My techniques for growing SPS

[swannyson7]

Good stuff Swanny! We need to get some more folks here into SPS. And this should help for sure. Great looking tank! : )

Thanks Craig! I agree about getting more people into SPS. If SPS becomes the big craze this year, just think of the sick pieces that'll start getting imported! :xd:

 

[swannyson7]

Some more LPS & Zoa eye candy for you guys...

 

[swannyson7]

Just for reference with the difference that dosing AAs and feeding corals can make, here's a shot of my efflo. The colony was beautiful when I purchased it, but shipping was rough on it and when it came in it was clearly unhappy. Several people have difficulty getting efflos to color up fully, and this one still has a ways to go to reach it's full potential, but it's definitely on it's way. Here's a shot after being in my tank for a month. Work was really crazy so I was getting lazy with my AA dosing & boradcast feeding of corals...

After seeing the coloration suffer in several SPS colonies, I began my ritual dosing once again and here's a shot from a few months later. It's started growing again and the coloration has improved immensely.

 

[swannyson7]

1200 views and only a handful of questions/comments?? I'd love to hear feedback from you guys, positive or negative.

 

[Troylee]

That's good stuff swanny... Keep up the great work... Great write up btw.1smile1

 

[Aquaph8]

Ok Ill bite. Question for you. Your tank looks incredible, you can grow some really nice corals but how do you pack that many in? Do you get a lot of fighting between corals? One more. What tells you when to move your corals, no growth, color? I have a hard time knowing wether to leave it alone or move it sometimes.

 

[swannyson7]

That's good stuff swanny... Keep up the great work... Great write up btw.1smile1

Thanks bro!

Ok Ill bite. Question for you. Your tank looks incredible, you can grow some really nice corals but how do you pack that many in? Do you get a lot of fighting between corals? One more. What tells you when to move your corals, no growth, color? I have a hard time knowing wether to leave it alone or move it sometimes.

As far as fitting in the corals, that's a relatively tough one. Before I place anything in my system, I look at pictures of mature colonies to see what the overall growth pattern is, and that plays a large part in my decision for placement. I also research each coral to see what it prefers in terms of lighting and flow to narrow down possible locations. By doing a little bit of planning ahead of time, I haven't had many problems with corals stinging eachother as they grow(although, I've had a few pieces of LPS that have sent out some long stinging tentacles that have managed to damage various corals). With the aquascape set up the way it is as three seperate islands, I have quite a bit of surface area to place corals, so that makes a big difference as well. Some corals are only viewable from certain angles, but as they grow in, they'll be more visible. I contantly check the tank for any corals that are getting too close to eachother and trim them as necessary. It's almost like having a bonsai tree, but the constant fragging helps fund my addiction!

To determine if a coral needs to be moved, I just keep an eye on PE, coloration and growth. When I first get a coral, I'll place it in the sandbed and slowly acclimate it to an area that I think will be a good fit of light/flow based on either past experience with the same species, or research online for the same species. If a coral has poor PE, I usually will adjust placement to change the flow. If a coral has poor coloration, it can be either lighting or flow. Bleaching/lightening of the corals pigmentation is usually a case of too much lighting, while browning out is usually a case of not enough light. IME, if the base of a coral between the coralites, or the base of say, an encrusting monti, is not getting it's optimal color, I usually make adjustments to flow before lighting. For instance, I had a pokerstar that had a brown base with bright green polyps, but when I moved it to higher flow, the blue started coming out within a week. My strawberry shortcake had good coloration on the corallites, but the base was pale, so I adjusted flow and it improved a bit. Then I moved it into lower lighting and the color improved even more. It's really a case of trial and error with educated guesses based on previous experience of your own or others with similar corals.

 

[swannyson7]

The most important thing is patience. Don't expect instant results, and don't make any drastic changes or you'll stunt growth and cause bleaching/browning. After each change, I usually wait a couple weeks to monitor growth, coloration, & PE before moving again. Once it's in it's sweet spot, you'll know... you should have new growth tips with good coloration. If a coral is browned out and the new growth tips have good coloration, the rest of the coral should color up in that spot if given ample time to adapt & recover.

 

[skinz78]

I only see one flaw. Where's the clams?

 

[bige]

It looks great! I learned a lot. My tank is not big enough to question you. I have a 180 waiting till I move and then I can question you. But it looks like your doing things right.

Do you think the AA are helping? What about sps feedings? This making a difference? Even on small systems?

 

[swannyson7]

I only see one flaw. Where's the clams?

Haha, Just for you :tongue:

 

[skinz78]

LOL I couldn't remember if you had some in there or not. Is that one a black and white or and electric blue Maxima?

 

[swannyson7]

It's a black & white maxima

 

[skinz78]

BTW I have a orange monti digita frag just like the one in your last pic. My frag is tiny and it keeps breaking off of the rocks when I glue it down. I'm afraid that I may loose it if it doesn't attach soon. If I loose it I may have to hit you up for some frags and one of yours. I really like the color, it is a nice contrast to most other fuzzy sticks.

 

[swannyson7]

I love digitatas, but they don't seem to get much love. Sure, they grow like a weed, but until you can show me a bright orange acro, I'll always have them in my tank. Unfortunately, they're very brittle and I seem to accidentally "frag" mine every time I put my hands in the tank. The colony would easily be 2-3 times the size if it wasn't constantly being broken, but I can't go more than a week or two without snapping a piece off. If you ever need a piece, just let me know!

 

[swannyson7]

It looks great! I learned a lot. My tank is not big enough to question you. I have a 180 waiting till I move and then I can question you. But it looks like your doing things right.

Do you think the AA are helping? What about sps feedings? This making a difference? Even on small systems?

I'm confident that AA dosing and coral feeding makes a difference in my tank, but that's probably due to the lack of nutrients in my tank otherwise. Without the supplemental feedings, my corals lighten up kind of like you see in a zeovit system. Some people like the pastel colors, but I prefer nice deep coloration and attribute the pastel colors to the corals expelling their zooxanthellae as they essentially starve for nutrients. Don't get me wrong, zeovit is a system that has been proven to yield great results in growth & coral health, but it's just not my cup of tea. If your tank has little or no nutrients for the corals to feed on, supplemental feeding will have a positive impact, but it's walking a fine line with maintaining low NO3 & PO4 while providing a sufficient food source.

 

[skinz78]

I hear ya on the Digi's, just the other day I broke my whole green colony in half and I barely touched it...

 

[swannyson7]

Here's a few good questions that were raised over PM. I'm sure other people have the same questions, so I figured I'd post the question & response in here,

so this is totally off topic but i didnt want to jack the thread, i see you keep sps and might be able to help me.

my ph is always low like 7.8 or 8, and my alk is super low like 6 or 7.

so i have been over the past week and a half raising my alk with baked baking soda. So last night before i dosed the last bit i had and thought it was supposed to be where i wanted it around 10 or 11 it tested out at 8.so i added it and then tested it at about nooon today and it has gone down again to like 6-7, any ideas as to why.

One piece of information that you didn't mention that is important in this discussion is your current magnesium level. Magnesium is necessary to maintain levels of calcium & alkalinity within an aquarium. You should strive to keep your Mg levels between 1300-1600 ppm.

As far as testing alk, you should always wait about an hour after dosing to test your parameters so that it can be spread evenly throughout the system. Your alk will drop because it is used to precipitate calcium as a skeleton is formed by the corals. In a way, it's a good thing that it's being depleted because that indicates that your corals are growing. Alkalinity is usually depleted at about a 2:1 ratio with calcium, but in short term situations, that ratio may be slightly skewed. You may be currently depleting at about a 3:1 ratio, but that doesn't mean that you should withold calcium dosing because it will eventually catch up to a normal 2:1 balance. (Randy's 2-part recipe compensates for this ratio by making the alk roughly 2x stronger than the calcium solution) Calcium & alk have an inverse relationship, so if you raise calcium, your alk will drop and if you raise alk, your calcium will drop until they are in balance.

I would ramp up your alk dosing slightly to get your parameters where you want them. Your calcium levels will naturally fall as alk goes up, but not all that significantly. Remember, the most important part of alk is stability, don't feel that you need to strive for a dKH of 11. I run my tank at 8 dKH and have never gone any higher. Once you get levels where you want them, don't dose anything for a day and then retest. Use a reef calculator to find out approximately how much two part you'll need to reach your desired levels again and bring the levels back up to where you want them. Whatever you need to add will be your current daily demand for 2 part. However, if your alk or calcium drops significantly over that 24 hour period, (more than 50 ppm of calcium or more than 1.4dKH {0.5 meq/l}) then you will need to dose more than once per day to prevent swings in calcium & alk that will be rough on your corals. If you have frags at this point, then you shouldn't have that problem, but as your corals grow, you may need to make that change. Also, your demand will change as corals grow, so you will need to retest every so often once you have your dosing dialed in to see if your dosing needs to be increased.

Something you may want to look into is kalkwasser dosing to help stabilize your Ca/Alk and also raise your pH a bit. This can be done by dripping a kalk solution, using a kalk reactor, or adding kalk to your ATO reservoir. Other ways to raise your pH include adding an airstone, providing fresh air for your tank, and running a light over your sump on a reverse light cycle. By adding an air stone in your sump, the bubbles bond with CO2 within the water column and allow them to escape, thus raising your pH. Introducing fresh air to your system will also raise pH, and this can be achieved by just opening a window or running the air line from your skimmer outside to inject fresh air. In case you haen't noticed, pH will fluctuate throughout the day and is lowest when the lights are out. By adding a light to the sump on a reverse light cycle (On when your reef lighting is off), it will help prevent a drop in your pH, stabilizing it.

 

[GR808]

1200 views and only a handful of questions/comments?? I'd love to hear feedback from you guys, positive or negative.

I can't imagine how there could be anything negative about your growth and color.. Terrific thread and spectacular corals...
I have nearly exactly the same parameters that you have not nearly the same growth. Actually only some of my corals grow really well and some don't. I don't run BP and I need another TLF150 to separate my carbon and phosban... I've also changed to all DIY LED lighting about 4-5 months and go and really starting to notice growth now. I'll admit it takes a little time to get used to (the corals) but I suppose when they do, they'll just take off.

 

[swannyson7]

Thanks bro, I really appreciate the kind words. Give your corals time to acclimate to the new lighting and they'll start taking off soon. My growth seems to come in spurts where my acros will grow like weeds for a month or two and then come to a screeching halt for a month. Not sure why it happens because the parameters are stable, and maybe it's just my imagination, but that seems to be the way it goes in my tank. Running the carbon & phosban in seperate reactors would be beneificial. GFO should have a slightly higher flow rate so that it tumbles while the water should flow through the Carbon without really tumbling it. Running them in the same reactor will cause the media to break down and enter your water column. As I'm sure you've read, there have been several publications recently that attribute Carbon dust in your water column to HLLE and if the phosban is breaking down, then it will be released into the system and it won't be able to absorb the PO4. The phosban grains will settle onto your sandbed and won't receive optimal flow for maximum efficiency and althought all of the phosphate absorbing medias claim that they won't leach PO4 back into the tank, I wouldn't trust a phosban filled sandbed for long term success.