starting new growth

sweetnsour

sweetnsour

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hey guys

i have a question, recently i had gone through a rough patch with my sps and am now starting to get very good growth using the neozeo system.

what i have found is that the corals must have stopped growing for a while and obviously were stressed alot.

but heres the thing all the new growth is starting a single branch and all the other see to be just stayiing normal?

what can i do to help the coral grow better from all the shoots in stead of just 1?

sort of like they all doing well and polyp extention is ok but then the growth is exploding on only a single branch.

ive heard that a small fragging may help but too scared it will make things worse.

any ideas from the guru's?

thanks in advance
 
Wade, that is something you really have no guarantee on making it happen. It could be that, that particular part of the coral is receiving the most desired flow/lighting. I have many planted frags that grew into colonies, not by the "finger tip" end....but rather the frag sprouted shoots at the base and even outgrew the tip end.

The guys on th GARF site recommend when fragging to not cut but rather snap corals off when pruning. (needle nose pliers) This creates a clean break across the axiliates/polpys. This open cut area is always the first to sprout new growth. Which makes sense why my frags sprout on the base and not so much the tip.

I have also accidentally broken coral tips only to notice within a few weeks, new (and multiple) growth appearing at the broken end. So perhaps one could break tip to encourage growth at that end.....but if the colony or frag already looks fragile, would not further stress it.
 
Thanks Adee for the prompt response , I have never really cut any corals as yet I have always snaped them off too , also found that this way they encrust easier , yes the corals are just taking off and a lot do still look quite fragile thus me asking.
I have also been going through bleaching and stn at the base of my acro's

Since getting my calcium reactor online my calcium and alk is as stable as I have ever had it ,

Alk 8
Ca 450
Mg 1400
I'm begining to suspect my globe being old , could this be a cause?

Adee what balasts do you run you blv globes on?
 
Very well explained Adee!
sweetnsour, the old bulbs could most likely be your problem, otherwise it is flow related. I also have a few cases like yours in my system where there is not alot of flow, the growth is stunted.

Another way to promote new growth is to take a blade and shave of some of the tissue until the white begins to show (I never heard of this before, just talking from experience). After a few days, you will notice new growth taking place. However, I dont really recommend this method, I prefer allowing the coral/s to grow naturally.

From what I see, you water parameters are fine. How old are your bulbs, and how many hours a day do you run them for?
 
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Hey Mekaeel
I run just a single 250W MH with no actinic supplimentation. The globe is 14k and aprox 16 months old I know I need to change it which will be done this weekend , wanna try the 20k blv route but not sure of its going to run at its full potential with my balast,
The photo period is from 8am till 9pm via timer and it is aprox 15cm above the water the reflector that is the globe I would say is 25 to 30cm above the water
Also am no adding a bit of kalk to my top up water as I think since running my Ca reactor 24/7 I think the pH may be dropping too low .
With regards to my corals losing colour I am now dosing amino acids and have starte feeding more.
Just another thing I also run seachem seagel all the time in a reactor could this be a problem?
 
The growth of sps corals eventually comes down to a balance of energy. If a coral becomes stressed...it directs it's energy towards counter-acting the stress. So...cutting a coral will lead to it redirecting energy towards recovery at the area of pruning. However, this doesn't necessarily imply that the coral will continue showing growth in that area as coral growth patters are largely influenced by light and flow dynamics.

In the case of frags that are stuck on plugs, they generally tend to establish a foothold first and secure itself in place - i.e encrust on the base before showing signs of growth on the tips.

If i were to take a stab at it then i'd say the redirection of energy has a lot to do with survivability of the coral. I suppose a suitable analogy could be the human body. When we catch a cold our bodies defences kick in to heal us, and we tend to feel weak at the same time until we've recovered fully.
 
sweetnsour said:
Hey Mekaeel
I run just a single 250W MH with no actinic supplimentation. The globe is 14k and aprox 16 months old I know I need to change it which will be done this weekend , wanna try the 20k blv route but not sure of its going to run at its full potential with my balast,
The photo period is from 8am till 9pm via timer and it is aprox 15cm above the water the reflector that is the globe I would say is 25 to 30cm above the water
Also am no adding a bit of kalk to my top up water as I think since running my Ca reactor 24/7 I think the pH may be dropping too low .
With regards to my corals losing colour I am now dosing amino acids and have starte feeding more.
Just another thing I also run seachem seagel all the time in a reactor could this be a problem?
Click to expand...
The bulb is pretty old bud. I say change it.
If you say your corals are loosing colour, when it comes to SPS corals, you the opposite and stop feeding too much, as SPS do not like very high nutrients.
What does Seachem Seagel do?
 
sweetnsour said:
Thanks Adee for the prompt response , I have never really cut any corals as yet I have always snaped them off too , also found that this way they encrust easier , yes the corals are just taking off and a lot do still look quite fragile thus me asking.
I have also been going through bleaching and stn at the base of my acro's

Since getting my calcium reactor online my calcium and alk is as stable as I have ever had it ,

Alk 8
Ca 450
Mg 1400
I'm begining to suspect my globe being old , could this be a cause?

Adee what balasts do you run you blv globes on?
Click to expand...

I've had some severe base of bleaching affecting some of my corals. I have since stopped all forms of Brightwells...carbon dosing/neo zeo stuff. I really could not figure out myself what was the actual cause of this (in my system). So took out of the equation all the thing things that I did to my system in the last 4 months...which includes the NeoZeo method.

Touch wood, the bleached areas are now being encrusted with some corals pretty soon you will not know they gad bleached at the base. I have not put my finger on the cause, could be misaplication of the product or maybe just not right for my system....but have gone back to my tried and tested ATS..and my tank is going back on track and hopefully colors returning to former glory.

I have no idea what ballasts I've got...but they are part of the luminarc style ones that Aquarium Depot brings in.

Wrt to flow...I'm of the opinion more is better, as long as your corals are not in the direct path of the flow. I'm at 100x turnover currently...and I still have some dead spots in the tank.
 
Mekaeel said:
The bulb is pretty old bud. I say change it.
If you say your corals are loosing colour, when it comes to SPS corals, you the opposite and stop feeding too much, as SPS do not like very high nutrients.
What does Seachem Seagel do?
Click to expand...

yeah i know, will be changing it this weekend, im stuck between the aquamedic globe or the 20k BLV globe.

i use tropic marine test kits and when i started this tank i had nitrates at 100ppm but in the past 4 months or so it has come down to undetectable on my kit.

po4 is also showing as 0

i was beging to think that my system was become nutrient poor and thus me feeding a bit more.

seagel is a mixture of carbon and Po4 remover, which i run in a 2 little fishies reactor
 
Adee said:
I've had some severe base of bleaching affecting some of my corals. I have since stopped all forms of Brightwells...carbon dosing/neo zeo stuff. I really could not figure out myself what was the actual cause of this (in my system). So took out of the equation all the thing things that I did to my system in the last 4 months...which includes the NeoZeo method.

Touch wood, the bleached areas are now being encrusted with some corals pretty soon you will not know they gad bleached at the base. I have not put my finger on the cause, could be misaplication of the product or maybe just not right for my system....but have gone back to my tried and tested ATS..and my tank is going back on track and hopefully colors returning to former glory.

I have no idea what ballasts I've got...but they are part of the luminarc style ones that Aquarium Depot brings in.

Wrt to flow...I'm of the opinion more is better, as long as your corals are not in the direct path of the flow. I'm at 100x turnover currently...and I still have some dead spots in the tank.
Click to expand...

i have only just moved over to the neozeo method and seem to find better results now in terms of growth than before.

maybe its an application issuse on my side and rather confused now.

i think what i shall be trying this weekend will be to add a sun sun or 2 just to see if i can eliminate a few dead spots.

and change my globe, i also have the same unit as your 3 so i think maybe the BLV globe should be tried. the aquamedic one is crazy in price.

hopefully in a few weeks i can report back with some good results and an improvement on my system.

i really enjoy keeping the twigs but am begining to lose faith in my husbandry.

i guess the only thing that keeps me going is i get mixed results from different corals and thus think i am still able to fix this.
 
Gixxerk4 said:
The growth of sps corals eventually comes down to a balance of energy. If a coral becomes stressed...it directs it's energy towards counter-acting the stress. So...cutting a coral will lead to it redirecting energy towards recovery at the area of pruning. However, this doesn't necessarily imply that the coral will continue showing growth in that area as coral growth patters are largely influenced by light and flow dynamics.

Ina foothold first and secure itself in place - i.e encrust on t the case of frags that are stuck on plugs, they generally tend to establish he base before showing signs of growth on the tips.

If i were to take a stab at it then i'd say the redirection of energy has a lot to do with survivability of the coral. I suppose a suitable analogy could be the human body. When we catch a cold our bodies defences kick in to heal us, and we tend to feel weak at the same time until we've recovered fully.
Click to expand...

Gixxerk4 thanks for the help and post man, very imformative and i will def be keeping this in mind when ever i look at my twigs next.

i dont think i will be doing any cutting now for sure and feel that i should just leave em be to hopefully recover and see where i end up.
 
Wade, it took me close to 2 years (of loosing sticks) to finally have some success. Just persevere and try not to make the same mistakes repeatedly.

The downside with most systems is that subtle changes to our husbandry, could affect corals only months later (with the problem being visible)....so just jot down in a journal what you have done...and in need you can trace back.
 
sweetnsour said:
Gixxerk4 thanks for the help and post man, very imformative and i will def be keeping this in mind when ever i look at my twigs next.

i dont think i will be doing any cutting now for sure and feel that i should just leave em be to hopefully recover and see where i end up.
Click to expand...

No probs buddy ;)
 
Adee said:
Wade, it took me close to 2 years (of loosing sticks) to finally have some success. Just persevere and try not to make the same mistakes repeatedly.

The downside with most systems is that subtle changes to our husbandry, could affect corals only months later (with the problem being visible)....so just jot down in a journal what you have done...and in need you can trace back.
Click to expand...

currently now in the marine hobby for 11 months still early days.

just picked up my 20k BLV.

thanks again for the idea of keeping a journal and will be doing this for future refeerence.
 
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