For the successful SPS keepers

[crazyfishmom]

there are many reef keeping styles out there and there is no “right way” of doing anything in this hobby but I would love to get perspectives on what makes your SPS heavy tank successful.

Do you carbon dose, do you add aminos, do you keep an ultra low nutrient reef, where are your nitrates and phosphates if you measure them?

I read through these forums and general information on reef keeping consistently and I am awed by the amazing reefs that can emerge from very different parameters.

Also, if you feel like dropping a pic or 2 for inspiration I would be thankful.

 

[braaap]

Such a strange poll.

Successful SPS tanks would be ones showing growth and healthy inhabitants. Nothing else.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I don’t kill them anymore. I do not have the growth that some others do but I can finally say that for the last year I can keep them alive and they do grow. My success started once I started dosing all for reef daily and my big 3 levels stabilized.

 

[mrpontiac80]

I don’t kill them anymore. I do not have the growth that some others do but I can finally say that for the last year I can keep them alive and they do grow. My success started once I started dosing all for reef daily and my big 3 levels stabilized.

I’m not saying all for reef is the key by any means, but again once I was able to maintain elements consistently at the levels I wanted

 

[crazyfishmom]

I’m not saying all for reef is the key by any means, but again once I was able to maintain elements consistently at the levels I wanted

I really like all for reef and find it pretty painless to use compared to most other dosing regimens. I wonder whether there are tank owners out there with heavy alkalinity and calcium consumption that can chyme in on this. As far as I understand all for reef may not be able to keep up with the demand in that situation but I am likely wrong!

 

[rtparty]

Lots of flow, lots of import and export, heavy skimming, and good light. Keeping alkalinity stable is also good practice. High pH helps a ton too.

Calcium and magnesium don’t matter much. Keep them in a safe range and they’re fine.

I’ve found better growth since going with a homemade food that is loaded with aminos and other goodies. Lots of fish poop is great. Carbon dosing does wonders as well IMO

 

[crazyfishmom]

Lots of flow, lots of import and export, heavy skimming, and good light. Keeping alkalinity stable is also good practice. High pH helps a ton too.

Calcium and magnesium don’t matter much. Keep them in a safe range and they’re fine.

I’ve found better growth since going with a homemade food that is loaded with aminos and other goodies. Lots of fish poop is great. Carbon dosing does wonders as well IMO

Thanks for the response! I love (and hate) the flexibility in this hobby because there’s so many schools of thought.

Can you share your food recipe? My bioload is light right now for my tank; I am actively quarantining fish so it’ll increase over time and already have tons of coral but would definitely love more feeding options.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I really like all for reef and find it pretty painless to use compared to most other dosing regimens. I wonder whether there are tank owners out there with heavy alkalinity and calcium consumption that can chyme in on this. As far as I understand all for reef may not be able to keep up with the demand in that situation but I am likely wrong!

That is a very true statement. All for Reef is not a good product by itself for an established sps tank, imo. I tried it, and found that it could not keep up with the alk demand, while everything else went up. Most people supplement it with kalkwasser in that case, which defeats the purpose of dosing one product. I use a highly concentrated two part solution for my high alk demand tanks.

 

[MoshJosh]

In my experience, all be it limited, keeping low nutrients seems to be the "safe bet.” Maybe not the best for growth but good for not killing SPS if that makes sense. Low stocking, quality food, water changes, high light, and high flow.

 

[jda]

Most all successful SPS keepers do more similarly than differently. They all feed a lot of fish, they all find some way to export a lot and they all are slow to change with lots of stability. Most of them can likely use any dosing mechanism and just use what they use for convenience - I use CaRx, but 2/3 part would be fine for me.

Most of the outlier type of tanks do not last or are done by hobbyists with EXTREME experience and should not be duplicated. Some of these are cultish by the folks trying to sell you things - these methods or systems usually fade in a few years and are replaced by another.

For example, I doubt that you will find any long term SPS keepers with salinity much different from 35 ppt. While some might not use a skimmer, if they are successful, they are exporting a lot of organics which also bind harsh metals from food. I use sand to keep nitrate low, but BB folks dose organic carbon or other things to make this work - the root of not having super high no3 is the same, for another example.

Learn the root cause of what you are doing and then work backwards about how to achieve this and how it will work for you. I would guess that most of the really good reefers could be successful with any method if you made them use it.

 

[rtparty]

Thanks for the response! I love (and hate) the flexibility in this hobby because there’s so many schools of thought.

Can you share your food recipe? My bioload is light right now for my tank; I am actively quarantining fish so it’ll increase over time and already have tons of coral but would definitely love more feeding options.

I use the frozen Reef Chili recipe from BRS and leave stuff out I don’t want or can’t get.

 

[jda]

I read through these forums and general information on reef keeping consistently and I am awed by the amazing reefs that can emerge from very different parameters.

If you pay special attention you will find subsets of corals that mostly need the same parameters and stuff to do the same things. Your title said SPS, but that is pretty broad where some SPS will do fine with 100ppm of no3 and 1.5 ppm of po4 and these tanks can look great, but that is a subset of corals. Many SPS will have long died back before the no3 and po4 reached this point. For those who want to keep a wide range of acropora colonies of vastly different types, they cannot keep water like this. There is time to learn and notice all of this detail and nuance, but it exists. Those who use generic terms like "corals do fine with 75 ppm of nitrate" should mostly be ignored because they won't likely get the difference.

SPS can be montis, pocilipora, sytlophora, birdsnest and also acropora. MBP&S are pretty easy compared to most acropora, but there are some MBP&S that can be quite hard and some acropora that can be quite easy.

If you really want to learn about these things, go and find Abe's videos on YouTube. He is not selling you anything and is an excellent hobbyist with stonies. He also has some great visuals and the production is excellent. CoralEuphoria, I think. I would never trust anybody selling you anything... especially given the content of people who just want to help that is readily available.

 

[crazyfishmom]

That is a very true statement. All for Reef is not a good product by itself for an established sps tank, imo. I tried it, and found that it could not keep up with the alk demand, while everything else went up. Most people supplement it with kalkwasser in that case, which defeats the purpose of dosing one product. I use a highly concentrated two part solution for my high alk demand tanks.

My SPS are starting to take off and alkalinity demand is increasing and I’m starting to see alkalinity slowly decline over time despite trying to increase dosing with all for reef. I liked the ease of use but will definitely have to start shifting my mind set toward something else. It’s a cool timepoint in my tank’s life cycle but definitely a little scary because there’s a lot of room for things to go wrong! Thanks for offering the first hand wisdom!

 

[crazyfishmom]

If you pay special attention you will find subsets of corals that mostly need the same parameters and stuff to do the same things. Your title said SPS, but that is pretty broad where some SPS will do fine with 100ppm of no3 and 1.5 ppm of po4 and these tanks can look great, but that is a subset of corals. Many SPS will have long died back before the no3 and po4 reached this point. For those who want to keep a wide range of acropora colonies of vastly different types, they cannot keep water like this. There is time to learn and notice all of this detail and nuance, but it exists. Those who use generic terms like "corals do fine with 75 ppm of nitrate" should mostly be ignored because they won't likely get the difference.

SPS can be montis, pocilipora, sytlophora, birdsnest and also acropora. MBP&S are pretty easy compared to most acropora, but there are some MBP&S that can be quite hard and some acropora that can be quite easy.

If you really want to learn about these things, go and find Abe's videos on YouTube. He is not selling you anything and is an excellent hobbyist with stonies. He also has some great visuals and the production is excellent. CoralEuphoria, I think. I would never trust anybody selling you anything... especially given the content of people who just want to help that is readily available.

I have a mixed reef and keep a little of everything and take a student’s approach to everything in life, reef keeping included. While there are certain amazing reefs with really high phosphate and nitrate, those successful systems are the few, not the many and I certainly wouldn’t want to throw my hat into the ring with any of them because there wouldn’t even be a battle!

I do have a few finicky acros that are finally starting to grow and color up and pretty thrilled to have gotten here. I’ll take the wins just as I’ve taken the losses and reinvented my approach over and over to try to find what works for me.

I have indeed read through some of what Abe has written but haven’t watched any videos; I should! Started bacteria dosing because of some things he mentioned on his site and it has helped a lot with nutrient stability.

Thanks for your thoughts. The more thoughts the merrier.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Most all successful SPS keepers do more similarly than differently. They all feed a lot of fish, they all find some way to export a lot and they all are slow to change with lots of stability. Most of them can likely use any dosing mechanism and just use what they use for convenience - I use CaRx, but 2/3 part would be fine for me.

Most of the outlier type of tanks do not last or are done by hobbyists with EXTREME experience and should not be duplicated. Some of these are cultish by the folks trying to sell you things - these methods or systems usually fade in a few years and are replaced by another.

For example, I doubt that you will find any long term SPS keepers with salinity much different from 35 ppt. While some might not use a skimmer, if they are successful, they are exporting a lot of organics which also bind harsh metals from food. I use sand to keep nitrate low, but BB folks dose organic carbon or other things to make this work - the root of not having super high no3 is the same, for another example.

Learn the root cause of what you are doing and then work backwards about how to achieve this and how it will work for you. I would guess that most of the really good reefers could be successful with any method if you made them use it.

Oh yeah, I am sure there are people around here so super experienced that they can throw anything in a tank and be successful!

 

[Bloo]

In my humble opinion a new tank = the more you need to watch parameters. Older the tank = you can get away with actual murder in a normal situation lol. From what I usually see, the people getting away with high nitrates etc usually have had the tank running for a long time or they just kept buying corals until the ones that could survive, survive. I personally have a bare bottom mixed reef and wasn't able to hold some of the simpler Acros alive until year 2. I'm on 3+ years now and not a single acro has died. *knock on wood* I dose kalk and all for reef, and have done so for a couple years. Like many will always so, many ways to reef.

 

[crazyfishmom]

In my humble opinion a new tank = the more you need to watch parameters. Older the tank = you can get away with actual murder in a normal situation lol. From what I usually see, the people getting away with high nitrates etc usually have had the tank running for a long time or they just kept buying corals until the ones that could survive, survive. I personally have a bare bottom mixed reef and wasn't able to hold some of the simpler Acros alive until year 2. I'm on 3+ years now and not a single acro has died. *knock on wood* I dose kalk and all for reef, and have done so for a couple years. Like many will always so, many ways to reef.

There’s definitely something to aging a tank the right way… and I bet the experience gains during that time also makes it easier to deal with the random things that come up over time. I’ve been generally amazed at the difference that live rock has made in my current tank versus my precious one that was started with dry rock. There’s something to the biodiversity of established systems. Part of me just wants to sequence several great tanks and look at the bacterial populations.

 

[exnisstech]

While I don't consider myself successful my methods are similar to some of the things @jda touched on. My sps tank is only 10 months old and full of frags. It was started with dry rock bare bottom but seeded with a tray of rubble from an established tank. I'm not getting awesome growth yet but everything is living and encrusting. Flow was my main consideration after watching a video of Jason Fox stating he thought flow was more important than lighting. I figure he is successful and must know what he doing so flow it is. Tank is 36x24x24 and barebottom with two mp40s, two mp10s, and two Nero 5s for flow. Next plenty of light so I have two reefbreeder photon 32 pros over the tank. Stability is important so I added a doser for 2 part and alk has been rock solid. I feed 6 fish at least 3 times a day usually more but I don't really export that much. I took my skimmer off line because it wasn't pulling much out. All of the detritus in the tank gathers in a single corner so it's easy to get out when I do water changes which are 2 gallons at a time once or twice a week. Usually I judge the pile of of detritus to tell if it's time For WC. Also have a reefmat running. I dose bacto balance once a day manualy along with some acropower. I don't really know if the acropower is helping or not. NO3 runs 6-7 and PO4 0. 05ish running the tank this way.

 

[crazyfishmom]

While I don't consider myself successful my methods are similar to some of the things @jda touched on. My sps tank is only 10 months old and full of frags. It was started with dry rock bare bottom but seeded with a tray of rubble from an established tank. I'm not getting awesome growth yet but everything is living and encrusting. Flow was my main consideration after watching a video of Jason Fox stating he thought flow was more important than lighting. I figure he is successful and must know what he doing so flow it is. Tank is 36x24x24 and barebottom with two mp40s, two mp10s, and two Nero 5s for flow. Next plenty of light so I have two reefbreeder photon 32 pros over the tank. Stability is important so I added a doser for 2 part and alk has been rock solid. I feed 6 fish at least 3 times a day usually more but I don't really export that much. I took my skimmer off line because it wasn't pulling much out. All of the detritus in the tank gathers in a single corner so it's easy to get out when I do water changes which are 2 gallons at a time once or twice a week. Usually I judge the pile of of detritus to tell if it's time For WC. Also have a reefmat running. I dose bacto balance once a day manualy along with some acropower. I don't really know if the acropower is helping or not. NO3 runs 6-7 and PO4 0. 05ish running the tank this way.

Sounds like you’re doing what you need to do for your system and that you’re managing stability which is awesome. The flow argument is interesting and tank setup will definitely drive how much flow you can have. All my gonis and euphyllia would be pretty upset with that much flow so it’s a balance! Nice to hear your tank is doing well at this age!