Sps not growing as quick as they should

RalphTech

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I have a meter. One probe to ground and the other in the display water?
 

drawman

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So I changed my lighting around to have 6 hours of light at 14k and now the sps is growing like crazy! Not sure if just the lighting change made the difference or if something else happened in the tank but this is the most growth I've seen in a long time
Glad to hear it! So do you have long ramp ups and down or are you pretty much at 6 hours only?
 

billwill

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How and why are your phosphates and nitrates so low? That doesn’t make sense unless you’re running uln system. Are you?
 

Enigma84

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I appreciate somebody may have already said it, but I was striving for ultra low nitrates and phosphates for 3 years and seeing either next to now growth or tissue necrosis. If your gonna keep levels that low, you need to feed heavy. High in, high out. My real success came when I tried to match red seas accelerated growth program. I experimented with higher phosphate and feeding lots. Personally, my growth and colour was best at 0.15ppm phos, 5-10ppm nitrate. Temperature slightly elevated at 26.5 degree c, and pH maintained at 8.4 using co2 scrubber and algae scrubber. My calc and all consumption was through the roof. Whilst every tank is different, I would say in order to get good growth on low nutrients, you need to feed heavy, or raise your nutrients and feed a bit less.
Good luck
 
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Milldozer

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Glad to hear it! So do you have long ramp ups and down or are you pretty much at 6 hours only?
My photo period is from 9 to 9. With 6 hours of 14k in the middle and the rest is ab+ with radions
 
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Milldozer

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How and why are your phosphates and nitrates so low? That doesn’t make sense unless you’re running uln system. Are you?
I don't do anything to lower my phos or my nitrates, I actually dose both to maintain higher than 0 ppm
 

sgrosenb

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@Milldozer Reviving this thread to check in on progress. Are you still seeing strong growth? Do you mainly attribute it to the lighting? I have an extremely similar setup to you and I also have radions. I have my lighting set to SPS AB+, and have similar parameters to yours (my NO3 is ~5 and PO4 is ~.03-.08), but I have had nearly ZERO growth in my corals for about 6 months. It's actually quite amazing - the poly extension is fantastic, color is good, but growth is literally ZERO. Tank has been up for 2 years, but I started with 100% dry rock so about 6 months ago I switched it all out for live rock. I'm trying to figure out how to get my corals to actually grow.
 
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Milldozer

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@Milldozer Reviving this thread to check in on progress. Are you still seeing strong growth? Do you mainly attribute it to the lighting? I have an extremely similar setup to you and I also have radions. I have my lighting set to SPS AB+, and have similar parameters to yours (my NO3 is ~5 and PO4 is ~.03-.08), but I have had nearly ZERO growth in my corals for about 6 months. It's actually quite amazing - the poly extension is fantastic, color is good, but growth is literally ZERO. Tank has been up for 2 years, but I started with 100% dry rock so about 6 months ago I switched it all out for live rock. I'm trying to figure out how to get my corals to actually grow.
The only thing I really changed was lighting. I think I may have had a underlying problem some where else but I'm not certain. I was battling Dino's off and on for a little bit but at the time of slow growth I had not had Dino's in months. Adding the 14k lighting to my schedule seemed some how atleast "wake up" the corals and get them growing a very little.
It's been months since I made that change and my corals have since exploded with growth but I can not for sure say it was lighting or not but it would be worth a try. I actually found some corals looked better under the 14k lighting.
Oh the only other thing I did was dose a very low down of trace elements.
Hopefully this helps you out and your corals start to grow again.
 

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