EASIEST ACRO: Is there such a thing as an "easy" acro?

Is there such a thing as an "easy" acro?

  • YES (tell us about it in the thread)

    Votes: 139 46.0%
  • NO

    Votes: 60 19.9%
  • Not sure

    Votes: 99 32.8%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 4 1.3%

  • Total voters
    302

revhtree

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Finishing up acro topics for the week so let's keep it simple....simple acros that is!

Is there such a thing as an "easy" acro? Do tell.

In your opinion what is the easiest acropora there is to keep alive and healthy?


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flashsmith

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Not sure if it's a true acro but it's gotta be a birdsnest. I started with a tiny frag 8 months ago and now I have colony about the size of a softball. I've also got some cheap ugly green ones that grow like crazy long forgot what they are called. Hulks I think.. I tried the cheap ones to see if I could grow them and they did. The first time I bought a nice one it died. So no more acros for me. I'll stick with meat corals.
 
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Tuan’s Reef

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My 1st sps was a purple pocillopora. I couldn't kill this sps with fire. It spawned everywhere over taking the tank. Had to shut it down and restart. I learned not to get any fast growing coral just so it makes me feel good. I go after corals i truly want to spread.
 

landlubber

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they're all easy acros if the environment situated for them is right. however, many are unwilling to accept any changes and things become very difficult quickly.
Beginners shouldn't be too hard on themselves as every acropora you see in a successful reef tank that same hobbyist has killed it twice trying to get to that point lol
 

The_Skrimp

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This green acropora grows faster than any frag in the tank right now. I got it when the tank was still pretty new and didn’t even have a doser keeping things steady then but it made it through all the uglies and swings. I’ve had frags of it on a frag rack in lower light grow just as fast. I don’t know that there’s such a thing as a bullet proof acro, but this one is definitely easy.
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Treefer32

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I would say Acro pora and SPS are easier than what people make them out to be. I was terrified to try them until someone gave me a couple frags and they just took off like weeds. I thought I was crazy for not trying them sooner. However... Just as fast as they grew... They also die just as fast.... I come to realize extreme changes in water quality can kill them faster than anything else. So, for every successful Acropora I've grown, I've killed much larger colonies in their place...

Even something as simple as montipora, I've killed. I should write a book, but the secrets to growing acropora is not calcium or alkalinity or chemistry (well a little of it is). After I lost a bunch of montipora, a large ball of a stylapora and noticed recession in my acropora at the same time, I sent my water for ICP test. I thought something drastic must have happened. OD of alk, or a rusty nail fell in the sump or something. . . No, my trace elements and alkalinity, calcium, magnesium were all fine, in check.. What was it? Phosphates. They had hit .55 ppm.

I lowered them SLOWLY! Over the course of 3 months and the acropora and montipora regrew. The stylapora was lost.

This year, I noticed my hammers all dieing, so monitored my phosphates more closely, they had hit .4 ppm. So, started, lowering them again. My last test came back .03 ppm. Nitrates at 23 ppm. My acropora was receeding because my phosphates got too low. I'm letting them slowly rise back up and although I lost parts of one colony, the rest of it is growing back over the dead skeleton now that there's some phosphates.

What's the secret to acropora. I was told the complete opposite of what I'm going to say now. So many reefers claimed ultra low nutrients to grow SPS. I don't know why other than they didn't want other hobbiests selling SPS? Maybe that was the case. .

The secret, in my very humble opinion and experience is to have phosphates!!! But not too many. The sweet spot I've found is .05 to .2. My Acropora grew like weeds in that range. My best growth for nitrates was between 10 and 25 ppm.

Below 10 nitrates and it'll die from what I've seen. Literally starve to death. What's funny is that now that I've lowered my phosphates, my xenia is dieing off.. (I'm o.k. with this) but goes to show that more corals than we realize need phosphates to survive both hard and soft corals.

The only coral that is looking amazingly better than it ever has in the last 3 years of having it is my acans. I'm thinking Acros like phosphates being higher, and Acans of all corals need ultra low phosphates and nitrates to grow...

I would argue a SPS grow out tank will require water conditions that LPS cannot thrive in. But softies would and do. I've got orange zuma mushroom corals coming out of my ears from just one frag. I now have close to 20 in under a year. It's all about the phoshates for softies and SPS. Who knew! And something that Coral companies don't want you to know...

That said, I actually like LPS more than SPS. However I've killed more LPS over the years than SPS. . . Go figure... That LPS are much more sensitive to water conditions than SPS.
 

mattdg

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Once a fox flame get's going, try to stop it.

There is no such a thing as an easy acro tank. Once you have the experience, necessary equipment and your acro tank dialed in, there are definitely some acros that are easier than others.
 
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spsick

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Oregon tort is bulletproof for me. It’s made it through crazy high tin and Dino events that killed or stalled almost every other acro.

On the other hand green Slimer and millies don’t do well in my tank so go figure.
 

i cant think

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Is there such thing as an Easy Acropora? Not really… what grows well in someone’s tank won’t always do well in yours. In general yes there are coral from SPS that will grow at some alarming rates once they settle. The same can be said with Acropora species. There are some such as Red Planets, Fox Flames, Most “Staghorns” that will just wreck havoc in the tank as they grow.
Many fast growing Acros are labelled as easy but I find that the colour of the chlorophyll (Well, the algae) really determines how easy each coral is. Certain coloured algae needs a different lighting PAR to remain happy and healthy.

What corals are easiest? The green, Green algae and chlorophyll is often much easier to care for as it can be under less lighting. Red chlorophyll often needs more lighting to be “happy”.
 

stephj03

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Generally, staghorns (slimers included) are easier for most ppl to keep and that's why they are recommended.

Pocci, Stylo and bird's-nest are not Acros but many start with them as a baby step into Acros.

Stags are also less popular bc with the exception of the battlestag/Ultimate stag, Hugo's rainbow stag and Richard's rainbow stag, they are a little boring looking as frags (nobody really growa colonies anymore).

For this reason, IME, when ppl ask this question, what they normally mean is:. "what popular, high end, named, rainbow type acro is easy to keep?"

And

When they say "easy to keep", they typically mean:. "what popular, high end, named, rainbow type acro is easy to grow fast with vendor level colors maintained from fresh out of the box frag to fraggable mini colony".

And

That is as much harder question to ask bc strains like this end up saturating the market since everyone can grow them well and produce well colored frags.

Examples:. PC rainbow (although some struggle with this one), TSA Bill Murray, TGC Orange Creamsicle, Red Dragon,
 

Aquatic acrobat in your aquarium: Have you ever kept an eel?

  • I currently keep an eel in my tank.

    Votes: 29 14.8%
  • I have kept an eel in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 33 16.8%
  • I have not kept an eel in my tank, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 35 17.9%
  • I have no plans to keep an eel.

    Votes: 96 49.0%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.5%
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