KonradTO
Valuable Member
Hi all,
I had a 32g tank (+15g sump) since August last years - about 10 months - and I had different problems along the way. Low nutrients and dino first, high nutrients and GHA later, many frags died, clownfish died for some bacterial infection, and now that I can control better GHA and I have good nutrient levels (2-3ppm NO3, 0.04 ppm PO4) I had my ATO system failing twice in a month, with this last time causing a stylo to die and damaged a pocillopora frag.
The only frag which survived and looks ok since the beginning is a people-eater red zoa colony, made of 7 polyps. Still I have seen no growth since then, they look ok most of the time, are open but they do not spread. I also had few frags of palythoa (I think they are called nuclear green something) and a duncan for a month and they are well open and eating but do not spread.
Is this normal considering what I mentioned above, and they just need few months of stability, or for such corals it is unusual to not spread?
As far as I know they should grow like weeds..
I did an ICP test recently and the only values that were a bit off are: a bit of copper caused by my RODI system (2ug, apparently not enough to cause issues), high silica (400ug/l) and tiny bit low iodine (which I understand it should be replaced anyway during WC).
Nitrates hover between 5 and 2ppm, when they get lower I dose because I fear to boost GHA with increased feeding.
I feed corals 2-3 times a week a mix of different things (frozen, powder, pellet) mainly from the brand Microbelift, something which is quite common here in EU), and fish every day 1/4 of mysis/brine cube. I keep Ca, Mg and Alk quite constant with a doser, with the exception of when I had the ato failing and everything dropped quickly.
In terms of light and flow I am still trying to find my spot, but I would say I keep light on the low end (viparspectra without lenses kept at low settings) and flow is normal, no crazy swoosh but noticeable movement. I have been told that they are stretching for light a bit, but when I moved them higher in the rockscape the size of the head shrinked but the "stem" remained elongated and they looked p***d off. Maybe I moved them too high too fast?
Is there anything obviously wrong I do?
I had a 32g tank (+15g sump) since August last years - about 10 months - and I had different problems along the way. Low nutrients and dino first, high nutrients and GHA later, many frags died, clownfish died for some bacterial infection, and now that I can control better GHA and I have good nutrient levels (2-3ppm NO3, 0.04 ppm PO4) I had my ATO system failing twice in a month, with this last time causing a stylo to die and damaged a pocillopora frag.
The only frag which survived and looks ok since the beginning is a people-eater red zoa colony, made of 7 polyps. Still I have seen no growth since then, they look ok most of the time, are open but they do not spread. I also had few frags of palythoa (I think they are called nuclear green something) and a duncan for a month and they are well open and eating but do not spread.
Is this normal considering what I mentioned above, and they just need few months of stability, or for such corals it is unusual to not spread?
As far as I know they should grow like weeds..
I did an ICP test recently and the only values that were a bit off are: a bit of copper caused by my RODI system (2ug, apparently not enough to cause issues), high silica (400ug/l) and tiny bit low iodine (which I understand it should be replaced anyway during WC).
Nitrates hover between 5 and 2ppm, when they get lower I dose because I fear to boost GHA with increased feeding.
I feed corals 2-3 times a week a mix of different things (frozen, powder, pellet) mainly from the brand Microbelift, something which is quite common here in EU), and fish every day 1/4 of mysis/brine cube. I keep Ca, Mg and Alk quite constant with a doser, with the exception of when I had the ato failing and everything dropped quickly.
In terms of light and flow I am still trying to find my spot, but I would say I keep light on the low end (viparspectra without lenses kept at low settings) and flow is normal, no crazy swoosh but noticeable movement. I have been told that they are stretching for light a bit, but when I moved them higher in the rockscape the size of the head shrinked but the "stem" remained elongated and they looked p***d off. Maybe I moved them too high too fast?
Is there anything obviously wrong I do?
