I know that corals, and most things reef related, are all a matter of time and patience. Here's something that happened to me that maybe you can shed some light on. My experimental tank:
15g nano
15-20 lbs lr
20g refugium (not a typo) with sandy mud from my local area (cured before introduction)
80 watts over each tank (160 total)
plenty of water flow
Been up and running for nearly a year now. What's odd is the response that some sps corals have done. Note I buy *only* cheap frags (the little $10 pieces that break off of the $60 you bought yesterday).
Among other corals I have in the tank (no lps w/sweeper tentacles) I have shelf montipora, pavona cactus, and bird's nest. All are doing fine and growing.
I added the pavona first. Three 1.5" pieces. All three lived. But that's all. For nearly 4 months they just sat there. Fully extended and seemingly happy, but 0 growth. I recently (a month and a half) added three 1/2 pieces of montipora. All three died within two days (must have been something I did on the introduction). Oddly, one of the pieces had a couple polyps that lived. They recolonized over the dead skeleton almost within a matter of weeks. NOW the pavona AND montipora is growing.
Why would the pavona take so......ever so long to start growing, only to grow fast like it is now? The montipora started growing almost immediately. Tank conditions are pretty much the same, other than the addition of a royal gramma and a couple of native sailfin mollies.
Weird to me. I haven't kept sps before, so is this unusual or no?
15g nano
15-20 lbs lr
20g refugium (not a typo) with sandy mud from my local area (cured before introduction)
80 watts over each tank (160 total)
plenty of water flow
Been up and running for nearly a year now. What's odd is the response that some sps corals have done. Note I buy *only* cheap frags (the little $10 pieces that break off of the $60 you bought yesterday).
Among other corals I have in the tank (no lps w/sweeper tentacles) I have shelf montipora, pavona cactus, and bird's nest. All are doing fine and growing.
I added the pavona first. Three 1.5" pieces. All three lived. But that's all. For nearly 4 months they just sat there. Fully extended and seemingly happy, but 0 growth. I recently (a month and a half) added three 1/2 pieces of montipora. All three died within two days (must have been something I did on the introduction). Oddly, one of the pieces had a couple polyps that lived. They recolonized over the dead skeleton almost within a matter of weeks. NOW the pavona AND montipora is growing.
Why would the pavona take so......ever so long to start growing, only to grow fast like it is now? The montipora started growing almost immediately. Tank conditions are pretty much the same, other than the addition of a royal gramma and a couple of native sailfin mollies.
Weird to me. I haven't kept sps before, so is this unusual or no?
