What am I doing wrong here.

[polyppetey]

First I want to start out saying i have a 3 year old 12g nano so I'm not exactly a noob.

I have been having a problem with no or little growth in my tank.

I have a green hammer that died a while ago leaving 3 babies on its skeleton as well as a small nickle sized Lobophyllia that I bought as a pink lobo but it turned red in a few weeks and also a nice neon green trumpet coral, none of these have been growing at all, my green montipora is growing super slow and everything else is growing at a snails pace. Yup even the xenia. My ricordias have been shrinking for 2 months now and are minimally inflated. Last but not least my feather duster just popped its top, I have had it for over a year with no problems

 

My parameters as of my last test are the following

Ammonia 0 + a little (hard to read the test)

nitrites 0 ppm

nitrates 5 ppm

Calcium 440 ppm

temp 78-80

ph 8.2 after the lights had been out for a few hours

Alk 2.0 meql

salinity 1.022

 

The only thing I notice is my alk will not stay up. I have been dosing with either the 2 part solution or using baking soda if my calcium is too high. I do a weekly water change of 1 tp 2 gallons depending on my water conditions. The bulbs are 2 months old. I have 2 fish a small clown and a firefish, the usual clean up crew

The only real change was that I stopped using the Catalina water and switched to RO and reef crystals.

Could it be the salt? I just read the last thread on the reef crystals YIKES!

 

Like I wrote, am I missing something or what?

 

Here is a pic.

[nahtanoj]

what is your lighting? you mention the bulbs are 2 months old, but i didn't see what it was specifically. if it is compact florescent you will not get much growth out of sps. you are lucky it isn't browing out.

2nd, you mention your alk is low, and it is, have you checked your magnesium? these two go hand in hand and it is needed for proper coral growth as well.

hope that gives you a starting point at least, otherwise, patience is the key, corals are slow growers.

[JustReef]

Change salt mix.

Raise salinity to 1.025 (this will increasae your alk slightly)

+1 on the Mg check

 

Could there be chemical warfare going on? Drop in some chemipure elite and see what happens.

[nahtanoj]

2nd on bumping the salinity, min 1.023. i didn't notice that on my first look.