Corals growing very slowly

[teethdoctor23]

Hello all, my tank is approaching the 1 year mark and things are maturing very nicely. However my corals seem to be growing very slowly. Pictures below of my tank and lighting spectrum, using AI Hydra 26 on my Redsea Emax 170. Running mostly blues with low levels of white light for ~14hours. I also run a Refugium with chaeto with a light schedule opposite to my DT.

Parameters to start:
temp: 77-78
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 9
Calcium: 435
Magnesium: 1355
Nitrates: 28
Phos: .08
pH: 7.9
Dosing trace elements once a week.

I have definitely seen growth. SPS starting to encrust their plugs, torches splitting, zoas forming new polyps. However it seems to just be at an extremely slow rate. You hear people saying their torch went from 2 heads to 8 in several months, whereas my torches have taken months to complete a single split. I have great polyp extension, just failing to see the “growing like weeds” aspect of any coral in my tank.

The 3 aspects of my tank that I believe may be contributing:
-Low pH affecting calcification
-Nutrients too high? But my corals all have excellent PE and coloration at the moment
-lighting spectrum/lighting schedule

just looking for opinions, every tank and every reefer is different and has success with differently methods/ideology. I’ll include some pictures before for reference, including my tank, the lighting spectrum, and a digitata that started encrusting over the last few months. The last possible thought here, is that everything is going well and I’m over analyzing and just need some patience. Thanks in advance everybody.

 

[GatorGreg]

Do you feed your corals? Like target feeding not broadcast. I’m talking shut pumps down and squirt the food right onto their polyps and let food sit for at least 30 mins.

that’s what I do and I’m seeing fantastic growth on Duncan’s and acans.

 

[teethdoctor23]

Do you feed your corals? Like target feeding not broadcast. I’m talking shut pumps down and squirt the food right onto their polyps and let food sit for at least 30 mins.

that’s what I do and I’m seeing fantastic growth on Duncan’s and acans.

Only my Acantho and cynarina honestly, otherwise I just broadcast acropower and AB+. Do you recommend feeding mysis directly?

 

[I never finish anythi]

When you last do an icp?

 

[teethdoctor23]

When you last do an icp?

Last month, only thing out of whack was iron, which I was dosing with manganese for my Goniopora. I’ve since cut back.

 

[Stephen8169301]

All tanks are different mine tank is about to hit a year I’m just starting to see more growth now the mature tour tank the more growth you now over time should start seeing it slowly starting also with spot feeding mysis

 

[teethdoctor23]

All tanks are different mine tank is about to hit a year I’m just starting to see more growth now the mature tour tank the more growth you now over time should start seeing it slowly starting also with spot feeding mysis

I hope so, there’s a couple Acro frags I’ve had for months with great polyp extension that haven’t done anything

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

This is anecdotal, but in my experience every corals i have grows quicker when i use Kalk

 

[teethdoctor23]

This is anecdotal, but in my experience every corals i have grows quicker when i use Kalk

I’ve been tempted, how do you recommend dosing Kalk?

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I’ve been tempted, how do you recommend dosing Kalk?

I start low and increase dosage until its equilibrium. I use the Versa dosing pump for kalk.

In my Fusion 15 (15 gallons) all softies tank. I dose 45ml of kalk daily. Alk is at 8.5 dkh constant. The coraline is consuming the alk and cal

In my mixed reef Red Sea 200XL i dose 400ml of kalk daily

 

[unchaotic]

How regularly do you test alkalinity?

When my office tank started having good growth and coloration I'd get excited and sit back thinking things were good. Then that increased growth would start comsuming more alk until it got low enough to slow down the growth. Then I'd dose extra to bring it back up but usually end up going the opposite direction because the growth had slowed. It was a nasty cycle I hope I'm finally getting past.

Just my experience, ymmv.

 

[teethdoctor23]

How regularly do you test alkalinity?

When my office tank started having good growth and coloration I'd get excited and sit back thinking things were good. Then that increased growth would start comsuming more alk until it got low enough to slow down the growth. Then I'd dose extra to bring it back up but usually end up going the opposite direction because the growth had slowed. It was a nasty cycle I hope I'm finally getting past.

Just my experience, ymmv.

About 3-4 times a week, I’m pretty obsessed with it because the last thing I want is a swing when I’m trying to get corals to grow. Stays around 8.8-9 at all times with my dosing regimen