How many of you keep SPS? POLL

[SPS2020]

When I brought my Alk down to 7-8dkh, it made a huge difference with PE in my tank. Here are a few recent frags:

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Enjoy my sps. All types. Keeping it stable. Tuff to pick one Lol sry

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

Enjoy my sps. All types. Keeping it stable. Tuff to pick one Lol sry

Very nice. What's the acro in the 4th pic?

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Very nice. What's the acro in the 4th pic?

BC raindrops on roses

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

BC raindrops on roses

Beautiful. Gotta love Adam's stuff.

 

[Perry]

BC raindrops on roses

Nice one brother, mine based out, but finally shooting up and throwing branches, not quite as colorful as yours

 

[Perry]

Here is a quick i-phone snap of my display. My frag system is about get replaced, so of my "valuables" are starting to move in here. Left side is getting a little crowded and will have to bust it up a little like I did the right side. Once I get the frag system stabilized.

Lovely Scott!!!
Beautiful array of colors, well done, splendid!!!

 

[steveschuerger]

The only sps that I can get to grow reliably are the easier ones like stylos and montis. That being said I do love acros and am once again attempting to succeed with a couple I picked up.

 

[carbasaurus]

They are my primary corals. I can’t buy enough of them

 

[Gary67]

i love them just finding it tough to grow them if it's not one thing it's another but my tank is starting to get seasoned some what have a few growing lost about 4-5 k in acro's didn' t know what i was doing trying again mixed tank now but my favorite is acros time takes time i'll get there first LFS destroyed me for lots and lots of green but i will be ok just going a little slower this time around at first i thought it was a candy shop. 2 days ago cleaned my tank i hit a ss cake frag re glued it in the morniing it was white and deadi'm not giving up the ship

 

[Reefer Matt]

75 gallon all SPS tank. I suggest patience, and a mature tank large enough to support stability (at least 40 gallons) for long term success in an all sps tank. Smaller tanks are possible, but will swing in parameters without automation, and may cause stn and rtn. It is much easier to keep sps if they are not in a mixed tank, as you can keep nutrients lower without sacrificing color or health. Quality lighting is a must for optimum color as well. I use Kessils, as I like the shimmer, and it colors up corals like no other light, imo.
SPS coral require the most patience when first setting up. Give it at least 6 months to a year to let the tank mature before fully stocking. The tank pictured was cycled with dry rock and live sand for 4 months before any coral were added. After the tank is established for a few years you will find the corals will frag themselves as you clean the tank. They grow very fast when happy. Good luck!

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I'd like to throw in a tip. Do not secure your coral permanently until after you've seen how it reacts to the location it's in. This isn't just for SPS, but that is what coral it applied to recently for me. I had to move one of my acros recently due to the tips losing flesh. My guess is it was in too high of light and possibly too high of flow. After moving it to a lower light area with less flow, the tips stopped losing flesh. Had this been secured down in a more permanent way, I might not have been able to do so.

 

[Acros]

Still a relatively new hobbyist, tank is just over a year old.

Cali Tort. Grew from a 2" frag in 5 months.

Currently working on getting sustained detectable nutrients.

 

[skimmerman]

I made a ton of mistakes but I use the kiss method no automation. Homemade auto top off. Calcium reactor. Upgraded my skimmer to a bubleking double cone 200.manually add trace elements weekly.

 

[skimmerman]

7.0 to 7.5 ALK.
420 to 460 CAL
MAG jumps around a bit, but with purple box IO, it mixes up a bit different sometimes. I am always above 1300 though.
NO3 10 to 20PPM
PO4 0.10 to 0.20PPM. And no thats not a typo.

I don't sweat small swings. I look more for trends in the numbers. I test twice a week, and if one day it's 7.5, and the next its 7.0. I wouldn't intervene unless the next test was lower. Which would mean I just need to up my dosing.

I'm currently looking into maybe going into setup a calcium reactor, as I'm up to dosing a gallon of 2 part every other week.

As my tank is very mature, this is where my nutrients have settled with my filtration methods, and biomass.

Overall pretty much stable. I could send a picture of my notebook(Yes I actually use a pen and paper lol) thats shows a pretty stable system with very minor fluctuations over very long periods of time.

One thing I try to keep in mind.... The corals we have in the hobby have been around for thousands of years, what we may perceive as a long period of time, may not be to the coral. Something that happened a month ago, might only start to effect the coral today. Only one of the reason I log all my test results.

Been using a calcium reactor for years. Never have to bother with magnesium since it’s in the effluent.I just manually add some trace elements once a week. Co2 fill two to three times a year.I would recommend the automatic bubble counter never have to check like a needle valve. Set and forget

 

[Sdot]

My slice of the ocean. Been running for about 3 years. It not always a fun ride, but noone can say the journey is boring...

It went from this:

To:

To this:

 

[k2-]

Few things that worked for me after 2 years of struggle (260 gallon) to get me to stable :

• Apex trident - Keeping track of foundational parameters (Alk, CA, MG)
• Calcium reactor - Constantly filling up of dosing container was a pain for me which also lead to swings. Calcium reactor solved it.
• ICP - trace elements are more important than I thought, i observed very little growth untill they were balanced. ICP pointed that out and i use KZ 1-4 system to maintain trace elements via dosing. I do not go crazy but do test it every few months
• Test strips - I have constrained on time so i don't do detailed testing every week but use strips for general identification of range (e.g. if nitrates are between 0-20 ) - if i find something out of whack i go with the hana test kits. stability is key than ideal parameters that keep swinging
• Flow in refugium - My system has a 40G external refugium - changing the flow (so water in and out is thoroughly run through the refugium macro algae has helped me keeping nitrates/phosphates in check
• Dont touch it - Make careful changes not knee jerk, leave it alone is better philosophy than make changes into your system all the time. Also panic need to be justified (ph swing of .1 or ca swing of 10 or mg swing of 50 is not cause of concern) - once identified keep observing and make gradual change (e.g. increase reactor flow rate etc.)

 

[Dburr1014]

Stability.
My Apex has gotten me to the stability I need for them to thrive. I grew them before but the daily tasks are done without me now. But, I hate my Apex and the programming and the fact that sometimes it does not connect to fusion.
This coral is growing like a weed, wish I remembered the name. LOL

Four months growth from last pic.



November pic.

 

[rusgum]

I just love and understand acropores and they don't give me any trouble.

 

[Oregon Grown Reef]

I just love and understand acropores and they don't give me any trouble.

Beautiful. This is true beauty.