Your SPS corals growing fast or slow? Come see some realistic progression examples for benchmarking.

Come check out a video that highlights several SPS corals I have attempted to grow out over the last several months. The purpose of the video is to provide you a realistic benchmark of what kind of growth you can achieve from someone who considers themself an average hobbyist with average gear. If your growth is superior to what I have achieved, congrats! Don't change a thing! If your growth is slower, take inventory of your reefing approach and methods... How is your water quality? Lighting? Flow?

[@CJSAQUARIUMS]

One thing this video showed is a full SPS reef is really 2/3 years minimum to fully see your vision.. nice work man 🤝🏾🫡

[@DOTReef]

Nice corals and growth. Having a mixed reef really lets you see how slow Acropora grow lol. I only have a few but they are growing in well. Love the video.

[@zburnreefing]

Hey there, thanks so much for the kind feedback! Appreciate you tuning in!

[@teddy00024]

Great comparisons over time! A big factor in growth rate is pH level. What levels are you running your tank?

[@zburnreefing]

Thank you! My pH ranges from around 8 to 8.3 at end of light cycle. Not perfect, but I am happy with it. I was running 2 part and kalk at the same time, but just got tired of having to make new kalk, so decided to simplify and take a hit on pH. I do run a scrubber though and that seems to help a fair amount.

[@teddy00024]

@@zburnreefing I was thinking of starting kalk but the constant mixing and topping off that you mentioned is exactly what has put me off as well. With just an algae scrubber and protein skimmer I am getting 7.9-8.2. Will be incorporating a recirculating co2 scrubber soon so that should help. You should make another video at the 1 year mark! Subscribed.

[@thomasthecat951]

All looks great to me. Always good videos keep them coming man!

[@kyledent9744]

Great video. Nice to see the side by side comparison. What lights are you using. I’m ready/needing to upgrade and looking for new lights. Thanks!!

[@zburnreefing]

For this latest tank I actually went back to metal halide/T5. Just out of preference. Most are running leds and as long as you have enough units for good coverage you should be successful…and perhaps giving your corals a little bit of time to bake under full spectrum (i.e., whites on) each day will help with growth a little if you feel you need a small boost.

[@5280Reefer]

looking Great! Good growth!

[@zburnreefing]

Thanks for checking out the video!

[@queencityreefs]

Great episode. It seems like the corals I'd love to get more growth from are slow and vice versa. 👌💯🔥👏

[@yammyboyz]

I think the red one you fragged is gonna go ham now that the tips not there!!! love the coral man!

[@jtdr2023]

Looking good. Thanks for the video.

[@jackson6745]

I like these growth reference videos. Well done. I was getting extremely fast growth for months and did the white bug treatment a few weeks ago. Growth has come to a halt on half of my pieces. Also got a Dino outbreak when the tank was spotless prior to treatment. getting things back on track since installing a 40w UV,. Besides good flow, light, and nutrients, and under estimated growth factor is a healthy, stable, and flourishing biome. This is why we see larger, aged reefs doing better in general IMO/IME. FYI my pearl berry is still growing fast. I've grown a couple nice colonies of it over the last 15 years and I always bake it with light 500+ par from halide. If you ever see this coral with no polyps visible in daylight, check nutrients asap. This sucker will peel quick if nutrients bottom out and alk rises a bit.

[@zburnreefing]

Great thoughts; I will see if I can boost PAR to the pearberry to give it a little jump start. I think it’s sitting at 350 at the moment.

[@lindabrady3011]

It's great seeing realistic growth for sps. I'm curious, what PAR are the green slimer and hawkins receiving? I'm getting one of each in a couple of days and I'm considering where to place them.

[@zburnreefing]

They are both sitting at about 350 par, under both metal halide and T5. If your running led, I’d consider starting them near 250 and slowly working up from there.

[@josgraha]

Beautiful tank man! Battlecorals has some lovely acros. But bro you should see my dino growth, its astonishing 😅

[@zburnreefing]

Thanks so much! It’s not all fun and games here either. I’ve got quite the algae outbreak on the sandbed….luckily not Dinos…yet

[@MikeLemming]

Solid growth if you ask me!!

[@jacbuc1]

Enjoyed the video, my only suggestion in the future is to be a bit more specific when possible. So when you say “high par” or “high flow” give an example or range. Or show polyp movement to dictate high flow. Overall, great video.

[@zburnreefing]

Thank you for the suggestions. I agree and will be sure to consider next time so the content is more informative.

[@astrotheultimate]

Awesome video :)

[@simonlockley-evans3925]

I find my growth for acropora a mixed bag, on the whole, I'd say they get to mini colony size at the 5 month mark. Some though just do nothing for months, just get fatter and base out, I find my torts the most rapid. The sweet spot for me is Alk 7 and P.H 8.3. I run no mech filtration, just some floss in a filter cup, some cheato, no skimmer. I don't do water changes. I dose a shelf life phyto, ammonium chloride, and 2 part. The tank looks after itself, really. Its 450L tank, bare bottom. I also use calcium carbonate as a flocculant every few weeks.

[@zburnreefing]

I like your approach, it sounds effective and equally important, sustainable! I think your 5 month mark success to mini colony is awesome, I wouldn’t change a thing, that’s great growth in my book.

[@dereks3207]

Did you get your pearlberry locally? Ive been having a hard time finding it from any other SLC LFS.

[@zburnreefing]

I picked this one up from Adam at battlecorals. There are a lot of look-alikes out there as of late. Happy to cut you a frag if I can get this thing growing a little bit more. The only suggestion for local purchase is maybe Jeff over at sunnyside corals has it…he is in Sandy.

[@EIY_Kumar]

can you share your parameters and what are you using as your source of dosing

[@zburnreefing]

@@EIY_Kumar I dose ESV Bionic 2 part. For parameters I target an alk of 7.5-8, ca of 420-440, and mag of 1350.

[@crutch6991]

Respectfully, you provided no information regarding any of your levels for cal, alk, mag, nitrates, phos. Like do you run reef moonshiners? What's your lighting? What's your flow? This is literally, "here's how my tank grows corals" which is definitely very cool, but ultimately doesn't mean anything without supporting information. With that said, subbed bc i still love the content

[@zburnreefing]

Fair comments for sure. I think that information could be pieced together from my other videos, but that does sound like a chore. I'll be sure to include my parameters and basic methods in the next one for sure. If its helpful at this point to you, alk around 8, CA 420ish, Mag 1350+. I don't really test nutrients much, but I feed heavy and deal with algae as best I can through manual removal and some support from CUC. I just do water changes, no moonshiners, run a skimmer, UV, metal halide/t5 combo, and that's about it - or the cliff notes anyways. I run my tank like its 2007 for the most part, haha. Will definitely dive in to my methods in more detail soon so the new viewers have a better orientation and can find more value in the content.

[@len6482]

Why aren't heads and colonies more popular? Who has years to wait until the coral is impressive enough.

[@zburnreefing]

That is a good question. Over the last decade or so it seems the single head/small frag concept has become the norm. It is a little frustrating, but to be fair, what I enjoy most about the hobby is watching frags grow into colonies.

[@6jdhd]

First off a mini colony is 5x5 inch not just a small multi branching coral that alot of people are calling a mini colony. And you have corals that are slow growing and some that are fast.

[@ChadwickHorn]

Who qualified 5×5 as standard? I've been a coral farmer for 20+ years and have never heard of this "standard."