GARF bonsai acropora not growing

[KMHREEFER]

I’ve added a small GARF bonsai Acro frag to my 75 gallon mixed reef about 9 months ago and other than a little encrusting on the rock around it, has not grown much at all. It has changed from brown after shipping to a nice dark blue with neon green polyps almost always extended. Lighting, flow and water parameters are all within acceptable ranges, just not seeing a lot of growth as reported by other reefers. I can never get enough information so any and all advice and opinions are greatly appreciated. Parameters are as follows as of last weeks testing with Hanna checkers and test kits.

Temp: 77-78 degrees
SG: 1.026
Calcium: 440
Magnesium: 1300
Alkalinity: 8
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: .055
Ph: 8.13
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0

75 gallon display, 55 gallon sump w/ refugium and reef octopus skimmer, 2-16 inch 165w SB reef light LEDs, 2 current USA 2100gph wave pumps, a diy algae scrubber, TLF dual reactors with carbon and gfo and auto dosing of calcium, magnesium and alkalinity.

 

[KMHREEFER]

This is what it looked like when I first acclimated it to the tank.

This is what it looks like now.

 

[wesman42]

My bonsai grows incredibly slow also. I'd say that's grown quite a bit for a bonsai [emoji1787]

 

[jda]

They usually take a while to encrust a bit and then take off later on. They will not usually start to branch out until they have laid quite a base. If the color is good, then I would not sweat this.

 

[ShadowR55]

Try fragging the tip to encourage more growth, you should see more branches shooting out. I find that fragging does indeed encourage faster growth on the rest of the colony that was fragged, not necessarily on the new piece that was fragged off though.

 

[YumaMan]

It looks like its on it's way. Good color and the base is growing as it should. Another 6 months and I think you'll be proud of your GARF Bonsai.

 

[KMHREEFER]

Thank you for the replies, I’m hoping it starts to branch out a bit soon. Went from a 4 ATI bulb T5 HO fixture with led accent light strips to the SB reef lights and have seen a dramatic change in color on most of my corals, especially the bonsai. Have to say though that some of my lps corals very quickly bleached and went downhill after the change. Tried to relocate to more shaded areas, some recovered nicely and some didn’t make it.

 

[Codym808]

Yep as the other said. Just have to let it grow, mines pretty much looked exactly like yours. Arrived ugly brown, encrusted forever, I did cut the top off and it grew into a more natural looking colony. Just my experience with the bonsai.

 

[Blackice615]

I have two different frags from two different places one is def a slow grower. One took off after I switched my lighting to radions

 

[KMHREEFER]

I have an old 29 gallon biocube I plan to set up as a small frag tank in the near future. May have to try fragging off the tip as suggested and see what happens and add the other piece to the biocube when it’s set up to grow out. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Mandarin Lovejoy]

How is it doing now? Any updated pics?