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Slow soft coral growth


Bcb577

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Hey all,I've had my ten gallon reef up for almost a year now and my polyps just aren't spreading as I'd hoped,they have gotten bigger,and really bushy but have barely started to spread from the plug they are on to the rock they are attached too.I'm thinking my tank could be too low on nutrients?I run a 30 gallon penguin pinwheel,pro-life protein skimmer,carbon filter pad in pinwheel,with chemipure elite.after close to a year I don't even have to scrape any scoreline algae off of anything,I have some in the tank but it's just not forming,I know I have some nutrients I mean I feed the clown fish and ywg,I guess I'm just not seeing the growth I'm wanting,I've tried directly feeding the polyps but they just let the food roll off,I usually try to feed them brine shrimp,I'm happy with the tank just want more growth,the one factor I'm really thinking it is it's the lighting,a cheap but bright Chinese led unit I think the box said 50/60 but can't recall again bought with no in i pledge other than some product reviews.

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Hey all,I've had my ten gallon reef up for almost a year now and my polyps just aren't spreading as I'd hoped,they have gotten bigger,and really bushy but have barely started to spread from the plug they are on to the rock they are attached too.I'm thinking my tank could be too low on nutrients?I run a 30 gallon penguin pinwheel,pro-life protein skimmer,carbon filter pad in pinwheel,with chemipure elite.after close to a year I don't even have to scrape any scoreline algae off of anything,I have some in the tank but it's just not forming,I know I have some nutrients I mean I feed the clown fish and ywg,I guess I'm just not seeing the growth I'm wanting,I've tried directly feeding the polyps but they just let the food roll off,I usually try to feed them brine shrimp,I'm happy with the tank just want more growth,the one factor I'm really thinking it is it's the lighting,a cheap but bright Chinese led unit I think the box said 50/60 but can't recall again bought with no in i pledge other than some product reviews.

 

Have you testing nitrates to see where you are at? What about alk?

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I need to buy a low range kit all I have now is the api,I'm shooting for Aug 1st to purchase a good low range kit

Have you testing nitrates to see where you are at? What about alk?

ill be test later today so ill try to get a reading,but stuck with api tests right now
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Besides their phosphate kit (which is a high range kit), API tests should good give you a decent ballpark for your other values. Use them if you have them. Then you can replace them with Salifert or another brand whenever you wish.

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While testing will give you your tank's current values, it is also important to track trends and stability. In a tank without stony corals and/or coralline algae, it's more important to track nutrients (as consumed elements will be easily replaced by water changes). As you add stony corals or get more coralline, then you can start to worry more about calcium and alkalinity consumption. And when you start dosing to replenish these two elements, then you have to start testing and dosing magnesium as well.

  • Nitrate should be detectable, but 10ppm or less.
  • Phosphate should be detectable, but 0.03ppm or less.
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Agree with all of what Seabass stated (as per usual :D). I noticed my soft corals do not grow if my phosphates increase on the high side. On the flip side, if they get too low, the corals don't seem to grow either. You need to have some nitrates and some phosphates in the water to keep them happy but you have to watch the levels - if they get too high, stuff starts to falter and nuisance algae starts to take off.

 

With softies, I don't think it's the lighting. I think it's more of a nutrient factor - either too little or too much.

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