Serious question - how DO you grow LPS?

[Coral Kai]

Hi,

I've read almost every post here and there's a lot of advice but I hate not seeing people's results as well.... I'm going to be honest with my post....

I don't dose anything anymore.... I use carbon if I remember to buy it.... I use a filter sock but only one out of the two that I could use and a skimmer...

For me I think the key has been the basic bio load.... I love my tangs and I think that helps the lps

Current fish list

X-large Salfin tang
Pair Chocolate tangs
Kole Eye tang
Caribbean Blue Tang
Six line wrasse
Tassel File fish
Pair Fox faces

In the picture below you can see an almost 24" wide Bi-colour hammer that has grown from a dozen heads, a bubble Coral which is now the size of a basket ball when inflated, half dozen Tri colour BTA's and my monster Heliofungia top left... They are directly fed twice a week using a pellet food.. small LPs pellets and larger Nem pellets... the rest of the food is for the fish twice a day with a flake mixture and 2 cubes of frozen mix once a day...

Now for the honesty.... I don't test I have no idea of the parameters and although I know I have three Gen2pro Radions running the Coral Labs LPS schedule at 70% peak I have no idea what the par is.... and I use the return and a single Mp40qd on my Redsea Reefer 525xl

I do monthly water changes of about 100ltrs....

But what I do every day is make time for tank watching.... I've come to know when Coral types aren't happy I can even judge within a day or two when my bta's will split they have gone from two to six now...

You can see my Acans,blastos,zoas in this picture but they are thriving as well...

What's my point you might be thinking by now.... We'll it's this.... Dosing, lighting,flow,feeding,bio-load,water changes,expensive equipment,testing units.... Take the time to understand your tank use all of the above in moderation to help prove your conclusions but give your tank the time it needs and understand it.... You can spend $$$$$$$ on crap just because.... and for no real reason...

I am prepared to get a bashing for being so relaxed and dismissive of spending rather wasting money on the rest of the crap... however my tank speaks for itself...

Good Luck I hope you see some growth soon...

How high is ur light above the water

 

[Captain coral]

I'm sure am doing things wrong hence the thread.

How do you folks grow LPSs the likes of Torch, Frogspawn, Hammer etc?

All my parameters are checked, do I just need TIME of the essence i.e. Patience? In saying this, I've waited far too long (3 years) without any noticeable growth.

Don't get me wrong, they look inflated and happy but just not growing.

Params (kept in check with Kamoer dosing pump):
Ca 450
Alk 9
Mg 1500
Salinity 1.026
Temp 80
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20

All *params* checked using Salifert.

Broadcast feeds of reef roids, pellets & frozen brine shrimp for the fishes.

So they say hammer, torch, frogspawn can take bigger piece of shrimp, however never had I seen in my tank they ever hols to that piece of shrimp and eat it, never! Their mouth is relatively small hence food normally get ejected. By small shrimp, it's like 0.2 inch piece.

I can see food gets eaten by Elegance, Scolly and the likes of BTA, hence I think they can grow easier. I mean seeing is believing.

What am I doing wrong?

Perhaps a longer photo period would help rather than higher intensity. Natural reefs occur only in areas that get 13.5 hours light per day minimum.