Acropora ready?

[Cerberusfish]

So my tank is approaching a year and a half old. I've got several SPS corals including montipora and ANacropora. My nitrates and phosphates are well under control. My only issue is my calcium is way too high and I'm working on bringing it down (it's above what my test can read) and I'm having trouble keeping my alk up but I've got the alk under control. Could I go ahead and add my first acropora frag and let that help me soak up the calcium since I can manage the alkalinity? I should I wait until both are exactly where I want them and stay there with no change? The people at my LFS all seem to feel I could handle acropora just fine and are actually suggesting me to do even more than just adding acropora for the first time (kept saying I've reached a point in my fish keeping career where I'm ready to move on to doing the crazy stuff) I'm just worried I'm going to mess it up. Should I just take the leap instead of always finding an excuse not to jump that gap?

 

[ScottR]

You have to start some time. If your other SPS is doing fine, I don’t see why not. Some acropora are easier than others. Some is luck but definitely get you alk and Ca stabilized first.

 

[TX_Punisher]

I would first let the LFS test your calcium to confirm your test kit is correct. If it is, I’d perform some water changes with a fish salt to bring down your ca to target levels. Remember to match alk if you decide to go this route.

SPS=stability promotes success.

good luck.

 

[Gtinnel]

What do you use to maintain alk and calcium currently (2 part/kalk/etc)? I'm just curious why your calcium would be so high. Having high calcium usually isn't an issue, but before adding acropora I'd try to get that and alkalinity stable and where you want them to be

 

[desagon]

I agree with the others and get a different calcium test kit. If you have others and they’re going fine, get a cheaper frag like a green slimer.

 

[Garf]

So my tank is approaching a year and a half old. I've got several SPS corals including montipora and ANacropora. My nitrates and phosphates are well under control. My only issue is my calcium is way too high and I'm working on bringing it down (it's above what my test can read) and I'm having trouble keeping my alk up but I've got the alk under control. Could I go ahead and add my first acropora frag and let that help me soak up the calcium since I can manage the alkalinity? I should I wait until both are exactly where I want them and stay there with no change? The people at my LFS all seem to feel I could handle acropora just fine and are actually suggesting me to do even more than just adding acropora for the first time (kept saying I've reached a point in my fish keeping career where I'm ready to move on to doing the crazy stuff) I'm just worried I'm going to mess it up. Should I just take the leap instead of always finding an excuse not to jump that gap?

What does your calcium test show your new saltwater at? and what, according to the manufacturer, do they say it should be at? and how have you calibrated salinity?

 

[Cerberusfish]

I would first let the LFS test your calcium to confirm your test kit is correct. If it is, I’d perform some water changes with a fish salt to bring down your ca to target levels. Remember to match alk if you decide to go this route.

SPS=stability promotes success.

good luck.

That's what I think I'm going to do. My alk is stable now, just lower than I'd like (I think because my mg and cal is so high, I have to add a butt ton to keep it up). However I'm inclined to believe my test kit is fine since my magnesium also reads high (I use the seachem reef fusion which has mg and cal in 1 bottle)

 

[Cerberusfish]

What does your calcium test show your new saltwater at? and what, according to the manufacturer, do they say it should be at? and how have you calibrated salinity?

I haven't tested my new batch of saltwater, but I use a refractometer that I calibrate every few months with RODI water to test salinity. I do very few water changes though so that's probably both positive and negative to the calcium.situatuon depending on how you look at it.

 

[Cerberusfish]

What do you use to maintain alk and calcium currently (2 part/kalk/etc)? I'm just curious why your calcium would be so high. Having high calcium usually isn't an issue, but before adding acropora I'd try to get that and alkalinity stable and where you want them to be

I use the reef fusion 2 part from seachem. This all started because my calcium used to ALWAYS be too low. So I started increasing and increasing the dosage until it was fixed. Then I guess I went a little too far for too long. And now have the opposite issue. I have a jebao dp-4 dosing pump and it works well enough, and I have a hard time justifying buying a really expensive dosing pump with my current income and all of my other tanks.

 

[Cerberusfish]

I agree with the others and get a different calcium test kit. If you have others and they’re going fine, get a cheaper frag like a green slimer.

I want to have it cross checked first because this kit is brand new. It's salifert (I'm transitioning from sera to salifert lately) and all of my coral is doing very well except a very stubborn toadstool that's been problematic for like 7 months. Just doesn't like to extend it's polyps and not sure why. All of my sps has been growing really fast lately though and I even fragged some montipora the other day (capricornis and digitata) and it recovered in just a few days. Just under a week later and I'm noticing new growth on the frags as well. I want to get a blue tort because I like that color and don't actually want to get super into acropora, more of just hit the milestone and get my feet wet with it. I'll probably only get that one for a long time unless I see some frags that are cheap and amazing provided the first goes well.