lps growth

[stainless]

how fast should lps frag grow? im running pc lights on a 65 gallon tall tank. i have good water flow. running skimmer 24-7 and changing water about 6 gallons a week

[crvz]

Welcome to TRT!

what kind of LPS? Growth rate is dependent on a multitude of variables, and it's impossible to say it should grow at x heads per year. It depends on it's location, amount of nutrients available, water chemistry lighting intensity, flow, among other things. In your case, you may consider a more potent form of lighting if you're looking for better colors and better growth, but we'd have to know more about your system and the corals in particular.

[stainless]

ya i figured on upgrading lighting to metal halide.i'm thinking about 2 175watt mh with actinic tubes. the problems i am running into is too much contradicting info. ive been reefing for like one year maybe. ive been doing non stop research online and see all these tanks that are thriving so well they have to remove corals cuz they grow so fast.my corals are growing,but at a snails pace.

[stainless]

here's what i got. 65 gallon tank. 36-18-24. remora skimmer, aquaclear50 hang on filter. i run 3hydor power heads,so flow is good.i have coralife pc lighting.i believe 10k bulbs with actinic. i run them 10hours a day on timer. i keep my gravity at 1.025. temp 78f. i change 5 gallons a week. trying to get rid of a little hair algae.i dont add any supplements. i checked my water ,phosphates0,and ph was 8 everything else is in check. but still getting hair algae. one other problem is when i scrub rocks with toothbrush, too much water gets syphond out before i can scrub everything. ive got the whole clean up crew at work and they barely touch the rocks. anyways, im sure this is pretty vague there's so much i have to learn. but this will give an idea of what im doing.all comments welcome

[crvz]

T5 bulbs are every bit as useful as metal halide, so don't think that's your only option.

[Dagrape]

I would be careful with the MH. I run 2 175W over my 90 and some of my LPS started to bleach. Also If you are getting HA with the PC you will be over run with Algea running MH.

[here little fishy]

Not sure if you are still watching this post but changing 6 gallons a week I am afraid is better than nothing but not much. You would be better off doing 30-40% changer every other week for 3 or four changes. I don't think a lot of ph tests do a good job. I had the same problem with the hair algae and I think the ph tests were not accurate. Hair algae needs nutrients to grow, It will keep growing reguardless of type of lighting. Do some major water changes and I think the cleanup crew will get it caught up.
Hopefully you already have it under control by now as old as your post was.

[bella d]

It might be worth wathcing for the "second generation" of LED lights also.
I have seen a few high ouput LED prototypes at Clearwater Aquatics in Leicester running 175W (equivalent to 400W halide). You basically get more LUX per Watt due to less waste in the form of heat. The LED's last 10x longer than a halide bulb and are dimable. The projected price I was told is comparable to its equivalent halide.
The lights are over an SPS frag tank, they are seeing coral growth and the shimmer effect they give is stunning.

[Doug1]

If you are getting hair algae, you have a phosphate issue, even tho the test shows 0, the phospahate is bound in the algae cells and probably rock and sand. Phosphate cn limit the growth of a lot of calcerous skeleton corals