Better coral growth?

[Schraufabagel]

Most of my corals are flourishing and doing fantastic. However, I have a few that are struggling or have retracted over the past month. Namely: Platygyra, Candy Cane, Chalice. But the others in that list have just closed some of the polyps or the new grown turned white and died off. For example, the Platygyra is colored amazing and is happy, but recently it's new growth over the rock died. I have around 20 corals in total. So it's just odd to me that these specific ones wouldn't be doing so hot. I had 2 acans that died, but that's because my anthelia smothered them. Also, my lobophyllia hasn't seen any new growth since I got it several months ago, but it's open and colorful.

For comparison, by birdsnest is flourishing and growing faster than some of my LPS. I do water changes every week, so nutrients should be fine.

Does anyone dose anything to help with coral growth or frag recovery?

 

[Brymac1]

What are your water parameters? LPS corals generally prefer water with some nitrate and phosphate.

 

[Just a Wrasse.]

Parameters, photos?

 

[MaxTremors]

Most of my corals are flourishing and doing fantastic. However, I have a few that are struggling or have retracted over the past month. Namely: Platygyra, Candy Cane, Chalice. But the others in that list have just closed some of the polyps or the new grown turned white and died off. For example, the Platygyra is colored amazing and is happy, but recently it's new growth over the rock died. I have around 20 corals in total. So it's just odd to me that these specific ones wouldn't be doing so hot. I had 2 acans that died, but that's because my anthelia smothered them. Also, my lobophyllia hasn't seen any new growth since I got it several months ago, but it's open and colorful.

For comparison, by birdsnest is flourishing and growing faster than some of my LPS. I do water changes every week, so nutrients should be fine.

Does anyone dose anything to help with coral growth or frag recovery?

Weekly water changes does not ensure that ‘nutrients should be fine’. Need specific parameters to help.

 

[imendoza26]

do you have a little amount of phosphates and nitrates brother?? if not you should get some aquavitro fuel, that helps a lot!! i need specific perameters to tell you more bro.

 

[Schraufabagel]

I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt. Parameters from yesterday are below
Alk: 11.2
Ca: 425
Mg: 1335
NO3: 0.9
Phosphate: 0.12

I attached some photos. I currently am working through getting rid of bryopsis

 

[Schraufabagel]

Also for more background. I have a small refugium with chaeto. I dose ChaetoGro twice weekly

My AI Nero 3 is set to 1,200 gph. I also attached my lighting schedule for my AI Prime 16. It’s mounted at 12”

 

[imendoza26]

I use Red Sea Coral Pro salt. Parameters from yesterday are below
Alk: 11.2
Ca: 425
Mg: 1335
NO3: 0.9
Phosphate: 0.12

I'll take some photos and attach them

you should lower your alk bro but aside from that i see nothing wrong, you should get some aquavitro fuel bro, me and my father run a saltwater fish store so weird things like this happen all the time, but aquavitro and a good water change should help a little, but sometimes things just happen that cant be fixed.

 

[LiveFreeAndReef]

This is just the challenge of a mixed reef! We're putting corals with different requirements into a glass box, treating them like they should like the exact same things, and then getting upset when nature doesn't want to bend to our will ;Joyful

 

[MaxTremors]

Aquavitro Fuel is just an amino acid/carbohydrate/polyunsaturated fat supplement, similar to RedSea AB+, or Seachem Reef Complete, it’s not going to fix you nutrient issue. From what I can see, your nitrates and phosphates are out of balance, I would work on lowering your phosphates (0.03-0.08ppm) and raising your nitrates (3-10ppm). You don’t need to lower your alkalinity, but the issue with running it that high is that you don’t have a lot of wiggle room on the upper end, so if you accidentally overdose an Alk supplement, you could be out of range pretty easily. But if that’s where the salt you use mixes to, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I think your main issues are the nutrient imbalance and the bryopsis, until you get rid of the bryopsis you won’t know what your true nutrient level is. I would use some fluconazole for the bryopsis, just be prepared for a nutrient spike as it all dies.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Aquavitro Fuel is just an amino acid/carbohydrate/polyunsaturated fat supplement, similar to RedSea AB+, or Seachem Reef Complete, it’s not going to fix you nutrient issue. From what I can see, your nitrates and phosphates are out of balance, I would work on lowering your phosphates (0.03-0.08ppm) and raising your nitrates (3-10ppm). You don’t need to lower your alkalinity, but the issue with running it that high is that you don’t have a lot of wiggle room on the upper end, so if you accidentally overdose an Alk supplement, you could be out of range pretty easily. But if that’s where the salt you use mixes to, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I think your main issues are the nutrient imbalance and the bryopsis, until you get rid of the bryopsis you won’t know what your true nutrient level is. I would use some fluconazole for the bryopsis, just be prepared for a nutrient spike as it all dies.

Yeah, Red Sea Coral Pro salt mixes to 11.5 Alk for mixed reefs (1.024 salinity). I dose NeoNitro to bring up my nitrates to around 2 - 3 usually. I can try to keep that more consistent. As for phosphate, I've struggled with keeping that one level. I take a shot at the fluconazole

 

[MaxTremors]

Also for more background. I have a small refugium with chaeto. I dose ChaetoGro twice weekly

My AI Nero 3 is set to 1,200 gph. I also attached my lighting schedule for my AI Prime 16. It’s mounted at 12”

Your light settings are nearly identical to mine, lol.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Your light settings are nearly identical to mine, lol.

I played around with higher and lower for a while and this one has seemed to be the best for my happy corals

 

[mdb_talon]

Regarding growth in general the best thing i have found is feeding..a LOT. Whether that be feeding fish or coral it has made a huge difference for ke in recent years.

Obviously the flipside of that is needing to have high export of nutrients. I am a big believer in heavy in/heavy out to keep a constant supply of available nutrients while also keeping nutrient levels low. In your case i would actually try feeding more and get those nitrates up. If phosphates keep going up and get past a reasonable range you can use something like lanthium chloride or gfo if needed to knock them back down.

 

[Schraufabagel]

Aquavitro Fuel is just an amino acid/carbohydrate/polyunsaturated fat supplement, similar to RedSea AB+, or Seachem Reef Complete, it’s not going to fix you nutrient issue. From what I can see, your nitrates and phosphates are out of balance, I would work on lowering your phosphates (0.03-0.08ppm) and raising your nitrates (3-10ppm). You don’t need to lower your alkalinity, but the issue with running it that high is that you don’t have a lot of wiggle room on the upper end, so if you accidentally overdose an Alk supplement, you could be out of range pretty easily. But if that’s where the salt you use mixes to, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I think your main issues are the nutrient imbalance and the bryopsis, until you get rid of the bryopsis you won’t know what your true nutrient level is. I would use some fluconazole for the bryopsis, just be prepared for a nutrient spike as it all dies.

Also, it occurred to me, does fluconazole have any ill effects on shrimps, crabs, feather dusters, or anemones?

 

[MaxTremors]

Also, it occurred to me, does fluconazole have any ill effects on shrimps, crabs, feather dusters, or anemones?

Nope. I have been running for about a month and a half (for what I think is cladophora, it’s much more resistant than bryopsis, but it is slowly working), and I have shrimp, feather dusters, tons of corals, and three types of anemones and none of them have been affected whatsoever. I have heard reports of some SPS having issues, but none of mine has (I only have a birdsnest and a few montiporas though). I’ve also dosed on the high side and have used it longer than is generally prescribed. I went three weeks with no skimmer or water changes and have removed any carbon, after that I resumed weekly water changes and with each water change I redose the amount I’m taking out (there is roughly 20g of actual water in my tank, so with a 5g water change I redose 100mg or 20mg/gal). I also remove the skimmer cup for three days after each redosing. Still not running any carbon. The suspected cladophora still isn’t quite all the way gone, but my tank is looking the best it’s looked in a while and all my corals are all happy.

 

[mdb_talon]

For comparison, by birdsnest is flourishing and growing faster than some of my LPS. I do water changes every week, so nutrients should be fine.

This does not sound unreasonable to me. Birdsnest is generally very fast growing and in my experience much more accepting of low nutrients than LPS is.

I have found with LPS target feeding can make a huge difference. I did an experiment with target feeding. I have an 8ft frag tank that is divided in the middle (where my overflow is). Lights and poweheads are the same on each side and obviously all the same water.

I fragged an acan colony into single polyp frags. Put half on one side and half on the other in the same positions(so light and flow should be very similar). I target fed the frags on one side frequently(with my daily feeding and lps pellets 3x a week). On the other side i did no target feeding. The side i was target feeding had growth that was much faster than the other side. Most of those frags had a full ring of new polyps around the frag at the same time most of the frags on the other side had few or no new polyps.

My experiment may not have been controlled enough to survive a scientific peer review lol, but it was plenty to convince me of the benefits of target feeding(at least for acans and i believe most LPS)

 

[imendoza26]

Also, it occurred to me, does fluconazole have any ill effects on shrimps, crabs, feather dusters, or anemones?

no sir!! we use it on all out corals!! and nems