LPS Growth. Help

[jerwin]

Hi.

I have been banging my head trying to figure out why my LPS, Mushroom and Zoas are not growing better. They are all out and healthy looking every day. This would include a number of Mushrooms and different Zoas, and Frogspawn, Bubble, and Elegance coral. Example. My bubble coral died back to just one little bubble. It has come back and it is now like 25 bubbles but is has not made any new calcuim base for it to expand on(time frame 10 months). It is still attached to the one little spot where the one original bubble was. Have had a Zoa for over 8 months and it has not put off any new babies but opens up every day really nice.

Information about the tank.

75G with LEDs 24 CW and 24 RB.
RB on from 8:30am - 10:30 with a 2 hour ramp in morning and evening
CW on from 9:30 - 8:30 with a 2 hour ramp in the morning and evening

PH 8.15
Cal 420
Temp 77
Mag 1350
N02 = 0
No3 =0
PH = .47
KH = 6 dKH (This is low so I will need to raise it to between 8-12 and see what happens)

Controller is an Netune Apex

Filtration
A filter sock -> Bio Balls (50) -> Live Rock(15pounds)

Skimmer
Red Sea C-Skim 1800 Protein Skimmer

water Changes
25 Gal every (2-3 weeks depending on my job)

Feeding
Durning the week.
2 pinches of Thera A+ in the morning and evening 2 pinches at 5pm and then brine shrimp and bloodworms at 9 with the Cyclop-Eeze and Coral Frenzy
Weekend
Same as above but then I also do 2 pinches at around noon.

Dosing
Cal 7.7ml 10:08-10:015AM and 10:08-10:15PM
Alk 7.7ml 9:08-9:15AM and 9:08-9:15PM

I am thinking about adding 2 T5 Fiji Purple bulbs to help with the color spectrum.
I feed the LPS and zoas with Brine shrimp and blood worms and Cyclop-Eeze and Coral Frenzy.

I do have a number of fish in the tank from 3 Tangs (purlpe regal naso), 5 Anthesis, 2 Clown, 1 Dragonnet, 1 Royal Gramma,1 Blenny, 6 line wrasse, 5 Chromis.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

PH Reading for the last 4 nights and days. (Big spike down is when I did a long water change on the tank)

Full Tank

Bubble Coral

Zoas

 

[brannock_16]

What about your alkalinity?

What kind of filtration do you have on the tank?

And what is your fish list for the 75 Gallon tank?

 

[fab1971]

how much do you feed? skimmer? water changes? dosing?

 

[Troylee]

What's your alk like someone mentioned???? I found it to be the most important thing in any reef tank sticks or not.... And holding it stable is key..... Alk swings cause all sorts of problems.... Also if your using a refractometer re calibrate it and check your salinity again mine was off one time and I had similar problems to what your describing.....

 

[fab1971]

Everything looks fine to me. Has everything been stable? No swings? Flow? I'm stumped. Only other thing I can think of is the lighting like you first mentioned. I'm not familiar with leds but I've seen some tanks that get great growth from their fixtures. Good luck, I hope you find the answer.

 

[NeveroddoreveN]

The lps doesn't look bleached so your nutrient/lighting levels are probably ok. You're growing something calcareous if youre having to add the 2part daily; so if you don't have any, try getting some near-invasive cheap sps (red cap?) and see if it grows. If it does, you may just have anal lps. My bubble receded to, and the others you listed aren't the most super growers anyways.

What's your alk?

Have you tested you ph in the middle of the night? Even when sleeping, it seems like that many fish could push the o2 saturation down/ make co2. That might be completely stupid but its a thought.

 

[River_Styx]

I tend to find actually target feedng my LPS helps more than putting in food for the whole tank.

 

[NeveroddoreveN]

What's your alk?

Have you tested you ph in the middle of the night? Even when sleeping, it seems like that many fish could push the o2 saturation down/ make co2. That might be completely stupid but its a thought.

KH = 6 dKH (This is low so I will need to raise it to between 8-12 and see what happens)...

PH Reading for the last 4 nights and days. (Big spike down is when I did a long water change on the tank)

Wow. That rocks. I need to get a controller. Off topic to the thread, but how do you like yours overall?






I think you'll see a lot better results with the raised alk. In The Reef Aquarium Vol. 3 (page 207), it gives a chart of a balanced ratio of calcium/alkalinity. For 425ppm of Ca it gives 9.1. Assuming the table is linear, you should have 8.99 dkh if you're at 420 Ca. I don't know how to calculate aragonite saturation, but I'd guess that would at least bring it up to normal SW (3).

But, as said, the LPS you mentioned are not weeds; it seems like you're much more apt to see aquacultured SPS frags (let alone show colonies) than large-septa LPS.