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

Have you been successful at growing colorful & healthy ACROPORA longterm?

  • YES, longterm

    Votes: 147 30.9%
  • NO

    Votes: 138 29.0%
  • Haven't tried yet

    Votes: 165 34.7%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 26 5.5%

  • Total voters
    476

elorablue

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I voted 'other' since I've only had Acros for a month. I'll know how I'm doing in another few months lol , but so far so good

RRC Shazam.jpg
 

Ruben Sacramento

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Detectable nutrients?!?! What’s that? I’m honestly considering running ulns cause I can’t keep it.

I swear to god I can’t keep any level of phosphates and nitrates. Saying I don’t have a lot of fish yet (qt takes forever especially when a disease wipes it out near the end) but I overfeed to oblivion and nothing changes.
I usually aim at 0.05-0.10ppm po4 and 5-10ppm no3

Most likely you are over filtering. That's very common now a days with highly lit refugiums and algea reactors. If you are one of thothose cases just try lowering fuge ligh intensity and in turn photoperiod
 

Cool tangs

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Get a dosing pump to keep alk stable, make sure your lines dont have any trapped air in the early stages. Check alk dialy until you find a balance.

Dont freak out and change any settings when 1 acro is RTNing or starts forming white tips otherwise you can wipe out all the others(ugh done this one before).

Make sure your lighting is strong enough I was surprised at the difference it made when I got a basic par meter indicating that i didnt have my lights on strong enough!

Give them time, I havent kept acro long but im determined and these are just some of my initial mistakes.
 

Charles Zinn

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I have done it and full understand what you are saying.

My experience with basting out rock was that after a few weeks of blowing it off religiously, I stopped getting anything off of my rock. Water would be just as clear after.

I haven't done it in months and just tried for S&G. Barely anything. Just because someone has a different experience than you, doesn't mean they don't understand.
How about trying a small mini pimp to blow off rock
 

Seascapes

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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.
I've had mine between 8-9 and 7-8; still brown!
 

Cherie cook

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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
213.jpg
No luck here…and I’ve tried reeely hard. We live in the Rocky Mountains and have well water, softened, then RO/DI(and we had some weird stuff in there post new well and before the softening system)but I’ve just sent in an ICP test to see if there is anything this setup is not removing. Not sure if I’m hoping for a yes or a no.
 

GillMeister

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I voted 'other'. I had a healthy, colorful population of growing SPS for about a year. I dosed with flucanozole to get rid of GHA and it wiped out my SPS. Starting over this weekend with a massive water change.
 

Dkmoo

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For me, its a broad spectrum "fill light". Thats where a lot of people swear by t5, I use reefbrite 50/50 strips. To supplement my ai primes.

Below is a before after picture of 1 frag. First is what it looked like in 2 months of using only ai primes, second is 2 more months after adding in the reefbrite strips. The "raw PAR" is actually similar - I had to tune down the primes after adding the strips bc it was getting too much. This goes to show that the raw par number alone is just 1 piece of the puzzle
20210321_154010.jpg
20210715_193052.jpg
 

Charles Zinn

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I voted 'other'. I had a healthy, colorful population of growing SPS for about a year. I dosed with flucanozole to get rid of GHA and it wiped out my SPS. Starting over this weekend with a massive water change.
I k ow your pain. Bought an Apex couldnt trust my readings then had electrical issues with underground wires to house from transformers not once but twice. I'm a glutton for punishment
 

Charlie’s Frags

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Do the Hanna checkers work have been using Red Sea buy due to chronic illness eyes are less dependable
I’m a big fan of the Hanna checkers. My Hanna nitrate high range should arrive tomorrow. I expect the readings to be shockingly high
 

SteveMM62Reef

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I have Lime Green and Orange Acorpora . The Orange is supposed to be hard to keep and grow. I use Kent Purple Tech and Kent Coral Vita, every three days. No other additives are used. Hodge Podge of LED Lighting. Good flow and a mixed media size deep sand bed. Keep my pH up by pumping filtered outside air into the skimmer. Target Feed Reef-Roids. My Salt Choice is Reef Crystals. I mix half the Salt, wait till it dissolves. Then a quarter, till it dissolves. Final quarter, then I adjust it to a little over 34 ppt.
 

82722627

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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.
I have lost a lot of interest in Divers Den myself !
 

Charles Zinn

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1. What's an important tip for keeping colorful and healthy acros in your tank?
Detectable nutrient levels, healthy biome and proper spectrum

2. Was there a "breakthrough" or an "ah ha" moment that took you to the next level in your acropora success?
the moment I found the actual reef spectrum study and designed my lights accordingly.
alkalinity consumption more than doubled since then
Actual reef light spectrum? What is it or where can I find it?
 
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