TatorTaco Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Wife and I had a grand plan of a ricordea garden, but we can’t figure out for the life of us how to make them happy. They’re all shriveled up to the size of a dime or smaller. I understand and we should only make one change at a time and let the coral adjust. How long should we wait to see if a change made a noticeable improvement though? IM 10 tank Sicce 1.0 return with spin stream Jebao 0W10 on lowest setting. Currently offline to see if they were getting too much flow. Nitrites 0 Nitrate 2 Ammonia 0 3 gallon water change performed once a weekly. Considering skipping to every other week. Prime HD running BRS AB+ but only running at 70% max intensity. 1 Yellowtail Azure Damsel Misc. CUC 1 Quote Link to comment
OldManSea Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 They seem to look OK in this non closeup image. I have 9 in a garden in my IM10. I also use a prime at about the same intensity as you have, and a Sicce 1. When I have added new ones in the past they often opened like yours for a few weeks and then gradually opened wider. I feed Reefroids once or twice a week. The Ricordea grow well and divide. Since all of your corals look good, including the ricordea, I would leave them alone. I think they will open further and grow. If you don’t feed, addition of small particle food will boost all of your corals. Things like your blasto’s and Euphyllia will get a big boost in growth as will your ricodea. 2 Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted August 10, 2019 Author Share Posted August 10, 2019 Thanks for that. Do you have a powerhead in your tank? I’m think it’s unnecessary for my setup. When I first got them I put them in a little box for them to settle and attach to some rock rubble for a month or so. They were so big and happy...until I glued them to the rock. They’ve looked like this for at least a couple months now and it’s very disappointing. Quote Link to comment
A.m.P Posted August 10, 2019 Share Posted August 10, 2019 Could be a bit too much direct flow or lighting, they're also just very moody corals that tend to react very dramatically to their environment from my experience and understanding. 2 Quote Link to comment
OldManSea Posted August 11, 2019 Share Posted August 11, 2019 3 hours ago, TatorTaco said: Thanks for that. Do you have a powerhead in your tank? I’m think it’s unnecessary for my setup. I don’t have an additional power head. Perhaps you have had excess flow? Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 On 8/10/2019 at 4:30 PM, TatorTaco said: Nitrate 2 More nutrients. That is practically zero. Are you testing phosphates? Discontinue any excessive filtration until you can test for nitrates and phosphates...no GFO, no bio-block, no algae filters, et al. You should have just live rock and a protein skimmer taking care of things. If you wanna keep that fancy macro algae in the picture you're going to have to feed it and the corals so neither one outcompetes the other. Right now the algae seems to be winning....which is great if you want an algae-only tank, not great if you want a coral tank. Get some Seachem Flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorous (or equivalents) for the tank so you can maintain minimum levels to keep things growing and happy.....in particular, maintain ≥0.03 ppm Phosphates, higher is fine if your test kit doesn't read that low. 1 Quote Link to comment
TatorTaco Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 9 hours ago, mcarroll said: More nutrients. That is practically zero. Are you testing phosphates? Discontinue any excessive filtration until you can test for nitrates and phosphates...no GFO, no bio-block, no algae filters, et al. You should have just live rock and a protein skimmer taking care of things. If you wanna keep that fancy macro algae in the picture you're going to have to feed it and the corals so neither one outcompetes the other. Right now the algae seems to be winning....which is great if you want an algae-only tank, not great if you want a coral tank. Get some Seachem Flourish Nitrogen and Phosphorous (or equivalents) for the tank so you can maintain minimum levels to keep things growing and happy.....in particular, maintain ≥0.03 ppm Phosphates, higher is fine if your test kit doesn't read that low. Thanks for chiming in! I’ll be sure to check for phosphate and follow up. I don’t have a skimmer for this 10G. I’d love to add another fish to the tank, but I’m not sure what would hold it’s own against an Azure Dansel? We visited our LFS but they didn’t make a saltwater order last week so it was slim pickings. Wife was interested in a YWG + pistol shrimp, but they didn’t have any YWGs at the time. Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 Those damsels usually stay pretty chill and grow to only 2-3 inches tops....maybe more like just 2". Good to be patient when adding fish. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
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