First SPS

Drakonis · Aug 22, 2016

So yesterday I was near a LFS I like to visit (hour and a half away so not so local) and I had the intent to buy an acropora. well I got talked into one little fancier than I had in mind but hey. I brought home 3 corals total first being a purple plasma acropora frag. the second I'm not real sure exactly what it is, was given to me as a "freebie" it's an SPS frag structurally similar to a pocillopora but time will tell I guess. it is suffering from necrosis and was giving as a if you can save it its yours figured for free what the heck. last one is a Blastomussa ice blue in middle and a maroon ish surround.

I dipped all three in seachem reef dip, extra attention and application to the mystery SPS. the LFS guy said the necrosis is not contagious to the other corals (the acro was in same tank anyway) so hope that's true I'd hate to create a problem there. once the dip was done I cut the live ends off of the bleached base and glued them to plugs. thinking additional dips would be beneficial but this is a new area for me what should I know at this point?

Tahoe61 · Aug 22, 2016

The down low is that you need to maintain consistent water chemistry for sps and most lps.
Personally I would not acquire an sps/ and unknown displaying signs of stress regardless.

Excellent job with regard to fragging the piece, but I would not dip them again for now.

Keep testing water chemistry for the big 3 Ca/Alk/Mag.

If you post an image of the unknown we can probably ID it for you.

Congrats on your new corals, remember to acclimate them to your lighting. :-)

Drakonis · Aug 22, 2016

I have just the t5 on them today, will introduce halides slowly I did just over a hour last night and will do same for a week or so and then move up in halide on time. my calcium is around 450 alk is 10.5dkh. I don't have test for mag yet but tank has been up for about 10 months and has been stable 0 nitrates 0 phosphate 1.025 salinity. ph likes to float around a bit from 7.8 to 8.2 believe this is co2 related in my house as when lower open window rebounds it, I have started preparations to dose 2 part should be ready in around 2 weeks. in the mean time I do have kalk powder on hand if numbers sag.

I did place the mystery SPS away from the rest. I'm not familiar with necrosis diagnosis but I didn't see any legions it was just bleaching out bottom up and some googling indicated that might be mal nutrition or lighting related so I hoped a dip and good environment would get it to come around

Drakonis · Aug 22, 2016

So ive been reading alot on here in regards to SPS and people that are having issues (might just be making myself paranoid) but seems low nutrients are a common response to issues. being i test 0 for nitrates and phosphate should i remove the carbon and gfo to allow levels to come up a bit?

I had been out to eradicate nutrients fighting some algae off. still have some algae but mostly in places i cant reach and lately with my nutrients that low manual removal has been winning.

Gpettit721 · Aug 22, 2016

Just feed more don't go crazy and see how they respond

luke33 · Aug 22, 2016

Agreed ^^ just see how they do before you go changing your water chemistry. Generally ime sps will adjust to your parameters if you keep them consistent.

Tahoe61 · Aug 22, 2016

Drakonis said:
So ive been reading alot on here in regards to SPS and people that are having issues (might just be making myself paranoid) but seems low nutrients are a common response to issues. .

This is just the newest craze being repeated over and over on forums. Yes chronic low nutrients can have an adverse effect on sps, but hobbyist have been successfully keeping sps in ultra low nutrient tanks for decades. Is it possible to over polish too quickly, yes so I have never added too many means of nutrient removal all at one time. Again do not get all caught up in the low nutrient theory.
You just introduced the corals so it's too soon for a coral to show compromise related to low nutrients in your system. A coral will exhibit signs of stress to issues with water chemistry quickly though so keep the big 3 consistent.
You can also add products that target sps such as Acropower, Reefroids, Reef Chili which is what I do.

Gpettit721 · Aug 22, 2016

Another thing just cause your not registering nutrients doesn't mean there aren't available nutrients...

Drakonis · Aug 22, 2016

Here is one of the frags of the mystery SPS, i dont have the best hopes but...

Tahoe61 · Aug 22, 2016

Looks like a Pocillopora, but I can not be sure. Pocillopora are one of the hardest sps and actually can become invasive. Other possible ID's are Stylophora or Seriatopora. Once it opens it will be easier to nail down the ID.