My 60 Gallon Cube, not necessarily nano but is a space saver

[b_roddd720]

Hey guys I am new to this forum and this is my 60 gallon cube tank. I dose Red Sea Calcium about 5ml weekly, I add about 1/2 tspn of baking soda to a gallon of top off and dose according to evaporation rate, 15 ml of Microbe-Lift Special Blend weekly, Kent Marine Coral-Vite weekly. Coralline growth is taking off. Coral growth is slow and steady but not exploding like how I'd like or seen in other people's tanks. Particularly my Montis, I see some white on the edge but no growth. Also my Green Purple Tip frogspawn went from branching to what looks like a wall skeleton over time and it appears to have polyp bailout. I see people talk about getting explosive growth from these but I am yet to see that. It did grow a small bud on it's side but it never grew. Help Please

 

Parameters

• SG 1.025
• Temp 75F
• Ca 420
• DKH 8
• Phosphate 0.10 (a little high)
• Nitrate near 0

Equipment

• OceanRevive T247 Led lights (best bang for the buck LED lights)
• 2 Jebao SW-8 wavemakers
• Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer
• Two Little Fishies PhosBan reactor with SeaChem Phosban
• Via Aqua Polar Bear Chiller (Current not being used)

No heater, if you live in Los Angeles you know why. Tank Temp stays around 75F

 

Livestock

• pair of snowflake clownfish (one black one orange)
• royal gramma
• green chromis
• starry blenny
• bangaii cardinal
• scarlet shrimp
• misc hermit crabs
• tons of trochus snails and few nassarius snails

 

Corals

• Hollywood Stunner, Miami Hurricane, Golden Eye chalices
• Misc Acans
• Ultra Skittles Acan on separate rock
• Green tip and purple tip frogspawn
• Green Hammer Coral
• Massive Green Trachy Open Brain
• Red Monti Cap
• Starburst Monti Cap
• Green polyp Toadstool
• Duncan Coral
• Pulsing Xenia
• Blue Plating Sponge
• Kryptonite Candy Cane
• Long Tentacle Anemone
• Maxi Mini Anemone

[seabass]

to Nano-Reef.com!  The tank looks great.

 

Slow and steady growth is good.  However, you'll get better growth at 79-80°F.

 

Sometimes a leather coral can cause some chemical warfare.  Adding some activated carbon to your chemical media might help some too.

[b_roddd720]

Thank you! I will definitely take up on the carbon, maybe I'll get the BRS dual media reactor and a heater🤔. I've had my toadstool for about two years and it hasn't grown much, it looks healthy and extends polyps nicely but no growth.😭

[seabass]

I bet you'll see noticeably faster growth if you boost the temperature up a few degrees.  I had an unheated contest tank that was the same way (no real problems, but slow growth).

[b_roddd720]

I remember having a heater for 1 year and no growth from that toadstool, it was extended healthy though but no size difference, it's frustrating because toadstool is one of my favs. Heat makes sense though because of coral metabolism 🤔 definitely purchasing one today

[RickvD]

Looks good, how big are your clowns?

[b_roddd720]

Thank you, the black male is about 1" and the female is about 1 1/2"😊

[mcarroll]

On 6/28/2019 at 5:48 PM, b_roddd720 said:

• Phosphate 0.10 (a little high)
• Nitrate near 0

 phosphates are not a little high they're just right.

 

Nitrates are too low. Very likely this is your problem.

 

Get a heater to prevent night time temperature swings. At times I have kept my heaters on a timer so they do not run during the day — if it really is too warm during the day you can shut them off. You will still want them at night to keep the temperature from descending to low.

 

I'm sure there's more variation than this in nature, but generally I try to keep the temperature the same day and night within a degree or so.