ZERO coral growth .. is it just me?

[eskymick]

I am experience ZERO growth in my reef aquarium. My SPS and LPS corals look awesome and healthy but they have not grown even the smallest amount since I purchased them.

Example 1:
11 months ago a purchased a 2" Hydnophora frag from a LFS. It's still the exact same size as it was at purchase. It has not even begun to encrust the rock it's mounted on. That being said, it's the most vivid neon green color I have seen on a Hydnophora. Are they THAT slow growing that it's imperceptible in nearly a year?

Example 2:
In August I purchased a softball sized colony of yellow Porites. It has not grown at all. When I placed it in the tank I broke off a tip of one of it's fingers. Even that "wound" has not encrusted over. However, just like the Hydnophora, it's the most vivid color of Porites I have yet to see.

Example 3:
I have a very small amount of coraline algae in my tank. That little bit formed last summer, but it has not spread at all. There is absolutely no coraline on my tank walls.

I have a moderate number of fish and I feed moderately. I skim wet with a Euro-Reef RS135, and I run activated carbon and Phosban. I have 3 - 250w MH lamps lighting the tank 10 hours a day and I have about 80x water flow in the 125 gallon tank. Here are my water params:

Temp 79 - 80F
SG 1.026
NO3 0
PO4 0
Alk 9dKH (maintained with Randy's 2-part)
Ca 410 (maintained with Randy's 2-part)
Mg 1400

The tank uses calcium (I add 60ml per day), but I have no idea what's taking it up.

Does anyone else experience this? Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something? Or is just "one of those things"?

[dc_909]

I think that sometimes too, but when I look back at the progressive pics I take, I can see the growth then.

Did you take pics?

[kappaknight]

Why are you running phosban? Just because? Do you have a full tank shot of your tank?

[eskymick]

Even though my PO4 has always tested at "0", I just this week decided to run Phosban because I was getting some nuisance algae.

I'll see if I cant get a decent photo posted tomorrow.

[jdieck]

All parameters seem right, which salt are you using and how often and how much the water changes?
You may try small additions of Strontium if your water changes are not often enough as trace elements may be low.
Also by your description of the coloration that means the corals are low in zooxanthelae meaning they might not be getting enough feeding. The best feed for corals comes from fish (yes, fish poo) you may want to compensate with some additional feed supplements if you do not want to increase the fish population. Note that as the feeding increases and the zoo catches up on the corals the colors will fade a bit covered by the zoo but you will insure your corals are not starving or on the verge of it.