How to improve coral growth?

am i the only one thinking his dosing regiment is just fine? those are all softies he's mentioning aren't growing fast. I doubt he doses much Ca at all ever with the amount of bony coral he has.

I think your WC method is just fine for your particular corals.

I think your real problem here is mostly lights (90%) and maybe some overestimation of how fast these things grow (5%) and perhaps you have too low flow (5%).

looks like reefmonkey saw it too

 

i'm in the daily dosing crowd for certain. but not agreeing with you on this tank.

you can't really daily dose Mg. it won't stay in solution for one thing. his alk and ca are fine, as you say.

it's only his Mg that's low and that happens to anyone.

OP, you can raise your Mg 100 points per day. Personally, I'd take 3 days to do 200 points for example though. I don't think the Mg has much to do with your growth problem though - lights.

Not to dismiss the consistency point. I strongly believe it. I just don't think your coral load has enough impact to make swings more than a routine WC can handle or occasional dosings.

Get a few more LPS or a couple SPS and that may change.

 

Holy Upgrade Batman! Any chance I can make it work with a Nova Extreme Quad T5 HO Fixture?

I'm just worried that a 6 bulb will prevent me from opening the lid on my glass top. Plus with buying the fixture and all new ATI bulbs, I would be looking at close to $500, it would be closer to $300 for the 4 bulb.

 

I used a 4 bulb T5 Sundial fixture on my tank for the past couple years and my LPS on the bottom were happy. I had a gonni, bubble, duncans, and blastos. That was with crappy stock bulbs. What I did to accommodate my BH-100-F Skimmers was get some 1X1 and double side taped them down on the edges to lift my lights. Also made room for my MANLY arms to get in there. You could also use 1X2's to give you a little more room, but then I would make it into a full frame for stability.

 

ingtar, we have same lights and same skimmer? wow.

my bh100f is HOB and doesn't get in the way of my lights at all on my 55. The legs of the light keep it high enough and putting it towards the front of my tank keeps the HOB skimmer clear.

as this old pic illustrates

 

4 bulb would be fine. I only mentioned the 6 bulb fixture because I have experience with what it will grow in a 46 bowfront. Just make sure to get rid of the Current bulbs and replace with ATI or Geisemann.
Here's a pic of mine with the Pro.

Also I might suggest getting rid of the glass cover. It's better to have the entire water surface area open to allow for gas exchange. Especially since you use a HOB filter.

 

I've got an Aqua C Remora and a marineland emperor 400, that stick out into the tank about 2" and then my glass top hing is right where the tank starts to bow out, so I only have about 8-10" for a light.

 

I would, but the evaporation rate is ridiculous in my house. I have a 30g with an open top that I have to top off daily or I end up with a huge salinity swing. It's just too much hassle.

Plus, I do have quite a bit of movement on the water surface and the glass top does have about a 2" gap behind it for the skimmer/ filter with at least an inch of space between the water and glass.

 

Also, what is everyone's opinion on Kent Coral Accel?

 

Update- just got a Current Sundial Quad T5 last week and I'm loving it!

Although I am still in the acclimation period and only have all 4 bulbs on for about 3 hours per day (actinics are on 10 hours), it is already making my corals open larger and the colors are now very impressive.

I am still waiting for my new bulbs (2 ATI Blue+, 1 Aquablue, 1 KZ Fiji Purple) to arrive due to a shipping mishap, but they should be here midweek.

One other quick question- Is there anything you can do to help corals split into new branches/ polyps? The only thing that I notice are splitting are my zoas, everything else just gets bigger (not complaining).