I need some Help - Little to no growth

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gobytron

without actinics, I would be running at least an 8 hour halide cycle...

What's your thinking behind the increased light cycle? Light longer because I have reduced light output with out actinics, or light longer because I'm not providing light in the Actinic spectrum?

I'm not sure lighting longer just because of the reduced par of not having actinics would be the sollution, I'm putting a lot of light in the tank with the 3ea 400w 14k DE halides no?. I'm willing to try though. I have the retrofit T5's I intended to use for Actinics but I haven't gotten around to installing them yet.

[globaldesigns]

Others already gave opinions on things I would take care of, but one thing no one has mentioned is DKH... I do believe 8 is too low, unless you are on the Zeovit (full) system.

If not on Zeo, I would raise DKH to about 10-11... The reason I say this is because I run the full Zeo method, and had my DKH at 7-8 according to zeo recommendations. Well I stopped the Zeolites because I am now running NP BioPellets, but still running all other ZEO. Recently I was seeing some issues and some coral tissue loss, even though everything was perfect. It was brought to my attention that the Zeolites work with DKH, and since I no longer have them, I should raise my DKH back up, so I now run mine at about 10-11 DKH... Almost immediately things improved and now all is good.

Just a thought for you.

Hope this helps!

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Parker

What's your thinking behind the increased light cycle? Light longer because I have reduced light output with out actinics, or light longer because I'm not providing light in the Actinic spectrum?

I'm not sure lighting longer just because of the reduced par of not having actinics would be the sollution, I'm putting a lot of light in the tank with the 3ea 400w 14k DE halides no?. I'm willing to try though. I have the retrofit T5's I intended to use for Actinics but I haven't gotten around to installing them yet.

I am thinking about it in the context of a natural environment and how 6 hours of sunlight is just very short compared to even winter months for any organism used to natural sunlight cycles...not so much par or spectrum as your lights are quite adequate in both of those respects.

I only run a 8on/16off cycle with my halides but I have 4 VHO that simulate sunrise/sunset so they are really getting 12 hours of light in varying spectrums depending on what lights are on or off.

out of all the info you provided, this was the one obvious thing that stuck out to me that had not been touched on at all and could be an easy fix for youto just add another 2 hours of halides until you install your actinics for a more natural sunset/sunrise...

[George]

There are some good suggestions in this thread. There are also some misinformation here. First of, 8 dKH is perfectly fine, if your test kit is accurate. Recommended alkalinity is between 7-11 dKH. A lighting period of 6 hours using 400W DE is perfectly fine. That's 6 hours of intensive light period. You don't get more than that hours of intensive light period in the tropic seas. I am using 250W for 6 hours and get good growth (For some SPS, they are growing like weed).
For OP, are your corals happy? How is their polyp extension? What kind of corals do you have? Maybe they are just slow growers. Try to find some fast growers, like pink birdsnest or green birdsnest or some digitata and see if they grow at all in your tank.

[gobytron]

so george thinks you should just buy some faster growing corals...

problem solved.

it's really so simple when you think about it.

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by George

There are some good suggestions in this thread. There are also some misinformation here. First of, 8 dKH is perfectly fine, if your test kit is accurate. Recommended alkalinity is between 7-11 dKH. A lighting period of 6 hours using 400W DE is perfectly fine. That's 6 hours of intensive light period. You don't get more than that hours of intensive light period in the tropic seas. I am using 250W for 6 hours and get good growth (For some SPS, they are growing like weed).
For OP, are your corals happy? How is their polyp extension? What kind of corals do you have? Maybe they are just slow growers. Try to find some fast growers, like pink birdsnest or green birdsnest or some digitata and see if they grow at all in your tank.

You are correct DKH of 8 is fine, just a recommendation on what I have recently done, based on recommendations. It worked for me, so I don't know how it is misinformation, as it is not!!! don't read anything extra to what I or others have said.... It is just info, to do with what one wishes.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by George

There are some good suggestions in this thread. There are also some misinformation here. First of, 8 dKH is perfectly fine, if your test kit is accurate. Recommended alkalinity is between 7-11 dKH. A lighting period of 6 hours using 400W DE is perfectly fine. That's 6 hours of intensive light period. You don't get more than that hours of intensive light period in the tropic seas. I am using 250W for 6 hours and get good growth (For some SPS, they are growing like weed).
For OP, are your corals happy? How is their polyp extension? What kind of corals do you have? Maybe they are just slow growers. Try to find some fast growers, like pink birdsnest or green birdsnest or some digitata and see if they grow at all in your tank.

Keep in mind, these are just suggestions (which is what the OP is looking for) and nothing is written in stone.
Just opinions of other reefers who can draw on their independent experiences to try and provide the OP with some suggestions that may have slipped past them based on their own experiences.

every system is different and to just write off anothers suggestion purely based on your own experiences really isn't helping anyone out here...IMO.

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by gobytron

Keep in mind, these are just suggestions (which is what the OP is looking for) and nothing is written in stone.
Just opinions of other reefers who can draw on their independent experiences to try and provide the OP with some suggestions that may have slipped past them based on their own experiences.

every system is different and to just write off anothers suggestion purely based on your own experiences really isn't helping anyone out here...IMO.

+1, well said

[Slick Fork]

Try changing your salt maybe. I think sometimes that these mystery slow/no growth problems come down to a trace element that we might not even know to test for. Some salts may have it, others not but it's worth a shot.

[globaldesigns]

As 6 hours of light may be enough, this will all depend on the quality of the fixture, bulbs and age of things... Maybe try increasing it to 8 hours, and give it a month and see what happens, then maybe 10 hours.

I personally use Ushio 10K bulbs for growth with t5HO actinics and have my lights on for 11 hours with no negative impact and the corals seem happy.

Just another suggestion if you feel other areas are ok.