How to detect coral growth

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Duckie

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Mar 14, 2015
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Got some corals in my newly setup 75 gallon (1st fishies went in on may 12th). Was wondering if they actually grow or if they still get used to the tank. It is mostly easy beginner corals - different colored zoas, pulsing kenya, kenya trees, daisy polyps, one little yellow polyp, something that looks like grass when opened, a very little open brain coral (maroon surrounded by green). Most of the polypy corals have been extending a lot more than they first did after they decided to open up - but that is just it, maybe they simply extend more instead of growing? How do I tell? The trees are getting bigger for sure - they are supposed to grow fast I think, though. The trunk of the grabby fingers (our name for the pompoms) appear thicker.

Will try to get some pics tomorrow when the lights are on, but don't have much to compare with to when they were smaller.
 

fsn77

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Some corals will grow faster than others, and some corals grow faster in one tank vs another. Many in-tank variables impact growth rate -- water quality, lighting, feedings. Some might take a few weeks to adjust to your tank's conditions before growing, and that growth may not be noticeable in a period of time as short as a couple of weeks or a month.

Generally speaking...
Kenya trees will grow quickly -- and will drop branches to self-propagate
Xenia can grow relatively fast and spread all over if it likes your tank
Daisy polyps usually grow at decent rate
Yellow polyps (if you're talking about the kind that are a type of zoa) grow quickly, especially if fed on occasion
Green star polyps (a good guess at the one that looks like grass) spreads pretty fast -- grows out, not really taller
Zoas will all grow at their own rate -- some grow like weeds, others take months to put down one new polyp
The open brain will be the slowest grower on your list -- you'll likely have to take pix every so often and compare them to notice its growth, as it's on the time frame of months and years

When you say that some of them are extending more, do you mean opening up more or something more like stretching towards the light?
 

Duckie

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fsn77 fsn77 : Thank you for the answer. Yes, my "grass" is green star polyps (checked against pictures). The yellow polyp is a zoa - which is surprising to me as all my other zoas look different. It is also the only one of my zoas that doesn't have fluorescent colors.

By extending more I mean reaching higher - the stem or trunk reaches higher up. Initially for each coral it took a while for them to open up when the photo period starts. That I would think is part of getting used to my tank. Some would also close early when there was still full light - now everything stays open pretty much all day.
 

tanker

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Generally speaking...
Kenya trees will grow quickly -- and will drop branches to self-propagate
Yes, like a disease (in a good way).
Xenia can grow relatively fast and spread all over if it likes your tank
Yes, it can prosper or stop growing and dies for no reason.
Daisy polyps usually grow at decent rate
Yellow polyps (if you're talking about the kind that are a type of zoa) grow quickly, especially if fed on occasion
Green star polyps (a good guess at the one that looks like grass) spreads pretty fast -- grows out, not really taller
Grows faster with some flow over it.
Zoas will all grow at their own rate -- some grow like weeds, others take months to put down one new polyp
The open brain will be the slowest grower on your list -- you'll likely have to take pix every so often and compare them to notice its growth, as it's on the time frame of months and years
Feed them some Mysis or shrimp everyonce in a while.
 

Duckie

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Thank you, tanker tanker . We have Chromaplex on order. Will see how that works. Otherwise for feeding I suppose my coral might get part of the fish food I give them - usually a mix of thawed out frozen brine and mysis mixed with flakes. I don't rinse the frozen shrimp as not to needlessly lose small food in it that anything filterfeeding might catch. Not really worried about the small amount of phosphates in the juice as that is only a very small portion of total phosphate inside the shrimp itself. As I understand that is the main reason why rinsing is suggested most of the time?
 

tanker

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I would always rinse my frozen food before feeding, but if you have a skimmer and no algae go ahead. What is your fish load?
 

Duckie

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I would always rinse my frozen food before feeding, but if you have a skimmer and no algae go ahead. What is your fish load?
Fish load is relatively heavy. Most are still small though. There is:

- 4 ocellaris clownfish
- 4 pajama cardinals
- 2 scooter blennies
- 1 firefish (supposed to be a purple one what we ordered, but I think we got a exquisite instead - not complaining, good deal)
- 1 yellow tang (may stay in 75)
- 2 hippo tang (will go to the 180 as soon as we have that set up)
- 3 hermit crabs and 2 trochus snails

Ah yes, and an oversized protein skimmer that is running on the wet side, refugium with chaeto, grape caulerpa, hair algae, many pods, feather dusters, sand.
 

Duckie

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tanker tanker : here just for you a couple pictures of the tank - I read you like pics of other peoples tanks. One a full shot, the other with the firefish. After a couple days hiding (only emerging for food) the firefish is now out swimming most of the day. Which I think is cool - they are supposed to be pretty shy.

2015-06-18 04.48.08.jpg

2015-06-18 04.45.28.jpg
 
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Duckie

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2015-06-29 06.17.26.jpg Little update. Now I am not imagining things anymore. Some coral are actually multiplying. Here is a shot from the pulsing xenia from yesterday some 10 days after the picture in last post. It is sitting in same place at the top left of big white LR. At the bottom you can see a new baby polyp that wasn't there a couple days ago. Corals are just some weird animal ...
 
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