How much SPS makes it dominant?

[Petcrazyson]

So this is a question that I have and surely others do as well. Hoping the community can share their thoughts and experience on this subject. The Mixed Reef reef tank is the hardest reef tank we try to take care of, harder than an SPS dominant reef. But how much SPS makes a tank dominated by them? As someone who is building a Mixed Reef but has almost over 50% SPS, what would you say that tank is? What amount of SPS coral makes a reef tank SPS dominant, in your opinion.

 

[kenchilada]

Are you bored?

 

[Petcrazyson]

Are you bored?

Yea idk where I was going with this tbh lol.

 

[bar|none]

In my mind dominant just means if you are making decisions on what conditions to promote, you promote SPS conditions for thriving over other conditions.

 

[areefer01]

Just keep it simple and let math answer the question.

Count all corals. This number is 100. Now count and group soft, lps, sps, etc. Convert to percent. Highest = what is dominant.

Let us not over complicate or think things.

 

[exnisstech]

51%

 

[jmichaelh7]

If you have tons of flow lol

 

[mdb_talon]

Just keep it simple and let math answer the question.

Count all corals. This number is 100. Now count and group soft, lps, sps, etc. Convert to percent. Highest = what is dominant.

Let us not over complicate or think things.

Haha that sounds pretty complicated. How many zoa heads classify as 1 coral? A polyp? Is a 5 polyp frag the same weighted amount as a rock with 700 polyps?

To me I think in terms of dominant its more about having a lot of SPS and basing tank decisions on it. Back to zoas I may have a ton of zoas in a tank that also has a lot SPS, but if I make decisions of flow/light/etc to keep the SPS happy then I would consider than an SPS dominant tank.

 

[Jekyl]

Any sps I would view as a dominant tank. Just due to the requirements over other coral.

 

[areefer01]

Haha that sounds pretty complicated. How many zoa heads classify as 1 coral? A polyp? Is a 5 polyp frag the same weighted amount as a rock with 700 polyps?

To me I think in terms of dominant its more about having a lot of SPS and basing tank decisions on it. Back to zoas I may have a ton of zoas in a tank that also has a lot SPS, but if I make decisions of flow/light/etc to keep the SPS happy then I would consider than an SPS dominant tank.

Lol - no. We can't ignore the over think step No need to count per polyp or head in some cases you can group.

8 sps
5 lps
1 soft

To me this would be considered a SPS dominated mixed reef. Just my take on it. I like simple so this works for me. I think Craig Bingman actually talks about this a bit - or why it is important (the breakdown or composition) in his MACNA 2022 Quantitative Calcium Alkalinity talk. Well worth the time watching it.

 

[MMcKenna1029]

In my mind dominant just means if you are making decisions on what conditions to promote, you promote SPS conditions for thriving over other conditions.

I believe this is the correct way of looking at it. It is less about the numbers and more about the environment you are trying to create.

Matt

 

[ReefGeezer]

ONE! If you have one SPS coral and want to keep it alive, make it grow, and get some good color, its welfare dominates every decision made about the tank i.e. flow, light, nutrient and trace element levels, and etc.. Maybe not the easy ones like Monti's, but certainly the more sensitive ones like Millie's and Acro's.

 

[AKG]

One because sps die for no reason even if you purposefully try to cater to them sometimes. If you have a tank and you don't cater to sps, you basically got lucky.

 

[Smite]

When your flow and lights kick on. Your LPS and softies are whipping around WAY to fast but the polyps on the nub of that new acro frag finally start moving around......

 

[bnord]

I would argue 10% makes it dominant - if you dont set all parameters for SPS its not going anywhere - LPS and softies can tag along

 

[homer1475]

In my mind dominant just means if you are making decisions on what conditions to promote, you promote SPS conditions for thriving over other conditions.

^^ This right here is what makes me say your acro dominant or not.

 

[elysics]

Yeah what the others said. If you keep your LPS happy, buy a bunch of acro frags, they die and you figure that acros just aren't for you, that's an LPS/softie/whatever tank.

If you try to make everything happy and compromise with conditions so nothing is in peak happiness but nothing is outright unhealthy, that's a mixed tank.

If you try to make your acros happy and if other corals get sickly or die you figure they weren't meant to be, that's an acro dominant tank.

 

[Alexopora]

Agree with the others is that it is the sps that is automatically dominant, since u need a lot of baby sitting. Especially Acros, you’ll definitely finding yourself fine tuning the tank to its tune. As for the counting per head/ per type of coral. I’d classify a sps dominant tank by its mass, you could have one type of sps be it a single Acropora variant or montipora variant etc but if its entire mass takes up like half of the total coral mass in your tank. Its an SPS dominant tank to me.

 

[Tamberav]

One stick if it is the only coral in the tank.

 

[cloud9aquariums]

If you're basing your parameters around sps health then it's sps dominant ‍