So you want to grow beautiful acropora huh? Take a tip, leave a tip.

[revhtree]

Today let's discuss tips for keeping SPS Acropora (acros) healthy, growing, colorful and beautiful! We would love for those of you who have been able to successfully grow colorful acros in their reef tanks, long term, to chime in and leave us a tip! Let's talk about it!

1. What's an important tip for keeping colorful and healthy acros in your tank?

2. Was there a "breakthrough" or an "ah ha" moment that took you to the next level in your acropora success?

I would really like to hear only productive comments for the benefit of the readers please!

@Aqua Pet Garden's reef tank

 

[duke62]

Stability, patience, waterflow ,lighting and check your Alk daily

 

[ChiCity]

religiously turkey baste the rocks….

 

[Acroporaguy]

1. Strong random flow, a lighting fixture with very good spread (I prefer T5 lighting), and having detectable nutrients is very important to me. Also stable water parameters are a must, I test alk and calcium almost every night. Making sure you purchase your Acropora from pest free sources, and having a QT setup for them is key for long term success. You'd be surprised how many vendors have pest ridden coral (AEFW, red bugs, black bugs...)

2. Never really had a breakthrough as I've always had good success with Acropora. One thing I have noticed is that a mature tank can grow SPS a lot faster compared to a new one. Usually around the 1 year mark (dry rock tank) Acropora really start taking off in my experience.

 

[aabjones888]

Everything said here

Stability, patience, waterflow ,lighting and check your Alk daily

 

[Pico bam]

Stability, patience, waterflow ,lighting and check your Alk daily

I second this i say stability of all parameters really and alk is stability very important.

 

[cPr]

1. What's an important tip for keeping colorful and healthy acros in your tank?

Stability….This is the main thing that I’ve found to be the key to keeping acros happy.

2. Was there a "breakthrough" or an "ah ha" moment that took you to the next level in your acropora success?

Keep is simple….It can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be. Align your parameters and keep them stable. Don’t chase numbers and if you need to change anything, remember, the only thing that happens fast in this hobby is spending money.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

religiously turkey baste the rocks….

What is the purpose here?

 

[Kongar]

What is the purpose here?

Seconded - I'm curious how this helps.

 

[Acros]

Been successful for last 2 months. Acros are encrusting and have a ton of new corallite growth. Start with live rock from the gulf and dose live phyto daily.

 

[uli-the-nihlist]

Stability, patience, waterflow ,lighting and check your Alk daily

Eloquent and concise.

Special emphasis on waterflow, though! Lighting and stability are a given with most SPS, but I find considerations of flow to be very much overlooked. Once I upped the flow through my system by adding an extra PH, all my acros started growing like weeds and had massive polyp extension.

As @jamesdomini4 said, phytoplankton has also aided in coloration in growth since I began dosing every other day about 3 months ago.

 

[rusgum]

Stability, patience. Large permeability of nutrients, a lot of fish, a lot of food and good export.

 

[ChiCity]

What is the purpose here?

prevents detritus from building up in the pores of the rocks, which subsequently leads to gha and other algaes anchoring down

 

[Goaway]

1. What's an important tip for keeping colorful and healthy acros in your tank?

2. Was there a "breakthrough" or an "ah ha" moment that took you to the next level in your acropora success?

1. I have no idea
2. No experience other than DOA acros.

3. Other

Back in 2010 I made an order from diver's den on an acropora, I forget which species. It showed up dead and I never tried again.

 

[Bpb]

Time. Time has been the biggest contributor to success. Regardless of stability, parameters, lighting tech, or powerheads, older tanks just seem to grow sps better than younger ones for me.

My previous tank grew acropora like a factory was putting them out. It was also 8 years old. My current tank is about 6 months old. New rocks and sand. Otherwise all identical lighting, equipment, and parameters. Now my sps are struggling and barely clinging to life

 

[alain Bouchard]

stability, strong flow. strong light often equals better growth, while better coloration appears under a bit less light. Works for my tank, anyway.

 

[LuisPerez711]

I'm curious to know if anyone charts their parameters and compares those parameters to a specific time in your tanks life when your SPS were thriving? Every tank is different and each member seems to have a different set of parameters they keep to and each tank can be amazing.

For example, I've had my parameters at: 8 dkh, 40ppm NO3, .15 PO4, 480 Ca, 1400 Mg, PH 8.05 to 8.31. Growth was great. But then I read that you can increase your growth rate with higher Alk and nutrients, so I raised my Alk to 9 dkh over a month. All other parameters stayed the same, and I started to get burnt tips and STN. Now I'm slowly going back to 8 dkh because what I charted at that level seems to work better.

I am by no means an SPS guru, just looking to learn from them.

 

[cPr]

I'm curious to know if anyone charts their parameters and compares those parameters to a specific time in your tanks life when your SPS were thriving? Every tank is different and each member seems to have a different set of parameters they keep to and each tank can be amazing.

For example, I've had my parameters at: 8 dkh, 40ppm NO3, .15 PO4, 480 Ca, 1400 Mg, PH 8.05 to 8.31. Growth was great. But then I read that you can increase your growth rate with higher Alk and nutrients, so I raised my Alk to 9 dkh over a month. All other parameters stayed the same, and I started to get burnt tips and STN. Now I'm slowly going back to 8 dkh because what I charted at that level seems to work better.

I am by no means an SPS guru, just looking to learn from them.

I believe this is why we shouldnt chase a specific number, more of a ball park that works for your tank. Alk kept within a certain range rather than a specific number has always been what ive found to work best.

You end up chasing numbers that someone else has but, no two tanks are the same so what works for someone else doesnt mean that you will find success. I try to run my tanks between 7-8 on the alk because that seems to work for me but some people run 8-9 and have great success.

 

[Koigula]

Get back to chasing pH wil Kalk and fresh air exchange in the house.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

prevents detritus from building up in the pores of the rocks, which subsequently leads to gha and other algaes anchoring down

In a tank with high enough flow to be supporting acros, I'm surprised you would have enough detritus settling in your rocks to constantly be blowing them off.