Coral Growth Rates

johnmaloney · 03-14-2008, 11:40 PM

Let me start by saying coral is not really my thing. I have a few, never even bothered to identify, (except type), and I could care less. This is mostly because I dive on reefs often, and I can't compete in home with what I see out there, so why bother? (Although some of you do much better than nature). I also move around too much, and don't have the time to properly build a reef.

With that said, I would still like to hear about the growth rates some of you achieve with your reef tanks. I haven't been able to find a list of growth rates anywhere, so I thought this would be a good place to get it started. If your interested please give up whatever information you might have on this kind of thing.

03-15-2008, 12:37 AM

there is so much to keep in a closed tank for good coral growth.

Water parameters . Having good water stability with your parameters ( cal, alk ,mag, ) keeping phosphate to a mini if not 0 , Nitrates should be 0. temp not swinging too much , This would be great for an all around sps tank. good skimming and for some lps and softies .

FOr lps , I think having some nutrition can def help the growth rate of some LPS corals. That is why some of them dont do well in our tanks. they just need dirty waters.

I keep a mixed reef tank , but mostly LPS and zoos. I dont spot feed and dont dose. My duncan grow like crazy , My sps grow like carzy (note i only have 3 sps corals ) My rics dont grow fast at all. , My acans , grow like crazy ,,funny thing i have some zoos that grow outta control and some just blah .. I try to look for some growth pics and pist them.

Other reefers have other methods. lets hear from them. I know spot feeding LPS corals and zoos will make them grow faster. water changes helps too , to restore the element the corals use up.

johnmaloney · 03-15-2008, 11:10 AM

Great info deep, lets keep it coming y'all.

Jackson6745 · 03-20-2008, 11:11 PM

He is an example of 26 days of growth if this helps

Before

After

Casanova1016 · 03-20-2008, 11:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackson6745

He is an example of 26 days of growth if this helps

Before

After

that is sweet growing skillz....details details...i wanna hear

Jackson6745 · 03-20-2008, 11:42 PM

Thanks. lighting is a 150w Phoenix 14k.
I think the key is there is extremely low nutrients. I run phosban, skim, and don't have fish at the moment. Cal is about 480, 10 DKH, MG 1350ppm

Casanova1016 · 03-20-2008, 11:56 PM

are you running a calcium reactor.....what are you dosing? brands? randys two part c-balance, b-ionic

Jackson6745 · 03-21-2008, 12:07 AM

This is in a 24gal nano. I dose All the ESV additives. No reactor...not for a 24gal. I will save all the gadgets for a larger reef

Casanova1016 · 03-21-2008, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jackson6745

This is in a 24gal nano. I dose All the ESV additives. No reactor...not for a 24gal. I will save all the gadgets for a larger reef

holy crap ...sweet ..didnt know it was a nano...too bad my nano only has pc's...ur doing a great good keep it up

Jackson6745 · 03-21-2008, 12:59 AM

Thanks Casanova.

tsouth · 03-21-2008, 01:46 AM

Hmm I don't have any pictures, but I have an acan frag that started with approx 7 heads. Two months later I have 5 more babies. I spot feed it almost every day as I feed all of my other corals which I spot feed also. Who said overfeeding was bad?

tunicata · 03-21-2008, 08:32 AM

Hm, dec. 9th I received a 1 head of an acan, now there are 9 new babies that you can clearly see and feed.
Dec. 9th received 3 headed duncan now have 5 headed duncan
About 1 wk prior to that I received a warcoral pentagonia with 4 eyes, and now it has 15 eyes.
1 month ago received 2 headed dendro and now have a little baby growing

From Dec.-mid Jan I did spotfeed all of my corals every night-3x a week. Since then it's 1-2times a week if at all. Most of Feb. had no spot feeding, just feed the 3 fish (green chromis) and hope the corals can catch something. I've only spot fed corals...4 times this month. I was very surprised to see the dendro grow a baby head since I had a pretty big stretch of little to no feeding.

The only thing I've ever dosed was the ESV B-ionic which I dosed for 1mos maybe 3 times a week just because I had it. The tank has LPS/Softies. I have some phosban/carbon in a filter sock. I run a skimmer irregularly. I really don't pay too much attn. to the chemistry unless I am adding livestock that I know have 'special needs', other than that if I see everything happy and open/little to know algae/etc I don't check often.

johnmaloney · 04-01-2008, 10:38 AM

Wow 150 watts on a 24 gallon, no wonder they grow so fast. I got 40 on my newer tank, a 10 gallon. Maybe I need more watts...

reefsmokinFOOL · 11-30-2009, 03:46 AM

I also feed my tank every day, Fish and coral. I only feed my acan's every 3 day's though. Very little algae and nitrates and phosphates are next to zero. I guess that i'm not feeding too much for the tank.

reefsmokinFOOL · 11-30-2009, 03:47 AM

oh BTW that's good documentation Thanks.

*BioCuber* · 12-01-2009, 11:39 AM

i find that if you go away on a trip for about a week and come back to look at your corals you will see a big growth, at least thats what happened to me when i got back yesterday, my corals have grown a bit and all under t5's.

snibby · 12-03-2009, 08:45 PM

It's good that this thread is back up. My input is:
Ricordea Florida, slow grower, in quality water, feeding ZoPlan, Cyclop-eze, homemade mush with rotifers, a single polyp can take about four months to grow another full polyp and mouth.

Candycane coral: A bit slow, does better for me in bottom third of tank, I don't target feed.

Sun coral: Definitely target feeding is the way I would go. I see new polyp flowers weekly with the target feed method.

Button polyps Zoas: Fast grower. A frag of 6 polyps becomes a colony of 15 in a month, likes any placement in 75g.

Brain and lobophyllia coral: Slower growth, mine fill out nicely on coral skeleton, noticeably larger monthly-every two months.
I have Current USA Sunpod 2 150w 14k bulbs 7" off water surface. Consistent appropriate levels of dkh and calcium is key, along with consistent, good parameters and water chemistry. I only dose Reef Builder for carbonate alk. and Advantage Calcium or Tropic Marin advanced calc. as needed. My dosing is typically 2xs weekly Reef Build. and 1x week calc. supplement.

**Puffer** · 12-04-2009, 09:45 AM

Let's not forget green star polyps. 5 polyps become 5000 in few months. It grows like weeds. What started as frag are now 8x10 mats in few areas of the tank.

tydogg · 04-17-2010, 11:04 PM

Just for the sake of jumping in here... I thought I'd mention the insane growth of soft corals like colts and kenya tree... I put one very small (maybe an inch and a half) colt cutting in my reef... it took hold almost immediately and started flourishing. I probably have about 15 to 30 new stalks on the bottom of the tank every month now. Button polyps, mushrooms, frogspawn... very good corals if you're interested in growth.... Ty...
Just put my first Acan in there... wish me luck!