things you've done for your coral? What are the best tips you can offer to help coral really take off in a reef tank? I know we typically talk about things like stability, and that's absolutely essential, but what I'm hoping this will be is a thread with "tricks of the trade" that you've found REALLY made a difference in keeping coral healthy and growing that go beyond just the basics. What has worked well for you?

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Food. Animals like to eat.

There are some really good options out there, but I hit tanks with Reef Nutrition ArctiPods, ROE, Oyster Feast, Roti Feast, and Phyto Feast at least 3x/wk. Something for everybody (including the fish). If alk and Ca+ is good, corals grow like crazy.

I posted this pic in the LPS forum, but here’s a tank that I do that has a forest of frogspawn. These 4 colonies came from a single 6-7 head colony. There’s an auto-feeder right above that drops pellets in and a lot of them land on the coral. It prob took 3 1/2 years to go from a 6 polyp colony to these guys:

 

[phlibbyreefer]

when I added a co2 scrubber it boosted my ph from 7.8ish to 8.2ish. Since then my alk and calcium consumption has shot up and growth kicked into gear.

 

[VSVP bet]

FOOD ^. I have some rocks in my last sump chamber where my pump is. Detritus accumulates there, everyday before my lights go out, I stir that chamber up. The detritus is then transported from my sump to my display, and all the SPS and LPS have crazy PE.

 

[MTBake]

Increasing my ph from 7.8 to 8.2 has helped the growth in my tank alot.

The next thing that made a difference was increasing flow 2 fold. I'm pushing 2500gph in my 40 breeder that's sps dominate.

Removing the leds and going back to mh has also helped growth and coloration. This is probably on me and not the lights though. I just couldn't leave those led settings alone;)

And making sure everything is well fed is always good.

 

[hart24601]

Feed feed feed. Plenty of research out there showing growth from even SPS when fed food that is a proper size. Just make sure water quality doesn't go down.

After that higher pH/alk and flow.

 

[Scorpius]

Stability. Keep nitrates and phosphates detectable at all cost. Have more flow than you need cause you'll need it down the road. Set your lights up and leave them alone.


Realize this is a hobby of years of blood, sweat, and tears

 

[ZoWhat]

my trick to feeding coral is to liquify all my chosen ingredients using a blender. turn off sump/skimmer but leave in tank PHs on. feed about 4-6ozs where tank is cloudy. have 1 PH churning the surface to oxygenate the water so the fishies dont suffocate. let cloudy water go on for 4hrs. at the end of 4hrs turn skimmer/sump back on and skim the heck out of the cloudy water.

it's all about presenting a lot of liquified food for 4hrs and then quickly removing it by skimming.

lots of growth

 

[MTBake]

my trick to feeding coral is to liquify all my chosen ingredients using a blender. turn off sump/skimmer but leave in tank PHs on. feed about 4-6ozs where tank is cloudy. have 1 PH churning the surface to oxygenate the water so the fishies dont suffocate. let cloudy water go on for 4hrs. at the end of 4hrs turn skimmer/sump back on and skim the heck out of the cloudy water.

it's all about presenting a lot of liquified food for 4hrs and then quickly removing it by skimming.

lots of growth

I've been thinking of blending my foods as well. Thinking it would make it easier for the inverts to uptake the nutrients. What ingredients do you use to feed with?

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Man o man, that's a nice hand. Nice color. Well manicured. Un blemished & good even growth.
What do you feed it?

:D

 

[k5reef]

how about in a frag tank? where there is minimal rock more on bio media, will SPS grow as fast as in a reef tank?

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Man o man, that's a nice hand. Nice color. Well manicured. Un blemished & good even growth.
What do you feed it?

:D

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Flow
Consistent Alk
Metal halide lighting.

you can play with your LED lunar cycle blah blah blah all you want, halides grow sps like nothing else.

 

[RussiReef]

Removed filter socks,added chloramine filter,start feeding yeast.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Removed filter socks,added chloramine filter,start feeding yeast.

yeast ???

 

[RussiReef]

yeast ???

Yes,that what I feed my corals.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

Yes,that what I feed my corals.

why do you choose to feed them microscopic fungus ? over other typical coral foods

 

[RussiReef]

why do you choose to feed them microscopic fungus ? over other typical coral foods

I am not a scientist nor have done any research on this, but a very knowledgeable reefer has told me that he has been feeding his corals with this for decades. I have followed his advice, with great success.

All I know, this product does not raise my nitrates, comparing with other coral food.

 

[Scrubber_steve]

I am not a scientist nor have done any research on this, but a very knowledgeable reefer has told me that he has been feeding his corals with this for decades. I have followed his advice, with great success.

All I know, this product does not raise my nitrates, comparing with other coral food.

Very interesting
So is yeast all you feed the corals? How much?
what food do you feed your fish, & do they eat the yeast?

 

[RussiReef]

Very interesting
So is yeast all you feed the corals? How much?
what food do you feed your fish, & do they eat the yeast?

Yes, that’s all I feed my corals ( not counting the fish poop ) . Considering heavy bio load, I give 3 pinches of yeast every other day.
I feed my fish with the myces shrimp and dry pellets. My fish also like to eat yeast.