a few suggestions for corals please

[Salye1mj]

okay, so here is a rundown of my tank:

 

20 gallon long, cant remember how much live rock, deep-ish sand bed.

 

filter: aquaclear 50 with two sponges, filter floss, chem-pure elite, and purigen.

 

lights: 30 in 4xt5ho aquaticlife. bulbs are the blue and purple from package. ATI aquablue special, true actinic. blue lights are on from 7:30 to 10. then 10 it turns on everything untill 7. at 7 it goes back to blue. 10:30 to 7:30 are the moon LED

 

two powerheads, koralia 425 and 250 i believe.

 

My fish are two clowns and this red scoot blenny thing.

 

parameters are:

salinity 35

calcium 440.....trying to raise to 485

alkalinity 9

phosphate it is not a low range test so i know there is some but it says 0

nitrate again, not a low range test so it reads as 0 as it can

 

 

okay, here are my questions:

 

I have had my candycane for more than a year, it hasnt produced tentacles in a few months but is eatin well. only one possible new head growing. any suggestions to help it?

 

I have had this montipora for about 3 months, was a frag from a very beautiful one at the LFS. When i changed my lights from the 2xt5 to the 4xt5 the color fainted and the polyps are now hardly noticable. Any suggestions?

 

I now have this green mushroom for about a week. It doesnt seem to be dying but it doesnt extend. should I move it to shade?

 

I again have had this Lobo? brain coral for more than a year. It has not produced any heads. Though it was increased its size and heads very well. Is this normal?

 

pictures attached below

[Tamberav]

Sounds like the higher light may have shocked the monti, did you acclimate it to the light?

 

Any reason you are trying to get calcium to 485? 400-450 are generally accepted target levels.

 

When phosphate and nitrate levels get too high, my LPS tend to stop growing. Do you have algae issues at all?

[Salye1mj]

no, there really wasnt any acclimation when i got the new lights. That was the only coral that didnt improve when I added them.

 

I think I was told that higher levels of calc and alk would help growing the frags faster. so I thought I would try.

 

No big issues with algea, I have to clean the glass every couple of days. There is algea on the rocks but its only a little and doesnt seem to grow

[PiscesFish]

IME, the higher my calcium levels are past 450, the more it hurts my corals. My softies close up and if theyre branching, droop. LPS actually close up and my sps dulls.

 

But i agree with Tamberav on the lighting. You mightve given your monti lighting shock.

[Tamberav]

no, there really wasnt any acclimation when i got the new lights. That was the only coral that didnt improve when I added them.

 

I think I was told that higher levels of calc and alk would help growing the frags faster. so I thought I would try.

 

No big issues with algea, I have to clean the glass every couple of days. There is algea on the rocks but its only a little and doesnt seem to grow

 

I am pretty sure there is research/an article that shows higher levels past a certain point (I think it was 420 or 450) do not effect growth and extremely high can actually have negative impacts. 485 shouldn't cause problems though.

 

Generally it is water stability/quality, food, and light that will have the biggest impact.

 

Since your LPS isn't growing, they may need food if phos/nitrate are truly low.

[Builder Anthony]

I didnr read the entire post but I'll comment on once.a week.heavy feeding of a logo.they are slow grower and when u see itbgriwbit will produce a extra mouth but that will take about a year .

[Salye1mj]

Is the damage to the Monti permanent? The good part is it is still growing, just faded from its original color.

Well, food isnt the problem. I can say that much. I over fed the tank so algea is starting to show up. I'll take care of that problem but the constant food did make everything look better. I will have to manage the it better from now on.

[Builder Anthony]

If you don't know about corals to much u should look into photo synthethic sponges then a few months in move to corals.there are some really good colorful sponges out there but hard to get

[Dramad1]

How are your daily ca and alk levels? Do you dose. I noticed once I stabilized my params my corals started showing noticable growth. I also feed less at once and now do small/tiny amounts through out the day, just enough that my fish can consume in a few minutes.

[Salye1mj]

my Alk is at 10.
Calcium is 440.

Yes, I dose everyday.

Well, aside from those corals I mentioned I am having growth from everything else. I do my past and for the most part my water is pretty darn good. Not so good right now because of the over feeding but that will be fixed.

 

But side note, The candy cane looks to be splitting. There is another mouth in its head!

[opaquelace]

I think your lobo might actually be an acan bowerbanki. I would reduce the hours your lights are on. Maybe keep all the lights on for 7 hours and the blues on for an hour before the rest turn on. My corals do better with an 8 hour photoperiod or shorter.