Growth Rates

[pamelahaley]

I always hear people talking about how fast things grow in their tanks but, I was wondering if there is any base standard and if I am doing somthing wrong to achieve less than optimal growth.

I finally have my pH almost regularly balanced.
I add reef builder, coral food, iodine cal and alk regularly.
Salinity is usually a little high but within reason.

I don't pay attention to the numbers, I just get water tests done in stores and have them tell me if it's good or I need a water change... There is never really anything drastically wrong I can't fix with a 25% WC.

Maybe my pieces are growing normally and I'm not as patient as I should be but, throw me a bone... what is "fast growth" in a RT?

 

[jef4y]

It depends on what you're growing...

Fastest growing thing in my system is chaeto. It doubles in size every 3 weeks.

Other than that, my anemones have grown rapidly (near doubling in size) over a few months. I've had LPS that sat unchanged for 6 months and then went from 2 heads to +30 in the next 6 months. Had an explosion of Zoas that went from the size of a business card to about 6x12" in 4-5 months, have seen rics & leathers double in size within a few months. I have a monti undata which has visibly grown since July as I dropped the frag plug on a shelf rock and now it looks like "melted wax" as it encrusts on that rock.

It's tough sometimes because we see our tanks every day. The best way is to see pictures from a month ago or so and you will generally see growth. Unless you have something that just won't grow.

Right now I have a small chunk of yellow zoas that have remained almost completely unchanged for over a year.

Growth in this hobby (with the exception of algae) is generally measured in months.

 

[dvara78]

What type of bulb do you use for the Chaeto?

 

[jef4y]

2 of the cheap clip-on home depot fixtures and 2 "daylight" 5100k CF flood lights. Once I got those bulbs this stuff just took off in growth. I prune a wad the size of a soccer ball every 3 weeks.

 

[mlove]

Growth is all about stability. If you have dosing pumps, reactors, etc. to keep your Ca and Alk extremely consistent, then your corals growth rate will show that. Some other factors are again consistency with salinity, nitrates, lighting cycles, etc. as well as how dense your corals are. If you have a coral with a great deal of space in a tank it will usually grow at its maximum rate, whereas if you have corals close together they sense one another and slow their growth (unless highly aggressive) to avoid clashing and possibly dying. Some corals don't grow fast just because they haven't evolved to do so haha. Another controversial topic with many reefers is the duration in which the corals should be exposed to our high intensity lights. Some people have shortened their photoperiods down to as low as 4 Hrs with daylights and 3 additional Hrs with their actinics. Just a lot of different things but consistency is the key.

- Miles

 

[pamelahaley]

well, I have fiddled with my lighting based on temperature. It was 8 hours for awhile but, I bumped it to 10, then 12 when it got colder... Now it's 12 and the only thing i've fiddled with is how early/ late by an hour. Teal palys grow a little crazy for me compared to the other zoas. I'm talking mostly blue shrooms, mostly zoas and a few softies... I have had a digi monti for about 6 months that looks like the most growing it's done is at the base of the plug. I have had a nem in the past that quadrupled in a few months... I guess I have cycles of growth like it seems you do. high and low points.

 

[rolo65]

Judging from the pics I uploaded a few months ago....most of the sps in my tank have doubled and some almost tripled in size.....all I dose is seachem fusion and aquavitro ions....and a vit C for the fishes too....looks like it has helped the color on the corals as well....but hard to tell sometimes...

 

[superclown]

I had a frag of yellow alas bout 5 heads 6 months ago now i probably have about 50 heads. My kenya tree has grown a lot but that's bout it for my tank