New to sticks, will this be enough?

[rennjidk]

Hello everyone. I'm new to keeping acros and just ordered my first battlebox. I'm looking for any advice or input that maybe helpful.

System is 16g and maintained with AFR and a 12oz daily WC. Lighting is 2 Primes giving 250-350 across the rockwork on AB+ measured with Apogee. Age 1yr running w/ 3yr live rock and ocean direct sand.

No3 30
Po4 0.10
dKH 8.2
Cal 480
Mag 1343
Temp 77.8F
Sal 34.7ppt

Flow is a single Nero 5 set to pulse between 950gph & 1250gph every 8 secs.

Some of my concerns are the single wave maker. I really don't have room/outlets for more equipment, nor the budget at this point. Also, I pretty much only feed TDO pellets. I don't dose anything else besides AFR. I do have some reef chili laying around that I could start feeding with, or make the switch back to frozen. I'm not sure how much PE is dependent on feeding, or how much color comes from things like amino supplements.

Any thoughts or comments greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

Sticks are some of the hardest corals to grow. Tank stability and good conditions are going to be what makes you successful with Acros. That being said, from my understanding:

No3 30 - This is way too high. Should be 0 to 10 depending on your methodology.
Po4 1.0 - Too high, should be .03 - .1.
dKH 8.2 - This should be okay, but you will have better growth around 9.0.
Cal 480 - This should be okay. I would shoot for 450.
Mag 1343 - I've seen articles saying not to measure Mag. So... I'll pass here?
Temp 77.8F - This is good.
Sal 34.7ppt - This is good.

With all that being said, I would also look at other factors. How long has the tank been up? What PH and dKH swings do you have? Can you keep parameters stable> How much experience in reefing do you have?

I am not trying to talk you out of Acros, but maybe there are a few steps you need to take to be prepared for your shipment.

 

[rennjidk]

Sticks are some of the hardest corals to grow. Tank stability and good conditions are going to be what makes you successful with Acros. That being said, from my understanding:

No3 30 - This is way too high. Should be 0 to 10 depending on your methodology.
Po4 1.0 - Too high, should be .03 - .1.
dKH 8.2 - This should be okay, but you will have better growth around 9.0.
Cal 480 - This should be okay. I would shoot for 450.
Mag 1343 - I've seen articles saying not to measure Mag. So... I'll pass here?
Temp 77.8F - This is good.
Sal 34.7ppt - This is good.

With all that being said, I would also look at other factors. How long has the tank been up? What PH and dKH swings do you have? Can you keep parameters stable> How much experience in reefing do you have?

I am not trying to talk you out of Acros, but maybe there are a few steps you need to take to be prepared for your shipment.

Phosphate is a typo, should be 0.10ppm. The system has been pretty stable and running for over a year. I don't have an apex probe or anything to track PH, and I won't know dKH consumption until the sticks are in (this was a bta/softie tank previously), but I feel fairly confident in my ability to test and adjust my dosing pump to keep it right around 8dKH reliablely. I've kept numerous other lps and nems over the years.

 

[bobnicaragua]

I would lower the nitrates a little. Best of luck, acros are demanding!

 

[rennjidk]

Grim is right. Your nutrients are too high. The acros probably won’t make it long in those conditions. You need to do change out most of your water before adding the acros.

There is an issue with your maintenance routine. Lock it down in a way that keeps your nutrients where they need to be.

Pellets add a lot of nutrients.

The system maintains 0.10ppm Po4 through feeding alone. I set the No3 to 30ppm with NaNO, with my preferred target being 20-25ppm as AFR has a carbon dosing effect, and I don't want to bottom out. If I didn't raise them, they'd be undetectable. I've seen a few studies which show that Po4 over 0.15ppm causes brittle skeletons, but nothing about No3 levels having any effect. Has this really been your experience?

 

[bobnicaragua]

I was mostly concerned with your phosphates, but if 1 is a typo, .1 is fine.

Nitrates at 30 may be pushing it a little, I would target those a little lower, which it sounds like you are already doing.

I’ve ordered from battle corals before, the frags came in colored up and were good size.

I tried all for reef for a while. It worked fine, but drove my calcium up to over 500.

 

[DanyL]

Nitrate and phosphate levels will be fine to support SPS as it is, they’re adaptable.
However, I join other and recommend lowering at least your nitrates to around 10-15, reason being quite simple - it’ll be far easier to acclimate corals from other systems (less drastic changes == less stress == higher survival rate == happy reefer).

Other than that - your params and setup seems fine to me, I wouldn’t touch the other parameters.

Flow wise - for now you’ll be fine, later on you may need to come up with a solution if coral start blocking flow to each other.

Note that the biggest challenge keeping SPS in small tanks is their instability - it is simply harder to keep fluctuations under control.
But it also comes with the benefit that when something does go wrong - it’ll be far easier to influence than in bigger systems.

Good Luck!

 

[rennjidk]

What about products like Acropower, Reef Chili, RS AB+, BW coral amino, etc? Does anyone notice increased growth and or coloration over just feeding the fish?

 

[DanyL]

Sure, many people.
But these products are tailored more towards lower nutrient systems.
On high nutrient systems you’ll likely not see any change but increased algae growth.

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

Keep us updated on what you end up doing. How many Acros did you order?

 

[Reefer Matt]

Looks pretty good! A water change will help get nutrients down if needed. I aim for .06 ppm PO4 and 15 ppm NO3 myself. But you might be okay there! Have fun! Here’s an older video of some of my acro tips.

 

[rennjidk]

Keep us updated on what you end up doing. How many Acros did you order?

I ordered 8 frags

 

[rennjidk]

Looks pretty good! A water change will help get nutrients down if needed. I aim for .06 ppm PO4 and 15 ppm NO3 myself. But you might be okay there! Have fun! Here’s an older video of some of my acro tips.

I just picked my targets out of thin air after reading a bunch. A lot of coral farms, including WWC, run 20/0.1 N/P for nutrients. It just seemed like an easy to dose number for my tank size.

 

[Dburr1014]

+1 you should be fine.
Try them out, keep it stable.

 

[TheGrimReeferTx]

I ordered 8 frags

Let's see a pic of those bad boys once you get them settled in!

 

[SamMule]

Those parameters are just fine for growing SPS.
Don't chase numbers, just keep them in the ballpark. In a tank that small, they will fluctuate a bit. Don't get freaked out and start trying to "fix" things in a hurry if they move a little. Test often and keep them from trending up or down.
Same goes for alk, cal, mag.
Test alk daily to dial in your dosing to match alk consumption.

SPS in a nano is awesome. Keep it simple and you will find success comes much easier. Good luck!

 

[PR_nano]

Stability is key. If you need to make adjusting make them slow. Test, test and test again.

I run mostly softies but recently started to get some easy SPS after previous failed attempts due to stability.

In the last two months I started to see them encrusting and growing branch instead of withering away.



Slowly growing

 

[dadnjesse]

What about products like Acropower, Reef Chili, RS AB+, BW coral amino, etc? Does anyone notice increased growth and or coloration over just feeding the fish?

With such a small tank and already high Nitrate you don't need to dose all that crap. Water changes alone will keep your parameters stable.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Hello everyone. I'm new to keeping acros and just ordered my first battlebox. I'm looking for any advice or input that maybe helpful.

System is 16g and maintained with AFR and a 12oz daily WC. Lighting is 2 Primes giving 250-350 across the rockwork on AB+ measured with Apogee. Age 1yr running w/ 3yr live rock and ocean direct sand.

No3 30
Po4 0.10
dKH 8.2
Cal 480
Mag 1343
Temp 77.8F
Sal 34.7ppt

Flow is a single Nero 5 set to pulse between 950gph & 1250gph every 8 secs.

Some of my concerns are the single wave maker. I really don't have room/outlets for more equipment, nor the budget at this point. Also, I pretty much only feed TDO pellets. I don't dose anything else besides AFR. I do have some reef chili laying around that I could start feeding with, or make the switch back to frozen. I'm not sure how much PE is dependent on feeding, or how much color comes from things like amino supplements.

Any thoughts or comments greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My concern is the high Nitrate and the fact that the tank seems to not have any other coral in there (which could indicate lack of biological diversity).

The coral you've ordered are probably from a system with significantly lower Nitrate and I'd be concerned whether they can adapt fast enough. Do a test on the water in the bag to see where the Nitrate is so you know where you stand. It may be worth a water change if necessary bring Nitrate closer to what the coral are used to, and then letting it swing up over a few weeks if you intend running the tank levels that high.

In my Mixed Reef 13g Evo I run Nitrate at around 5-10 ppm (dosing AFR)

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

good luck I'd like to see what you got love me sum BC