How to judge water flow/ coral growth

[newfishfiend08]

Hi,
I have a 65 gal bowfront aquarium and am just starting to get into some soft corals. I recently purchased a power head to increase flow in the tank. How to do you accurately judge water flow vrs. coral placement? I have a very large but centralized live rock structure with xenia, zoos, and mushroom corals. I've noticed that the mushrooms need less flow then the xenia. Also...how long does it take for coral to multiply. I've been primarily buying frags and in the past six months they haven't grown at all.
Thanks!

 

[t316]

Hi newfish...Welcome to the boards

Sounds like you have it figured out...just let the corals tell you how much flow they need. If they are not opening up good and blowing around, redirect the ph towards the glass so maybe it's less on the corals.
Growth rate...it depends on the coral and other things such as the quality of your water, and especially the quality of your lights. What type of lights do you have and how long do you have them on each day? Are you feeding the tank anything that your corals can eat, such as cyclopeez? You are doing the right thing though by going with frags, but six months is a long time to not see any growth at all.

 

[newfishfiend08]

The only thing I add is the DK phytoplankton for my feather duster. I currently don't have a reef testing kit...so i cant test the amount of Calcium ( It's my next thing to buy) But my Nitrates and Nitrites have been zero for six months at least. I'm running a T5 nova extreme T5 lighting system with two Actinic bulbs and two daylight bulbs. I run both light sets from 8am to 8pm and then just the Actinic bulbs from 8 to 11pm. The lighting system sits on a glass top over the water. I haven't set up the legs under the direct water yet.

 

[coralreefer]

the xenia multiply like mad