Fat Head Dendro growth, or lack thereof?

[JoJosReef]

Hi NPS people!

I've had this dendro since January. It's been moved around a bit, but I think it has a nice position now underneath a monti cap, so it gets some shade and stays open most of the day, doing its open/close thing, but staying up much more than when it was in the direct light.

But I am wondering if these are slow growers or if mine is simply not getting enough to eat. I target feed it 4-5 times per week with mysis + TDO pellets. And it gets the flowthrough of my automated liquid feeding system that adds a Reef Nutrition mixture 5 times per day (ROE + Oyster Feast + Pac Pods + Arcti Pods + Roti Feast + Phyto Feast), including an 8pm feeding. Here she is:

One head. Same as in January. Looking like this almost all the time.

Parameters:
ALK: 7.7-8
NO3: near 0 -- I think there is very high consumption in my tank, because things are growing fast and I feed a LOT, so yes, dosing nitrates to keep them above zero, but otherwise not seeing ill effects yet.
PO4: ~0.1-0.15 (recent addition of PhosGuard has this a moving target)
Other elements all controlled by All For Reef dosed 5x per day.


Anyone with experience on getting these guys to grow happily? Thanks!

 

[blaxsun]

Looks really healthy from what I can see.

 

[JoJosReef]

Looks really healthy from what I can see.

It does seem fine. Just that it seems exactly the same as it did 8 months ago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[blaxsun]

It does seem fine. Just that it seems exactly the same as it did 8 months ago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On the plus side - it looks *exactly* as it did 8 months ago (ie: not dead). lol

 

[JoJosReef]

On the plus side - it looks *exactly* as it did 8 months ago (ie: not dead). lol

Haha, agreed! Maybe not doing something right, but perhaps not doing something wrong! Glass half full (although technically the glass is always full).

 

[Tozame]

Hi NPS people!

I've had this dendro since January. It's been moved around a bit, but I think it has a nice position now underneath a monti cap, so it gets some shade and stays open most of the day, doing its open/close thing, but staying up much more than when it was in the direct light.

But I am wondering if these are slow growers or if mine is simply not getting enough to eat. I target feed it 4-5 times per week with mysis + TDO pellets. And it gets the flowthrough of my automated liquid feeding system that adds a Reef Nutrition mixture 5 times per day (ROE + Oyster Feast + Pac Pods + Arcti Pods + Roti Feast + Phyto Feast), including an 8pm feeding. Here she is:

One head. Same as in January. Looking like this almost all the time.

Parameters:
ALK: 7.7-8
NO3: near 0 -- I think there is very high consumption in my tank, because things are growing fast and I feed a LOT, so yes, dosing nitrates to keep them above zero, but otherwise not seeing ill effects yet.
PO4: ~0.1-0.15 (recent addition of PhosGuard has this a moving target)
Other elements all controlled by All For Reef dosed 5x per day.


Anyone with experience on getting these guys to grow happily? Thanks!

I know this post was months ago but I figured I’d reply. 12 years ago my mother got one with 3 heads and I swear it had a new head every week. It had 27 heads on it before her tank crashed. She only fed it every other day. It was trained to be out during the day on the sand bed in low flow. I got a single head a few months back and I got no new growth what so ever! I feed mine every other day and it’s also trained to be out during the day. One of my favourite corals and yet it hates me.

 

[JoJosReef]

I know this post was months ago but I figured I’d reply. 12 years ago my mother got one with 3 heads and I swear it had a new head every week. It had 27 heads on it before her tank crashed. She only fed it every other day. It was trained to be out during the day on the sand bed in low flow. I got a single head a few months back and I got no new growth what so ever! I feed mine every other day and it’s also trained to be out during the day. One of my favourite corals and yet it hates me.

Same here, almost a year now, and still one head. Mine is sitting beneath a monti cap, so shaded and out all day long. Not looking bad by any stretch, but just not splitting!