Ok I'll just go ahead and admit it. It's embarrassing....

[Christopher Davis]

Stable mag alk and calc, run carbon. Good light.

 

[Johnson556]

Been in the hobby for a year and I'm already an Acro junkie. Keeping them have been fairly easy for me, with the exception of one Alk spike that wiped out 30% of my colonies a couple months back, thank you Red Sea Coral Pro.... I would say the keys to my success are keeping things as simple and stable stable as possible. I test a lot and feed a lot.

1.) I dose ESV Bionic throughout the day and AcroPower once a day (small dose). Alk and Ca don't move from 8.4dKH and 420ppm. PH fluctuates from 8.1-8.2 over a 24 hour period.
2.) Flow Flow Flow, my 180G has 4 MP40's on Reefcrest mode running at 85%
3.) Lights are six 80W T5's and Three Kessil A360W's (I would never run the kessils alone).
4.) I run an over sized protein skimmer, Algae Turf Scrubber, filter sock I swap out every 5 days, and ROX Carbon. Even with 3 cubes, Selcon soaked Nori, and Reef roids each day, my Nitrates are stable at 2ppm.
5.) I don't dose anything I can't test and do a 20% water change every two weeks.

 

[revhtree]

That surprises me Rev. They're not that hard, but you have to get good equipment and be somewhat "anal" watching your tank.

I think all the talk about needing to dose nitrates is probably detrimental for most getting in. My belief is that MOST in the hobby still have nutrients too high for sps. Stock lightly, skim heavily (3-5x rating on skimmer), drip kalk, add more as needed (2 part or CA RX), feed lightly. Personally I skim wet. Never seen a study if that matters but I figure it has to pull more and the cleaning to keep skimming gets taken out as you don't get build up as fast. Plus, more salt added to keep sg. 10% ish water change weekly. Good lights, good skimmer, good flow, temp control, stable alk.

Not boasting but I pretty much have the best of the best equipment, stock lightly skim hard etc. I am seeing a common theme though with a lot of you guys and it's KALK!

 

[JMM744]

I am trying to keep sps ( acros ) going. I found two things that mattered in my situation. First was alk and keeping it consistent. ( there is that word again)!!
Second is lighting. In my instance I finally got a par meter in the tank and found I was under 200. Sand bed was almost 0. My donut corals are doing fine but the sticks and montipora just fade away. Since getting both things more stable and adjusted I am seeing better results.
Don’t get me wrong, I still kill sticks but have a better survival percentage. Just bought some great frags from A great sponsor and manages to kill at least one frag right away. His rep and corals are very good so no slight on him , it’s just the operator,. Going to keep trying till I get it right. Par is close to 300 now and alk is very stable but maybe a bit high at 11. Bringing it down very slowly, very slowly.
Good luck Rev, it will come.
Jim

 

[mitch91175]

That is actually an excellent piece of advice from you friend. I DO buy maricultured colonies on occasion from my favored LFS, but they are twitchy and I would always suggest that folks that are novice with SPS avoid them. I probably get 3/4 of them through, but it is not unusual to have one just die. The cool thing about them is that many come with a commensal crab. Once they settle in, and get fragged; those frags are quite 'hardy'.

Yeah, I have a connection where I can get them by the box, and when I first got back into SPS I thought to myself, just get a box, dip, acclimate, and have some instant gratification and I tell you from 25 colonies, I have only 2 that survived. Tell you I wasn't ready (which I partly knew, just testing the waters )

 

[mitch91175]

Not boasting but I pretty much have the best of the best equipment, stock lightly skim hard etc. I am seeing a common theme though with a lot of you guys and it's KALK!

Heck yeah. Even though I don't have a lot of SPS in my DT, I run KALK anyways. My buddy also swears by the stuff. This is his tank:

His is running through a KALK stirrer. I am dreaming of the day

 

[WV Reefer]

One thing that is interesting is the amount of pico tanks that are keeping spa including acros. While of course not growing colonies like Sanjay, me and few others grow various sps enough to trim them from time to time so they fit. These are systems that get big changes like 100% weekly waterchanges and no dosing, so while the growth isn't on par, so to speak, with large systems it has really led me to question what is really key to keeping these guys with all drops weekly with no dosing and then instant spike back up with 100% w/c to high reef Crystal levels and I personally change the kessils intensity and color to whatever I fancy that day and it doesn't seem to matter.

Now this doesn't mean this is best, but I have coraline algae and it does make me consider what is the driving force with loosing corals. Not that I have answers but still interesting.

My fav pic of my pico. Maxima has great growth still after several months. I have never tested a single parameter in this system. Yes I know the rules are different with pico, but I think there are things to learn from them when comes to coral survival.

I agree about pico/nano tanks. The successes are too many to deny. Pico reef keepers used to be outliers but now it’s quite common.

Below are some pics of some of the sps I have kept or are still keeping. I attribute my success with sps to the basic keep things simple method. I don't dose, just perform water changes every week. I think the results speak for themselves.

Agree completely. I abide by the K.I.S.S rule.

Keep it simple and consistent. What goes in must come out.

Great looking Corals BTW!

 

[revhtree]

Looking back at one of may tanks from 2008 just gave me a boost in confidence. Not the best you've ever seen but it was decent for sps and me!

And this was the growth in a 6 month time period.

 

[revhtree]

One thing I do remember is with this tank I was running a Calcium Reactor on this tank.

 

[revhtree]

And I was in love with ACANS!!!!

 

[revhtree]

Heck yeah. Even though I don't have a lot of SPS in my DT, I run KALK anyways. My buddy also swears by the stuff. This is his tank:

His is running through a KALK stirrer. I am dreaming of the day

Gorgeous!

 

[ca1ore]

One thing I do remember is with this tank I was running a Calcium Reactor on this tank.

I think it can be tricky to ascribe success to one piece of equipment; but I have always felt that installing my CaRx was the thing that turned the corner for me with SPS generally. I would not run a coral heavy tank without one.

 

[ca1ore]

That's a nice looking tank - picture is typically over saturated, but still very nice. Kalk stirrer like the avast unit is a very worthwhile purchase.

 

[jda]

I also attribute CaRx to sustained success, but like Simon said, this can be overdone in our minds. Keep in mind that melting natural media does not only provide the big-three, but also numerous other trace elements that dissolve in equal proportion to that in which they were gathered to make the skeletons that they are melting. It is like the perfect circle of life.

 

[mitch91175]

That's a nice looking tank - picture is typically over saturated, but still very nice. Kalk stirrer like the avast unit is a very worthwhile purchase.

Hey that was straight from my iPhone X. The picture doesn't do that tank any justice, trust me.

 

[TexasTodd]

CA RX are great but also can be tricky with very bad problems if they malfunction. Best system I ever had incorporated one and I'm probably going to add one to my newest system.
Speaking of KALK, my last system was run 100% on super concentrated (worked up to) kalk drip 24/7 (90 gallon garbage can stirred continuously with more like a Kalk slurry, so much more than water can hold normally) , a few water changes, and some magnesium added, a big skimmer and light feeding. That was it. Video was 14 months in from frags.
You talk about SPS issues, I'm horrible with IT / computer! If this doesn't work or isn't allowed to post, my apologies and please pull.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BHwzmFlNjJM&ved=0ahUKEwitwfi3woraAhUQXa0KHSgUDEQQwqsBCCkwAA&usg=AOvVaw3GSfBH3OAN6qJEuYi0xHRN
Todd

 

[Bdrake]

I personally feel like flow is understated in the hobby and just as important as lighting, especially when keeping SPS. The problem is that its harder to accurately gauge flow than lighting, alk, etc.

 

[ca1ore]

It is like the perfect circle of life.

Aw, now I've got the Lion King song playing in my head ..... thanks a lot!

 

[ca1ore]

Hey that was straight from my iPhone X.

Exactly

 

[Brew12]

Looking back at one of may tanks from 2008 just gave me a boost in confidence. Not the best you've ever seen but it was decent for sps and me!

And this was the growth in a 6 month time period.

That looks nice!

Being new to the SPS game, I have noticed something and am definitely in the "stability" camp.

I would be willing to bet when you had that beautiful looking tank, you didn't run LED's.

And I say that, not because I don't like LED's, but because they do not promote stability. They are too easy to adjust, so we adjust them. 3 weeks without growth? Change a setting! More light! Less light! We can get that coral to grow..... we just need to find that perfect setting!!!

My tank just recently turned the corner for SPS. I was able to keep SPS of about any type alive, but it wouldn't color up and it wouldn't grow at more than a snails pace. I kept tweaking things hoping to find what I was missing. In February I decided I would just let things sit and do what they were going to do. No more changing flow settings. No more changing light settings. Sure enough... about 2 months later things started growing. What I have found fascinating is that when a new branch on an Acro starts growing it will grow much faster than the original section grows at. Especially if it grows out of where the frag encrusted. My guess is that the coral will adapt to the conditions in our tanks as long as we aren't continuously changing those conditions.

This was driven home to me again last month when I wanted to run less red and green in my LED mix. I use Mitras fixtures, so 8 channels. I reduced the red and green from 80% to 50% during the peak window. A very minor change, right? A week later my tank went from consuming 46ml of alk supplement per day to 38ml. I did nothing else that would have contributed to that drop in consumption.

So those are my thoughts as an SPS noob.