What Is the Most Likely Reason for Poor SPS Coral Growth? My corals aren't growing... See Pictures

anthonygf

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Okay thanks for all of the info. Sounds like params, etc would be helpful. Here they are:

Tank: 165g 5x2x2 with sump & fuge
Alk: 8.6dKH like clock work - tested with Trident and confirm with Hanna Alk Test. BUT - Red Sea, LaMotte, and GHL KH Director all consistently read about 1.0 dKH lower than that - ~7.6 dKH
Ca: 450 (steady)
Mg: 1360 (steady)
NO3: 5-8ppm
PO4: 0.03-0.10
Fish: roughly 15 which I feed 3x daily pellets and frozen mysis shrimp
pH: Reads 8.0-8.3 like clockwork each day, but I have reason to believe the probe is off (even though I've calibrated many times) and might be reading higher than it actually is
Lighting: T5/LED Combo:
  • 4x Radion XR15 G4 Pros with Diffusers on SPS AB+ from 10am-6pm 85% about 9inch from surface
    • I also run them at <10% on only the Royal Blue (100%) and Blue (80%) spectrum from 5am - 10am and 6pm-10pm. Not sure if this could possibly impact anything?
  • 4x T5 (2 BluePlus, 2 CoralPlus) on 10:30am-4:30pm
Flow: 2x Maxpect Gyre 250's on anywhere from 30-80% depending on time of day
I also run a Protein Skimmer 24/7 and dose 2-part. I dose small amounts of NO3 to keep it around 5ppm. Feed Reef Roids every once in a while, but PO4 has no issue stating in range of 0.03-0.10.

ICP Test Results recently show good levels all around:
I see no one has anything to say about the high tin level in the ATI results. Is that not a problem? I am still new to this 4-5 years now and still have much to learn. In my system the acros grow so fast that my hermits would climb up the branches and break pieces off, had to take most of my crabs to my LFS. Now I have many frags, lol. Would iodine and manganese help with growth? I see those elements are low.
 

jda

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Some popular salts have had high levels of tin for years. While it does stand out in a test, there appears to be no real damage from it. It has been opined many times over that there is no set point for how much tin is a problem... only a comparison to NSW, which may or may not be the natural cutoff for issues with individual elements (usually not).
 

anthonygf

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Some popular salts have had high levels of tin for years. While it does stand out in a test, there appears to be no real damage from it. It has been opined many times over that there is no set point for how much tin is a problem... only a comparison to NSW, which may or may not be the natural cutoff for issues with individual elements (usually not).
Thank you for the quick response.
 

T-J

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I think some corals are just "stubborn", or need time to adjust to their new surroundings.
I had a small 3/4" frag in my tank for months. It did nothing. NOTHING! All other SPS were growing just fine. Tank was stable, no significant changes.
Then, one day, I noticed that the "never growing frag" started to grow. It now grows fast enough where I can regularly see the difference. It's also colored up to an amazing glowing green! BTW, if anyone can ID it, I'd be thankul!
IMG_8469.JPEG
IMG_9961.jpeg
IMG_9960.jpeg
 

Jeff Jarry reef

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IMO your coral looks happy and just keep what your doing and one day you see growth like crazy because some spa are slow growers.
I find that alot of mine base out first seams slow growing and bam there taking off. The only thing I would add if I was you is more flow IMO.
 

sunken3

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I think some corals are just "stubborn", or need time to adjust to their new surroundings.
I had a small 3/4" frag in my tank for months. It did nothing. NOTHING! All other SPS were growing just fine. Tank was stable, no significant changes.
Then, one day, I noticed that the "never growing frag" started to grow. It now grows fast enough where I can regularly see the difference. It's also colored up to an amazing glowing green! BTW, if anyone can ID it, I'd be thankul!
IMG_8469.JPEG
IMG_9961.jpeg
IMG_9960.jpeg
agreed.. some corals are deep thinkers... they like to scheme and plan... give them time.
 

BradB

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1) alk
2)flow
3)light
4)low phosphates
5)Ca
6)temperature

It can take time for a frag to adjust and start growing. I wouldn't worry if everything is growing and looks healthy.
 
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