New to SPS-How long to wait before making changes to SPS placement?

tc760

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My latest tank is 180G and is a mixed reef tank but I am pushing towards more SPS. I have kept simple SPS over the last 8 years such as Purple Stylos, Montiporas, Birdsnets but now I am looking to get more diversity and color.

I read about being patient with SPS and not changing things and just letting them adapt. I've seen people say it takes months for frags to adapt and color up. I've read that a frag in my tank may look 100% different from the tank I bought it from because of the differences in systems. I am struggling with how long to wait for results before changing anything.

I bought several frags back in May and for the most part, only a few died. I get it I'm inexperienced and that will happen. My question comes from my patience. The frags that survived all looked somewhat drab and not so pretty for months then started to color up a bit. A few are starting to really look nice so I am happy but others like my Walt Disney is mostly green. It has grown over the frag plug and is encrusting the rock which is great but doesn't have the color I hoped for. Now my option is to adjust my lights and take a change of other corals having issues or bust it off and basically start all over in a new location. What if its not lighting?

How long do I wait for the frag to color up before deciding it needs to move or change something? Bleaching or negative effects happen pretty quickly. But what about a coral that seems to be growing but not coloring up?

I feel like lighting is my main challenge. Tank stability is pretty consistent. I test regularly (Manually and with the Trident for the big 3) I have AWC setup and every other month I do a 20% change manually. I dose two-part with a Neptune DOS. I add ACRO power once a week. I have next to no algae issues. Some GHA in my sump but not the display. No Cyano or other nuisance algae.

Parameters as of last night.

Temp 78 degrees
PH 8.29
Alk 8.46
Calcium 402
Mag 1306
Salinity 1.026
Nitrate 3.4 (Hanna Checker)
Phosphate .04 (Hanna Checker)

Lighting is 3 Radion XR30 Gen3 with Aquatic life T5 Hybrid.

Assuming my lighting is good and core parameters are good what else should I test for or possibly dose?
 
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tc760

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Yeah I forgot to put that in. When I first set up my tank last year I did rent a par meter. Most of the areas where I have placed SPS corals are in the 300 to 400 range. The Walt Disney that I mentioned is sitting at about 370. I will grab some current pics tonight and show my current state.
 

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BAUCE

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Everything looks pretty good to me including your nutrients and par values. As long as those nutrients are stable I dont see a problem although I get a little better color with nitrates around 5-10 and phosphates around .08-.12 . (others go even higher with good results)

How long has this tank been set up? If youre dealing with newer dry rock you're going to have problems unless you're an advanced reefer.

I'd also run an ATI icp test to make sure your results are accurate and that you dont have anything weird going on.
 
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