On a scale of 1 to 10, how difficult is it REALLY to keep Acros?

[Wasabiroot]

I said 7 because I was averaging all of em. But really, I'd go by species and assign each a number from 5-10. The ones that love the reef crest environment like gemmifera? Probably a 9 or 10. Carduus or lokani for example? 5ish.

None are appropriate for first time reefers with no knowledge of chemistry or stability. You can start a tank with acros but be prepared for hard mode(TM)

 

[Kasrift]

The board is just peoples opinion so take it for what its worth.
If you understand the hobby its quite simple, imo.
20g nano cube from day one to month 8. I firmly believe anyone can do this if they have a plan!

Looks like you got rid of your spider problem too, great job!

 

[Hairyteeth]

On a scale from 1 to 10.... how upset are you when you grow out an Acro for 3 years and it dies overnight?

This just happen to me, all other corals totally fine but all my acros just tanked…it hurt a lil

 

[Saminpa]

It’s not exactly the idea that acro, or any coral for that matter is hard to keep. I’d lean more towards the fact that keeping very stable parameters early on in reefing can be the difficult thing to learn. Once you figure out exactly how your tank operates and how to keep daily stability, which for some is a few months and others a few years, you can grow any coral with proper lighting and stability.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I say average as even some lps can be difficult.

 

[InvaderJim]

I haven't managed to keep a single one alive in a tank that's almost 2 1/2 years old. So i'd say and 11 for me.

 

[madweazl]

I don't find them difficult to keep. I believe most people mess with their tanks too much to give them a chance to adapt and grow. I've had frags stall out for a year and not do much but slowly spread then just blow and grow a foot in a year. Others grow like weeds from day one. If they aren't declining, don't mess them. Just gotta give them a chance to do their thing.

 

[Dburr1014]

I gave it a 6.
Once you know basic reef husband and tank is stable it gets easier.

 

[Syntax1235]

Easy when things are going well, almost darn impossible when they are not.

 

[freepizza80]

Easy to keep Acro, very hard to get good colors and polyp extension. I have close to 50 different acro and it's hard to keep them all happy. Some look great some times and other look beautiful other times, can't keep all happy all the times.

 

[freepizza80]

Easy to keep Acro, very hard to get good colors and polyp extension. I have close to 50 different acro and it's hard to keep them all happy. Some look great some times and other look beautiful other times, can't keep all happy all the times.

 

[Tamberav]

Depends? Old school ORA acro's are pretty forgiving and Maricultured not so much.

Then green slimer vs smooth skin like a red dragon and such.

Anyways, I voted average.

 

[aquaregia]

Survive or thrive? Look at today's TOTM. Most would find such a tank beyond the realm of possibility so in that sense I'm giving it a 10!!

 

[Coinzmans Reef]

I voted average, but if I am honest and I want my reef to look like Brad's @MantisReef its more like extremely difficult for me.

 

[mattgsa]

I think it depends on your experience level. The longer I'm in the hobby, the less I struggle. I will say having the right equipment does make a lot of difference.

 

[jtichenor]

The more you automate the easier it gets. Otherwise, you'll be maintaining an acro tank several times a day to keep it stable enough to keep them happy.

 

[Rusty_L_Shackleford]

I voted 1 because if you learn and adhere to the absolute basics of reef keeping, keeping acros will be easy too. Here's why: Testing is easy. Choosing how much to feed the display is easy. Mixing salt into RO/DI water is easy. Choosing how much water to change and when is easy. Making sure that water is the same temperature as the display before pouring it in is easy. Choosing sufficient lighting that you then set and leave alone is easy. Choosing a circulation pump that provides sufficient flow and then not changing flow settings all the time is easy. The main reason why people think acros are difficult to keep is because they have the assumption they're hard to keep and overcomplicate maintenance/system setup which stresses their acros and usually kills them. 1. Only do things to keep your tank on track and only if ABSOLUTELY necessary. 2. Make small changes based on weekly testing. 3. Don't overthink things. You usually don't NEED the high end or additional equipment you think you need and it can make your tank less stable as a result (Ex: You probably don't need a skimmer + ATS + dosing vibrant + miracle mud + seachem matrix + twelve other things that just the skimmer and regular water changes, combined with feeding a little bit less would accomplish anyways and without adding additional points of failure and resulting acro-killing instability). 4. Be patient.

Absolutely spot on. However i would like to add one thing. If youre going to change anything: only change one thing at a time. And do so slowly and incrimentally.

 

[Gary67]

i have a prolem with my skimmer i can shut it off totaly and it shuts down and i can turn it up and it overflows i try to hit the sweet spot so the skimmer catches the crap just not working and the bag next to it never fills up with water like it used to clean bags every 4-5 days switching out with three different cloth bags my big problem is trying to clean the tank nitrates are around 40 or so way too high have some amonia just not cleaning the water bag used to be dirty now very little just want to know if it's the valve or is it me i have been working on it so much that i'm getting crazy with myself corals are going south 1 maybe 2 acro's alive the rest dead 1 hammer alive and 2 mushrooms are ok plenty anemones around that i can't get rid of that's another horror story any ideas on the skimmer please sos thanks gary

 

[kenjung]

Its a 10, success maybe possible for a newbie if knowledge is lacking eventually one day it will RTN/STN. Long term success require constant learning, its like there is an opponent that trying to knock you down you have to know the next move. Those huge colonies that grow from a frag are not easy.

 

[One Reefing Boi]

I think labeling all acropora as advanced is misleading. Many of them are, especially when you're trying to get perfect coloration. But there's plenty that imo are suitable for beginners. I have a no name tort (looks like a Cali tort) that survived crazy dkh swings to 17+ and all kinds of salinity/nutrient swings in a 4g pico tank. Wouldn't say it was thriving, but it grew consistently and colored up well.

Same - whole tank made it through about 3 weeks at about 4dKH last summer. Was traveling for work and don’t realize the dosing pump tube in the bottle fell off so the dosing pump was dosing air. Full mixed reef tank! Honestly I didn’t know there were issues cause nothing looked upset lol

now I test weekly