sps noob, health check on newish frags

[errand]

I'm about 2 months into my first bunch of sps frags - so far they haven't died which is good, but I want them to also grow and be healthy. I have 9 different sps frags - montipora [scrolling and red digi and green encrusting], an orange psammacora, a stylo, two staghorns and a millipora, and an echinata. They were all cheap. I've been looking for signs of health or death, I think I have spotted possible bleaching on the echinata and I wanted to confirm one of the staghorns looks like it might be growing onto the rockwork.

 

Echinata - very new, only 2 weeks old frag, seems ok but there is a lighter patch on one of the top branches, is it a sign of bleaching or something worse?

 

Teal staghorn frag 8 weeks into the tank - seems like its growing onto the rock? the very tip is also turning a light blue color, its hard to capture with the lights on but at night if i shine my torch on it, the tip is blue.

 

my millipora is about 5 weeks old in my tank, it doesn't get very fluffy though. I'm not sure what to do to make it get fluffier, have been feeding them all acropower and i think it has enough flow.

 

 

[Reefkid88]

Overall they look healthy. Your tank must make them happy to keep their blue colors,so that is a plus. 

 

 What lighting were they under at the store and what lighting do you have now ? What are your tank parameters ? What is your flow like ? 

 

 The Echinata is showing signs of lightening tissue,but it could just be acclimating to your tank. 

 

 The Stag is definitely encrusting on to the rocks.

 

 The Mille,I have learned can be tricky. They love flow just like any acropora or sps though. Looks healthy,the corallites are there,its just not hairy like most. I have a few that were like that. Only my Sunset Mille be supppper hairy. 

[errand]

Thankyou, the tank is 65L cube AIO, I've got 2 small jebao wavemakers on pulse [they dont seem to make a lot of movement though], and 2x ai prime hd currently on acclimatisation. temp is stable between 24/25.5 degrees [its winter here so it dips at night]. I use red sea coral pro salt, and do 18L water change every Saturday, i have also found since i got the sps frags i need to dose kh about 1ml a day to keep the alk stable - after water change its about 9.2, 1ml a day keeps it around there. Mag is always around 1600 and calcium around 480-490 [I dont dose but the salt is elevated i believe]. ph is down to 8.1 at night and back up to 8.4 during the day.

 

I am wondering if the coral goby is bothering the mille, he is always perched either in there or the other staghorn, I've never seen him biting at them though and I really dont want to get rid of him, I've only got the 4 fish in the tank. I suppose I will give it some time and see if it gets fluffy again. Since they're not dying off and seem to be even growing, I am scared to change anything I'm doing. 

I could definitely upgrade the wavemakers, its such a small tank its kind of hard finding space for them and positioning them in a way they dont blow my hammers around [hammers are on the sand at the bottom, sps up top].

[DreC80]

1 hour ago, errand said:

Thankyou, the tank is 65L cube AIO, I've got 2 small jebao wavemakers on pulse [they dont seem to make a lot of movement though], and 2x ai prime hd currently on acclimatisation. temp is stable between 24/25.5 degrees [its winter here so it dips at night]. I use red sea coral pro salt, and do 18L water change every Saturday, i have also found since i got the sps frags i need to dose kh about 1ml a day to keep the alk stable - after water change its about 9.2, 1ml a day keeps it around there. Mag is always around 1600 and calcium around 480-490 [I dont dose but the salt is elevated i believe]. ph is down to 8.1 at night and back up to 8.4 during the day.

 

I am wondering if the coral goby is bothering the mille, he is always perched either in there or the other staghorn, I've never seen him biting at them though and I really dont want to get rid of him, I've only got the 4 fish in the tank. I suppose I will give it some time and see if it gets fluffy again. Since they're not dying off and seem to be even growing, I am scared to change anything I'm doing. 

I could definitely upgrade the wavemakers, its such a small tank its kind of hard finding space for them and positioning them in a way they dont blow my hammers around [hammers are on the sand at the bottom, sps up top].

Keep doing what you are currently doing and keep your parameters stable, especially the alk.  You'll have to check that regularly as alk usage will fluctuate.