ADVICE: Little to No Growth

aujosh84 · 01/16/2020, 01:16 PM

We've had our reef set up for nearly a year now and we've had almost 0 growth in our corals. Tank is a 150 gallon cube (36 x 36 x 27) and I have 4 Kessil A360W-Es sitting about 6 inches from the water line. I've tried multiple configurations of the lighting schedule over the past several months but nothing seems to be working. At one point I was slowly ramping up but once I got to about 60% everything started bleaching and dying so I ramped it back down. All my parameters are spot on and doing daily 1% water changes but everything just refuses to grow (mix of LPS, SPS, and soft)...although they aren't dying either.

Currently the schedule looks like this:
2 hours: 5% color 5% intensity
4 hours: 25% color 20% intensity
4 hours: 30% color 50% intensity
2 hours: 25% color 20% intensity
2 hours: 5% color 5% intensity

Any thoughts on improvement?

Knew I should post this when I started thinking about changing out lights....

teddscau · 01/16/2020, 01:32 PM

We had the exact same problem with our corals. We NEVER had to dose our tank due to the fact that the corals weren't using up any of trace elements in the tank (magnesium, calcium, alkalinity, etc., never changed). Turns out the problem was that we didn't have any phosphates in our tank. Corals (stony, mainly) can't grow unless there's phosphates in the tank. Without phosphates, they won't use up any calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, etc., to build their skeletons, therefore you won't see any growth.

Are you having to dose your tank at all?

aujosh84 · 01/16/2020, 02:02 PM

Negative. Not dosing anything other than fish food.

mcgyvr · 01/16/2020, 03:09 PM

I agree that you could basically be "starving" them with a lack of nutrients..
Phosphate (and nitrate) are required by all marine life..

Just like your lawn too little and nothing but the weeds seem to grow.. Too much and you burn it out.. Just the right amount of fertilizer and your grass grows like crazy and becomes a lush green lawn..

What are your current nitrate and phosphate levels?
You may want to try to increase feedings to your fish to see if you can achieve decent nutrient levels..
Maybe discontinue GFO reactors if you are running those,etc...
Let those nutrient levels creep up..
1-3ppm of nitrate and .04-0.08ppm of phosphate seems to be a good level to shoot for for growth..
As your nutrient levels go up you can also sustain higher alkalinity/calcium levels and just supercharge that growth..

teddscau · 01/16/2020, 05:25 PM

What we had to do was actually buy a phosphate fertilizer from our LFS. Just add a few grains at first, since that stuff is potent! Ever since we added it to our tank, we've had to start dosing our tank, and the corals have actually been growing.

Jboone82590 · 01/16/2020, 08:58 PM

Maybe try not changing anything for about 6 months. The more you cha ge the less the corals like it.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

BrennMun · 01/20/2020, 09:17 PM

What does the bioload on your tank look like?

01/16/2020, 01:16 PM	#1
aujosh84 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Indialantic, FL Posts: 247	ADVICE: Little to No Growth We've had our reef set up for nearly a year now and we've had almost 0 growth in our corals. Tank is a 150 gallon cube (36 x 36 x 27) and I have 4 Kessil A360W-Es sitting about 6 inches from the water line. I've tried multiple configurations of the lighting schedule over the past several months but nothing seems to be working. At one point I was slowly ramping up but once I got to about 60% everything started bleaching and dying so I ramped it back down. All my parameters are spot on and doing daily 1% water changes but everything just refuses to grow (mix of LPS, SPS, and soft)...although they aren't dying either. Currently the schedule looks like this: 2 hours: 5% color 5% intensity 4 hours: 25% color 20% intensity 4 hours: 30% color 50% intensity 2 hours: 25% color 20% intensity 2 hours: 5% color 5% intensity Any thoughts on improvement? Knew I should post this when I started thinking about changing out lights.... __________________ wde Current Tank Info: 75g reef in the works

01/16/2020, 01:32 PM	#2
teddscau Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Canada Posts: 214	We had the exact same problem with our corals. We NEVER had to dose our tank due to the fact that the corals weren't using up any of trace elements in the tank (magnesium, calcium, alkalinity, etc., never changed). Turns out the problem was that we didn't have any phosphates in our tank. Corals (stony, mainly) can't grow unless there's phosphates in the tank. Without phosphates, they won't use up any calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, etc., to build their skeletons, therefore you won't see any growth. Are you having to dose your tank at all? __________________ Dotty the firefish, Delilah and Little Henry Ocellaris clownfish, Pixel (convict tang) and Darwin (blue tang), pyjama cardinalfish, Riku and Kenji the orchid and elongate dottybacks, and Jeremy (yello Current Tank Info: 160g reef tank with mushrooms, leathers, zoas, SPS corals, NPS corals, firefish, a school of pyjama cardinalfish, a pair of designer Ocellaris, two tangs, a striped blenny, two dottybacks, and a watchman goby

01/16/2020, 02:02 PM	#3
aujosh84 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Indialantic, FL Posts: 247	Negative. Not dosing anything other than fish food. __________________ wde Current Tank Info: 75g reef in the works

01/16/2020, 03:09 PM	#4
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	I agree that you could basically be "starving" them with a lack of nutrients.. Phosphate (and nitrate) are required by all marine life.. Just like your lawn too little and nothing but the weeds seem to grow.. Too much and you burn it out.. Just the right amount of fertilizer and your grass grows like crazy and becomes a lush green lawn.. What are your current nitrate and phosphate levels? You may want to try to increase feedings to your fish to see if you can achieve decent nutrient levels.. Maybe discontinue GFO reactors if you are running those,etc... Let those nutrient levels creep up.. 1-3ppm of nitrate and .04-0.08ppm of phosphate seems to be a good level to shoot for for growth.. As your nutrient levels go up you can also sustain higher alkalinity/calcium levels and just supercharge that growth.. __________________ Who me?

01/16/2020, 05:25 PM	#5
teddscau Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Canada Posts: 214	What we had to do was actually buy a phosphate fertilizer from our LFS. Just add a few grains at first, since that stuff is potent! Ever since we added it to our tank, we've had to start dosing our tank, and the corals have actually been growing. __________________ Dotty the firefish, Delilah and Little Henry Ocellaris clownfish, Pixel (convict tang) and Darwin (blue tang), pyjama cardinalfish, Riku and Kenji the orchid and elongate dottybacks, and Jeremy (yello Current Tank Info: 160g reef tank with mushrooms, leathers, zoas, SPS corals, NPS corals, firefish, a school of pyjama cardinalfish, a pair of designer Ocellaris, two tangs, a striped blenny, two dottybacks, and a watchman goby

01/16/2020, 08:58 PM	#6
Jboone82590 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Missouri Posts: 214	Maybe try not changing anything for about 6 months. The more you cha ge the less the corals like it. Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

01/20/2020, 09:17 PM	#7
BrennMun Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2019 Location: Texas Posts: 17	What does the bioload on your tank look like?