Is this good growth for 8 Months???? Updated!!!

[tony_3a]

Im sure everyone will laugh at me for this.

All I use is normal tap water with prime.
I have never dosed anything except garlic when Im so mad at ich and give up .
For flow, All i have is 2 k4s and a Sedra 9000 return, I have a fair bit of debris in my tank from my diamond goby, so i have spent a lot of time placing the k4s and the return lines where i see the whole tank is getting good flow. The sps also have a 4k pointing pretty much right at them and it works really well.
Also I leave my lights on a long time, the actinic start at around 10, then the growing lights come on at 12, run until 930 at night and then the actinics are off around 1040.

I know thats a long time, but my kid loves the tanks so much and i want them on as long they can be for him to see it. I can say wheres the goby cassius and he runs around the rock the goby has made his home under looking for it.(my son is 16 months)

Anways i know that sounds bad, but im still learning so much more, i dont know where I would be without Paul form oceanic he has helped me since day one.

Thanks again for all the nice comments, its cool to have something work out in the tank.
Tony

Originally Posted by es355lucille

I have not got the knack of growing SPS.....I usually just seem to torture the odd frag now and again just "testing the waters" so to speak. It would seem like you have gained some skills with growing SPS quite well. That is pretty good growth IMO. Nice Job!

By the way whats your lighting/dosing/water flow like? just askin!

Thanks Scubasteve for the tip!!! I will make sure there is good flow right through it.

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Ya dude, looking good. The second colony is rockin' it. Just you watch, it's going to be the size of a basketball before you know it (I'm not kidding). Good polyp extension too... like that second one is one seriously fluffy SOB.

I'll pass on a little tip that I learned in my foray into SPS. Birdsnest Colonies tend to have a built in self-destruct when they get large. This is because the inner branches don't get light and then die off. Sometimes this will lead to STN and the colonies go off like matches from the inside out. That is, of course... you give them lots of flow so the inner polyps can get some nutrients or keep the areas clean to prevent disease. I lost a canteloupe-sized colony because of this.

Good work dude!