Your can be considered an advanced reefer when you can monitor your corals and keep them healthy and thriving for the most of the time.
To do this you need to build a good foundation, which consist of experience, knowledge of water chemistry and and good deal of luck.
By understanding water chemistry you are already half the way of being a succesfull reefer.
There are a lot of corals to be considered difficult to keep, but that's only because we can't forfill their needs. That's why they die on us.
When we can meet the corals demand than they are not hard to keep anymore.
From the popular corals sps are known to be the hardest to keep, simply because they need more water parameter to be controlled than soft corals and they have a narrower bandwith where they can be kept.
For SPS you need additional building material like Kh, Ca, Mg etc... besides the usual nutrient control
Sorry... battery low
To be continued
To understand why some corals flourish and why some perish you need to understand what make them tiks in our tank. Bij controlling the parameters in a narrow bandwith you can keep all of them happy together, but that is just the difficulty. You need to understand what to take control over.
Most sps have a more narrow bandwith to stay within then soft coral, but sps can also be devided in 2 sections.
The tolerant sps, with a broader bandwith. I.e. most Montipora's, pavona, stylopora etc.
The specialist sps, which require you to stay in a smaller bandwith.
This account for most acropora species (except some easy ones like the green formosa)
My tank have been running 9 years now.
Till 2011 is wat mayorly filled with softcorals, lps and a few sps. I was happy with the result and wasn't really looking for more and I followed the usual path, but ommited wc.
This period i called the "lucky" period because looking back i am surprised i kept things alive for such a long stretch of time.
Since end 2011 i took matter into my own hand and started to take control over most known and measurable water parameter and start stocking my tank with als sps i vould get my hands on.
Now i have 180 species thriving in my tank. Reaching from softcoral, sps to acropora.
When you follow a "known path" you might keep some corals and even some difficult ones for a while. You might even have a tank full of sps.
What make you a advanced reefer is the ability to solve mayor problems you encounter on you way for a long strech of time.
Some people have the luck to never experience mayor problems, or they are wise enough to stay away from the "problem corals".
So the answer to the question is: Yes and NO.
