My First Acros!

ORReefer · Sep 21, 2020

Hi Everyone,
I have kept many other corals and been in the hobby since late 1990's but I just now got up the courage to order my first Acropora corals from WWC and I'm looking for some advice on parameters, hardiness, things to watch out for from any one that has experience with either the WWC Pandora Acro and/or the Aussie Plum Passion Acro (other non-species specific Acro advice gladly accepted). I've tried to do some research on them but don't see to be finding much care info.

Current Parameters:
Sal = 1.025 - 1.026 (usually one of the other when I test)
Cal = 375 (I know this one needs to go up. I'm working on it (carefully so as not to shock other corals) and it should be at least 400 before the corals arrive)
Alk = 7.8
Mg = 1500-1600 (I want to keep this on the high end but it's a bit higher than even I want. I can't seem to ever get this any lower. Will this cause any issues with these Acros?

Also, do you have any beginner friendly favorite Acros?
Any, Acros I should avoid until I have more experience with them?

Any advice for a first time Acropora keeper most appreciated!

PicassoClown04 · Sep 21, 2020

Hi!! Welcome to sticks!! If you’re worried about money, WWC ain’t your store. There are lots of live sales that have really good deals on acros and they’re often for sale in the forums where you can get em really cheap, especially if the seller is in your area and you don’t have to ship. That said, here are some tips!

Make sure your acros are getting a lot of light and flow, they are high flow high light corals. If they show any signs of bleaching, move them down and allow them to recover before slowly moving them back up so they have time to light-acclimate.

Reefroids really helped the growth of my acros. I have both high end and beginner and it definitely sped things up. I target feed with a syringe whenever I get time, usually 1x a week.

Don’t let acros touch!!! They burn each other to death

Make sure to watch your calcium levels, they will start dropping quicker as the acros take calcium from the water to build their skeletons. If you don’t have an auto-doser of some sort make sure you test often!

Blue spectrum is proven to have the quickest growth rates for corals! If you don’t like the winded look, feel free to turn up your whites but make sure you’ve got at least a little blue in there!

That’s about it for me! If my other corals are doing well, my acros are doing well. Mine do very well in a high-nutrient environment where I feed 1-2x per day very heavily and do the reefroids. I’m having the best results under AI Primes but the hydras my other tank grow em well too. They’ll tell you what they need if you know how to listen. Water quality, stability, and perams are your big 3 for acro success

PicassoClown04 · Sep 21, 2020

As far as recommendations for really really pretty but beginner friendly acros are Garf Bonsai, Red Planet, anything that’s called a ‘digi’, and red dragon! Garf is definitely my fastest grower but the Red Planet is my favorite, red dragon close behind. If you’re running a mixed reef, I also recommend Birdsnest but they don’t do well in SPS dominant tanks and I have no idea why.

Birdsnest has a very ‘fluffy’ rounded look it grows in kind of a sphere shape. Garf is very thin and branched, it’s a tabling acro. Red Dragon is what we call a ‘smoothy/smoothie’ which means it’s only got polyps on the end, it’s a branching colony. Red planet has very deep cups and fluffy polyps, it’s a tenius and a tabling acro.

Green one is the Birdsnest, purple is the garf bonsai, tiny little red/magenta colony is Red Dragon, and large hot pink colony is Red Planet.

ORReefer · Sep 21, 2020

footgal said:
As far as recommendations for really really pretty but beginner friendly acros are Garf Bonsai, Red Planet, anything that’s called a ‘digi’, and red dragon! Garf is definitely my fastest grower but the Red Planet is my favorite, red dragon close behind. If you’re running a mixed reef, I also recommend Birdsnest but they don’t do well in SPS dominant tanks and I have no idea why.

Birdsnest has a very ‘fluffy’ rounded look it grows in kind of a sphere shape. Garf is very thin and branched, it’s a tabling acro. Red Dragon is what we call a ‘smoothy/smoothie’ which means it’s only got polyps on the end, it’s a branching colony. Red planet has very deep cups and fluffy polyps, it’s a tenius and a tabling acro.

Green one is the Birdsnest, purple is the garf bonsai, tiny little red/magenta colony is Red Dragon, and large hot pink colony is Red Planet.