Am I Ready for SPS?

[BCRIBS]

Have u ever tested your alk in evening hrs

Right now the dose is 3:30am and 3:30 pm. So I am hitting the evening drop. I have not tested late night or early morning in a while.

 

[BCRIBS]

I have bleached a few at 65 percent with kessils. So now I start at 50. And work my way up 5% a week. All the way to 90%

Just so I understand, would your current corals be at 90% then you add a coral and drop it to 50%. Then bring it back up to 90%, 5% per week?

 

[Vaughn17]

Your PO4 needs to be higher than zero. SPS can really suck up the nutrients. IME, well feed sps, in general, are much more tolerant of occasional water parameter instabilities and imperfect lighting (but don't do both at the same time, lol).

Doesn't you LFS have some sps frags for cheap that you could try out? If I were you, I would resist the urge to start out with an uber expensive, itsy-bitsy frag. You're probably going to make mistakes as first (I'm still making them), just remember to learn from them.

 

[BCRIBS]

Your PO4 needs to be higher than zero. SPS can really suck up the nutrients. IME, well feed sps, in general, are much more tolerant of occasional water parameter instabilities and imperfect lighting (but don't do both at the same time, lol).

Doesn't you LFS have some sps frags for cheap that you could try out? If I were you, I would resist the urge to start out with an uber expensive, itsy-bitsy frag. You're probably going to make mistakes as first (I'm still making them), just remember to learn from them.

Would you recommend pulling the GFO? I am getting a little bloom on the sand occasionally and on the glass then it goes away. I think it's from the reef chili, reef snow, and reef energy I have been rotating every other day. The monitporas were my cheap try and they lost color 1 is ok in the upper right. Birds nest is good, I think the other 2 could have been light acclimation?

 

[Kershaw]

Just so I understand, would your current corals be at 90% then you add a coral and drop it to 50%. Then bring it back up to 90%, 5% per week?

Yes, if I plan on buying corals I will leave it at 50 percent until I have what I want. My goal is to get a small Frag/QT system to do my light acclimation. So I don't have to constantly turn down my leds. And also to make sure I don't get Ich or something in display

 

[Vaughn17]

Would you recommend pulling the GFO? I am getting a little bloom on the sand occasionally and on the glass then it goes away. I think it's from the reef chili, reef snow, and reef energy I have been rotating every other day. The monitporas were my cheap try and they lost color 1 is ok in the upper right. Birds nest is good, I think the other 2 could have been light acclimation?

That's a tricky question, personally, I killed a whole bunch of corals with GFO, stuff that I'd had for over a year (like hammers that tripled in size). I think everyone's experience is different, but this is what happened in the beginning to my 40 g mixed reef tank:

I fed the fish and corals, alot and often. The tank didn't have many hitchhiker inverts at that time, such a brittle stars, asternia stars, bristle worms, spagetti worms, etc., so it got green hair algae. Lots and lots of GHA. So then, I started using GFO, and the hair algae went away, along with many corals before I figured out my mistake (I kept thinking it was the lighting). Anyway, now my two tanks are full of little creatures, sps and lps colonies, and some soft corals (primarily zoas and palys). My 40 has six fish--a large watchman goby, two small clowns, a small royal gramma, and two ventrilis anthias (awesome fish, btw). I feed the fish at least three or four times per day and the corals once a day, plus spot feedings twice a week. The tank is skimmerless, I do a 10 gallon water change every three to four weeks, yet I have to dose nitrate to maintain. 2.5 ppm (you probably already know this, but when you start dosing NO3 your tanks phosphate demand will likely rise, so you may need to start feeding heavier...I know I do). Hope this is helpful. Also, read Adam's (Battlecorals) new post today.

 

[Vaughn17]

To clarify my earlier post, young tanks don't generally have a high nutrient demand and are unable to handle an influx of nutrients, which leds to nuisence algae, cyano, and the like.

 

[BCRIBS]

Really appreciate all the info. I had about 4 years of reef keeping prior to this. (8 years ago) At the time I was successful not even checking for Ca, Mag, or Alk. Just PH and water changes. No dosing. I think I was keeping the corals alive but never got any growth. (lps and soft) I battled hair algae and cyano; got through it with water changes, urchins and GFO. I was always playing catch up per the guidance of a local store. It was almost like this series of events happened to all his customers to slowly feed more products. This time around I have more experience and a better understanding of how to react to certain issues. That's why I started the tank with GFO, Carbon, Skimmer, cleanup crew, weekly water changes, dosing daily and obsessively checking parameters. My SPS interest is after reading Zeovit forums and others. I want the challenge however I would hate to throw money at something without putting my best foot forward. I think I am on the right track here.

 

[BCRIBS]

That's a tricky question, personally, I killed a whole bunch of corals with GFO, stuff that I'd had for over a year (like hammers that tripled in size). I think everyone's experience is different, but this is what happened in the beginning to my 40 g mixed reef tank:

I fed the fish and corals, alot and often. The tank didn't have many hitchhiker inverts at that time, such a brittle stars, asternia stars, bristle worms, spagetti worms, etc., so it got green hair algae. Lots and lots of GHA. So then, I started using GFO, and the hair algae went away, along with many corals before I figured out my mistake (I kept thinking it was the lighting). Anyway, now my two tanks are full of little creatures, sps and lps colonies, and some soft corals (primarily zoas and palys). My 40 has six fish--a large watchman goby, two small clowns, a small royal gramma, and two ventrilis anthias (awesome fish, btw). I feed the fish at least three or four times per day and the corals once a day, plus spot feedings twice a week. The tank is skimmerless, I do a 10 gallon water change every three to four weeks, yet I have to dose nitrate to maintain. 2.5 ppm (you probably already know this, but when you start dosing NO3 your tanks phosphate demand will likely rise, so you may need to start feeding heavier...I know I do). Hope this is helpful. Also, read Adam's (Battlecorals) new post today.

Dang, How do you feed the fish that many times per day? Retired? Auto Feeder? what kind of coral food do you use?

 

[BCRIBS]

That's a tricky question, personally, I killed a whole bunch of corals with GFO, stuff that I'd had for over a year (like hammers that tripled in size). I think everyone's experience is different, but this is what happened in the beginning to my 40 g mixed reef tank:

I fed the fish and corals, alot and often. The tank didn't have many hitchhiker inverts at that time, such a brittle stars, asternia stars, bristle worms, spagetti worms, etc., so it got green hair algae. Lots and lots of GHA. So then, I started using GFO, and the hair algae went away, along with many corals before I figured out my mistake (I kept thinking it was the lighting). Anyway, now my two tanks are full of little creatures, sps and lps colonies, and some soft corals (primarily zoas and palys). My 40 has six fish--a large watchman goby, two small clowns, a small royal gramma, and two ventrilis anthias (awesome fish, btw). I feed the fish at least three or four times per day and the corals once a day, plus spot feedings twice a week. The tank is skimmerless, I do a 10 gallon water change every three to four weeks, yet I have to dose nitrate to maintain. 2.5 ppm (you probably already know this, but when you start dosing NO3 your tanks phosphate demand will likely rise, so you may need to start feeding heavier...I know I do). Hope this is helpful. Also, read Adam's (Battlecorals) new post today.

Also why do you think it was the GFO? Were you just using to much? Changing to much and stripping the water or no nutrients?

 

[Vaughn17]

Dang, How do you feed the fish that many times per day? Retired? Auto Feeder? what kind of coral food do you use?

I work at home. The 40 g tank is in my office. I feed the corals reef roids, freeze-dried calanus, and rotifers. The fish get Reef Nutrition roe, PE calanus, and mysis.

 

[Vaughn17]

Also why do you think it was the GFO? Were you just using to much? Changing to much and stripping the water or no nutrients?

I used too much. My water wasn't that high in phosphates to begin with (especially after the GHA got established).

 

[happyhourhero]

To address your original question: I would pick up a birdsnest frag and maybe a monti and see how they do. You wont break the bank with these and if they do well, in a couple of months you can start adding more demanding sps.

Its always so interesting to me about how everyone's tank behaves differently. I drip kalk to keep up with my Alk and Calcium demands. I usually keep it around 9 but it will swing to the upper 7s to the upper 9s on occasion. I only test alk once a week and mg once every 2 weeks. I guess since my tank is used to me as its caretaker, it never shows any signs of displeasure.

 

[steevareno]

Are you growing coralline algae? That's a good indicator you can grow sps.

 

[Caseyoidae]

^ Best advice, start with cheap frags. Remember that adding a lot of sps down the road may require larger doses of your alk/cal. I just found this out the hard way when I added a football sized birdsnest lol

 

[BCRIBS]

Are you growing coralline algae? That's a good indicator you can grow sps.

Just started to on the MP 10 and the seams, the Rock is hard to tell because it is real reef rock and is colored like coralline. The LFS had a acro under LED for 35 bucks so I figured I would give it a try now that I have had really stable ALK and the dosers hooked up

 

[nex64]

Come on over to the IE , I'll give you some bulletproof sps frags to try outttt

 

[steevareno]

Should be fine. Good luck

 

[LakeCityReefs]

With the corals you have in the system now a 3 ml daily dose doesn't seem like much. I have a similar looking tank that's 4 months old and consuming 30 ml per day.
The birdsnest corals in your photo look ok. Use the birdsnest as an SPS tank indicator. The bushy polyps will retract if they don't like the perameters or drastic swings. Start your new SPS low in the tank and slowly raise them higher into the light. Keep N03 at 5-10 ppm and P04 at .05-.08. Good luck!

 

[BCRIBS]

With the corals you have in the system now a 3 ml daily dose doesn't seem like much. I have a similar looking tank that's 4 months old and consuming 30 ml per day.
The birdsnest corals in your photo look ok. Use the birdsnest as an SPS tank indicator. The bushy polyps will retract if they don't like the perameters or drastic swings. Start your new SPS low in the tank and slowly raise them higher into the light. Keep N03 at 5-10 ppm and P04 at .05-.08. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I am running my ALK at 8.0. Because it is on the lower side of the spectrum I have heard the consumption/dose is lower. It's stable... Are you running at 10DKH or higher? The birds nest looks good but in the beginning I think I burned it by high ALk dose/swing on one of the branches. It's been cool since...