How Long do you have to Wait to add SPS to an Aquarium - Some have told me you can add right away ot

[that Reef Guy]

How Long do you have to Wait to add SPS to an Aquarium?

Some people have told me you can add SPS right away as long as you have High Light, High Flow, and Great Water Quality.

Others say even with all of that you have to have an "established" Aquarium which takes at least 1 Year to accomplish.

So exactly how long should you wait?

 

[ritter6788]

Yes to what you posted already.

Each setup is different and unique. If you feel like your tank is ready for sps then try a cheap frag of something like birdsnest or monti cap to see how it does.


If you are successful with other corals, aren't having water issues and are prepared to do a little extra testing and dosing to keep parameters in line then go for it and see how they do for you

 

[PatW]

As Ritter said, there is nothing magic about 1 year. If you set up a stable system and are through with your algae succession, you might be good to go. I think his advice with starting inexpensive is good. Assume your first corals can and maybe will die in your learning process.

 

[Keithcorals]

I add mine after the water

I have added right after setup but I would say after your tank is cycled start with less sensitive acros and build up to the pricy more delicate ones.

 

[NOLA Reefer]

I think that the old "one year rule" has more to do with the experience of the hobbyist and less to do with the age of a current setup. As long as the tank has gone through its initial cycle and the waves of algae. The tank itself should be fine. As stated before, start cheap.

 

[trido]

I hear a lot of people say "start with beginner corals like leathers and mushrooms, then move up". I hate this advice. I don't see any reason to add a coral that will cause you headaches or you wont want in the future. If you want to have an SPS tank. Start with SPS. As soon your tank is ready do exactly as Ritter7688 said. Start with Easy SPS and move up from there. There are a lot of monti's, stylo's, Pocillopora's, seriatopora, to start with and also some very hardy milleporas and even torts that are great corals for beginning reefkeepers. After a year is a good time to then start adding more "collector" or "brand name" corals.

 

[Mr tap water]

I totally agree with the above if your stats are stable and Have been stable for a length of time then go for it start with a few small ones see how you get on

 

[CastAway]

If you want to have an SPS tank. Start with SPS.

Love it! I hope to do this. :rockon:

 

[saltyhog]

I added my first acro 5 weeks after my cycle ended. It was free as a part of our monthly club coral give away. I still have it almost a year layer and have given away a few frays off of it.

I think it was actually easier early on when my bio load was low. About 6-7 months in was where I struggled a little with nutrient export.

 

[reeffirstaid]

100-200 years is a good waiting period, I think. Just kidding. It all depends on your system, what your water parameters are and how stable.

 

[jordanp]

I setup my 120g back in February and just added my 1st SPS (monti) this week. He is currently hanging out on the sand bed light acclimating. I am really hoping to have an SPS dominated tank.

 

[tyler1503]

I add mine after the water

Oh, that's where I went wrong
I agree with what most people are saying. If you want SPS, go for SPS. If you start with "beginner" mushrooms or Xenia, they can become quite difficult to remove and may grow over everything. Save that headache for the LFS employees lol.

 

[Eric N]

I waited a few months until everything was stable, then tested the system with montis and birds nest as "canaries" so to speak. When they'd been growing rapidly for a couple months I moved up to aquacultured acro frags from ORA. Waited a couple months, then I moved up to a couple branching maricultured species. When they had been growing well for half a year I finally started putting in the wild caught tabling really bright colored ones that I really wanted. This works well and can save headaches and money.

I know people have already put roughly the same advice in the thread, but I wanted to also state from personal experience that the first time I set up a tank I didn't have a lot of money to spend, I was in High School. Using this technique probably saved me 100's of dollars worth of acropora (and saved the poor acros from being sentenced to death) because the montipora frag actually died the first couple of times, causing me to give up on acros until I could actually deal with them. Also, while I was writing this I got the notice that my hyacynth acro has been delivered to my apartment. I love those corals. Gotta go!

 

[AJsTank]

This is the way I do it. Cycle the tank, add fish and clean up crew. As I'm going through the diatom and algae blooms is when I would start dialing in the big 3. Then when the blooms are gone and I feel like my Alk, Ca and Mag are spot on is when I add SPS.

 

[StikHedRon]

When I started my first Saltwater tank 2 years ago, I knew I wanted an SPS dominated tank because everyone said it was so difficult. So once the tank was cycled, I started adding sticks left and right. I lost a few here and there but that comes with the territory but I've had success from day one. Just takes proper maintanance and carefully monitoring your levels till your tank stables out.

 

[ifarmer]

if you know what you are doing and have a little bit experience in keeping the parameters at a desire level then you can add sps to tank once completely cycled. On my last new tank setup. I started with SPS soon the tank is cycled and all is doing great since (have had a couple turned browned though)