Help reef isn?t growing need advice

[Nightmarepl]

hey guys i need some advice about my reef tank currently i have a 10g tank doing a small little reef for the past 10 months its been running pretty smooth no major issues few changes here and there changed a light change my rock landscape around things like that nothing major my coral growth is extremely slow least imo corals that suppose to grow like weeds really havent developed much, few examples of corals i have, Dunkin Whisker 2 heads for 9 months now, toast stool size of a quarter maybe alittle bigger for 9 months, Green star polyp months no major spread trying to figure out what the heck is going on, friend of mine got me a neon green birds nest branch slowly started to fade its brown skin into the white skeleton and dying off polyps still long and big on it but dying dont even know why

water changes weekly 2 gallons
salt 1.025 ( Reef Crystals ) orange bag
Calcium 480
Alk 10ish ( ATI drop reader )
PH 7.8-8.0 ( always had issues no good fixes to keep it high )
Nitrates 10-20
temp 77ish

Dosing do you guys dose anything? i was told by multiply people that since my tank is small and doesnt use up all my nutrients i wouldnt need to dose. that my reef crystal salt should supply everything.


feeding about 2-3 times daily usually do tiny pebbles, medium pebbles for the crabs and shrimps, mysis shrimp every other day

Equipment 10gallon tank , AI PRIME HD light, Filter is Seachem tidal 55, 180GPH wave maker pointed straight down the tank have about 15 pounds of live rock in 20 pounds of live sand

stock, 4 hermits 5 snails , saddle back clown , regular clown , watchman goby, scooter benny, blood shrimp , cleaner shrimp, all my live stock is pretty much thriving please help me out guys

 

[nanoreefer22]

Pics?

 

[Wilson416]

Your nitrates are kind of high I dose Aquaforest components 1-2-3

 

[Spartanwarrior]

this may just be my experience, bc others have had success with Reef Crystals, but I changed to Tropic Marin salt about 1 year ago from RC (which I had zero luck with), on two separate tanks, and have had amazing growth. I noticed that Reef Crystals alkalinity mixed crazy high (12+) and that small 2G water change you do can really mess with the alk, which is a MAJOR component of healthy skeleton growth and the stability of alk which is what we are all looking for. If you keep 10dKH consistently, that's fine, but its the changes...12-10-8.5-back to 10...that really prohibits growth.

Do you use RODI water?

 

[Donewiththisplace]

haha Spartan...was gonna ask where hes getting the water from?? U beat me too it.


And whats your daily light cycle look like?


Don't feel bad I have gsp that haven't grown at all since I had them...and I have neon green candy canes that started with 6 polyps and is now well over 60. Go figure.

 

[Nightmarepl]

well im using RO water " i believe " i buy my water from the water store and the light cycle is pretty basic starts off 10am builds up to 3 at 100% at 20k then starts coming down around 7 the moon modes starts going on decreasing to about 12 12-2am just about 1% light and fully off till 10am

 

[Nightmarepl]

also everyone gets crazy about the salt some say red sea alot say RC back and forth will the salt really have that much to do with it? also me doing 2g water change is 20% of my tank thats pretty high no?

 

[grsfish]

Hey. I would check your alk/ ca Right after a water change and right before you do it again and see what the difference is. Also maybe feed less 1-2 x per day and only feed the fish. The clean up crew will get any scraps/algae/detritus. If you lower the feeding you might not have to do as much of a water change for nutrient control. Also depending on how your alk/calc are dropping you might be able to do a smaller water change and therefore keeping the water more stable. If the levels are dropping a lot you can also add kalkweiser with your top off water. For my tank. Things started growing better in my tank when I started adding kalkweiser to keep things more stable on a daily basis

 

[soupiemelody]

Tank is young for one. Two I would bring nitrates down. When I started I was in the same boat as you. After about 1.5 yrs the gsp started growing all over the rocks and back of glass. Dunkin well I started with a 15 head colony but it shot to about 35 real quick. I just feel you should let the tank establish a little more then you?ll get real annoyed by the ?weed? corals.