SPS Growth and Polyp Extention

[buddie]

could use more light , more flow and the big thing is TIME. some sps even in a established tank with tons of $$ in equiptment and perfect conditions take months to start to grow and others just take off . so just give it time and keep your hand out of the tank and keep your water as good as you can. good things will happen

 

[~Flighty~]

Have you tested magnesium?

 

[CaptainAndy]

First of all, it is a good thing/accomplishment to at least have them stay alive. Reef Central is ripe with threads about people finally giving up because of this or that.

I'm relatively new to SPS and my tank is overcrowded with frags and small colonies. Some of the frags have doubled in size in six months, most of them are much, much slower. So your observations may simply be species specific. Also, I've noticed that some of the frags that I've gotten from the on-line sources just sit there for a month or so before the colors even begin to brighten.

Make sure you also have easy stuff. Orange caps, etc - you have to go out of your way to not notice growth and or polyps

 

[Mrs. Delta]

Tom,

I am also thinking that mix of softies and SPS is limiting SPS growth. We have a rather large toadstool (softball size), yellow leather, finger leather, mushrooms, zoos. We run Elos carbon - about 2 tbps changed weekly.

Chemistry is mostly right on.

This is a possibility. We had a figi yellow leather near enough to sps that it was causing growth retardation. When it was removed from the tank, the growth of the sps in that area took off.

 

[Scott G]

It's probably the toadstool, it's rather high up, near the SPS, problem is, it is encrusted to the rock . It was my first ever coral, much bigger than a softball

 

[Scott G]

Have you tested magnesium?

Magnesium is 1300

 

[Greg Hiller]

I was going to ask the magnesium question myself, but I see you've answered it. The leather thing might be part of the problem, but I'd imagine there'd be some SPS that wouldn't care much.

It might be that you just happen to have some frags of slower growing corals. Sometimes a coral will sit an look at you for 12 months, then start growing. Do you have the known REALLY fast growing corals. The M. caps and M. digitatas? The purple tip acros?

 

[Scott G]

Let's hope some of mine start up soon In fact Greg, I've just started to notice that a milli I got from you at the November? meeting is starting to grow a bunch of new branches. I do have M. caps, which grow very fast and just got a purple tipped acro from Dave + Gina at the last meeting (it is gorgeous by the way!!)

 

[Gina McReeferson]

October wasn't that long ago in "Acro time"... It has been metioned already, a couple of times, but many Acro's just kind of hang back for a while before suddenly and inexplicably taking off. Also, that green Acro you got from us is a very quick grower, plus if I recall correctly it had a few branches on it, an Acro with several branches will give the appearance of faster growth even at an identical measured growth, as it will grow in all directions. A 1/2" on a single "stick" frag doesn't look like much, but that same 1/2" applied to several branches pointing in all directions can have quite a different visual effect. Hang in there, keep an eye on things, and try to keep your levels as stable as possible. Minimizing fluctuations is half the battle. IMHO, consistency is key.

-Dave

 

[Gina McReeferson]

I do have M. caps, which grow very fast and just got a purple tipped acro from Dave + Gina at the last meeting (it is gorgeous by the way!!)

Thank you Scott, glad you like it!

-Gina and Dave

 

[TomD]

October wasn't that long ago in "Acro time"... It has been metioned already, a couple of times, but many Acro's just kind of hang back for a while before suddenly and inexplicably taking off. Also, that green Acro you got from us is a very quick grower, plus if I recall correctly it had a few branches on it, an Acro with several branches will give the appearance of faster growth even at an identical measured growth, as it will grow in all directions. A 1/2" on a single "stick" frag doesn't look like much, but that same 1/2" applied to several branches pointing in all directions can have quite a different visual effect. Hang in there, keep an eye on things, and try to keep your levels as stable as possible. Minimizing fluctuations is half the battle. IMHO, consistency is key.

-Dave

That is a great point Dave. I know a lot of SPS will not show growth for a while and then explode but I never considered equal growth visually appearing different.