fastest way to grow sps corals

[alexgv14]

I'm curious to get other peoples feedback on the fastest way they grew sps coral frags. Other than good water params and stability. Was there a certain light scheduled that worked best? What type of lights worked best? Did you dose vodka? Were the corals fed? Did you have a certain livestock? Etc.

[organism]

There are a lot of factors that all work together so it's really hard to pin anything down. I know people with all kinds of systems that grow SPS like crazy, and imo the common theme in all of them is stability of all of the parameters. It's not so important which exact number you have your calcium or temperature or alkalinity as much as that it's at that parameter all the time.

For me I dose vodka and use LED's, for supplementation I dose 2T of Mrs Wage's Pickling Lime into my 5 gallon ATO. I've got some SPS that grow faster than I can sell them...

[alexgv14]

Interesting the pickling Lime is that just for calcium supplementation? Is that cheaper than bulkreefsupply.com

[organism]

I'm not sure, but I got quite a bit from Amazon for dirt cheap a few years ago and I'm still going through it

They also sell it at Walmart or some supermarket chains, it's pretty seasonal but fortunately this is the season they usually carry it.

[oceanarium]

There are two ways i am aware of to speed up the growth;

Blu method using elevated water parameters, feeding and growth hormones.

and

Using electrical fields to increase coral growth rates.

I am aware of one coral farmer combining these two methods.

[alexgv14]

What kind of growth hormones do you use?

[organism]

Do you have more info on using electrical fields? First time hearing about it and it sounds pretty interesting

[alexgv14]

Here is an article I'm from miami and they actually did this in key west.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/elect...ock-111226.htm

[Reef Frog]

I've read MANY of the T5 vs LED vs Metal Halide threads on RC. It seems many of the old timers who have used them all seem to agree that MH produced the fastest growth with SPS. Some go on to say say the 20K bulbs gives the best results in terms of fast growth.

Don't know if that's the case and it may be changing with the 3rd generation units available now. Feeding & nutrients seem to play a role too.

[oceanarium]

Originally Posted by alexgv14

What kind of growth hormones do you use?

The true 'blu coral method' uses growth hormone (GH) this is mainly done in parts of Europe where its legal. I had read some are supplementing with humane growth hormone (HGH) when this is not available.

I could not get either so tried using amino's as next best as is largely done in the USA. Results were excellent growth wise, the method involves some very messy feeding of pureed sea foods. I found it difficult to keep a good balance with N and P to maintain bright colors of my SPS. My systems are large and difficult to use the method to best effect.

Use the search there are some good threads on RC.

Top for acro growth would also be using the sun. All the best culture systems i have seen use sun for lighting.

[1MP3R1AL]

Originally Posted by Reef Frog

I've read MANY of the T5 vs LED vs Metal Halide threads on RC. It seems many of the old timers who have used them all seem to agree that MH produced the fastest growth with SPS. Some go on to say say the 20K bulbs gives the best results in terms of fast growth.

Don't know if that's the case and it may be changing with the 3rd generation units available now. Feeding & nutrients seem to play a role too.

I've noticed faster growth rates with a very very heavy feeding schedule combined with heavy export works best. Definitely metal halide with a lower K bulb like the 14k works best. But the better bulb for fast growth is 6k.

[ptreef]

XM 10k or iwasaki 6500k if you want cray growth
Then if you want more feed heavy and filter heavy

[alexgv14]

I'm gunna go with growth hormones, vodka dosing and good stable params. I hear going with 6500k lights you tend to lose a lot of the color on the corals.

[rfgonzo]

The only way I know how to grow them fast, is to give them to someone else.