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

[Robs Reef]

While this is great success, newcomers to hobby will be thrown off by thinking 0.5 ppm PO4 will work. The more mature and the more nutrient cycling, the higher the system tolerates phosphates. Many new tank would not fair well like that.

My reef tank, even though its fullblown is fairly new. Also my Po4 is not .5, it hovers around .1 - .4, but close to .5, but never saw that high. But that's why I put in all caps ADAPTABILITY. acros tend to adapt well over time. And I have nothing But High end acros. Problem with having low nutrients for long periods of time in a enclosed system, and to maintain and have them adapt to low nutrients is harder to maintain in the long run. Also to succumb to more problems down the road. With all these other products that these companies want you to use. Why do you think alot of newbies have problems with dinos, and other nuisances. Because they believe low nutrients is the key to success and not knowing dinodinoflagellatess are so very present in every system and very opportunistic, and once you start using AB+, aminos, and other broadcast foods. BOOM, ....outbreak.
You want resilient corals, and have them ADAPT in a stable system long term. That's why I keep my nutrients (Po4) in that range of .1 - .4

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

My reef tank, even though its fullblown is fairly new. Also my Po4 is not .5, it hovers around .1 - .4, but close to .5, but never saw that high. But that's why I put in all caps ADAPTABILITY. acros tend to adapt well over time. And I have nothing But High end acros. Problem with having low nutrients for long periods of time in a enclosed system, and to maintain and have them adapt to low nutrients is harder to maintain in the long run. Also to succumb to more problems down the road. With all these other products that these companies want you to use. Why do you think alot of newbies have problems with dinos, and other nuisances. Because they believe low nutrients is the key to success and not knowing dinodinoflagellatess are so very present in every system and very opportunistic, and once you start using AB+, aminos, and other broadcast foods. BOOM, ....outbreak.
You want resilient corals, and have them ADAPT in a stable system long term. That's why I keep my nutrients (Po4) in that range of .1 - .4

Uh
Excuse me
Excuse me
Brs recommends 0.05 po4 bc some peer reviewed study from 1972 discovered Po4 over 0.10 ppm can slow calcification.
Hahaha

Thank god we paid attention so you can correct it ASAP with nopox, gfo, and maybe zeovit just to be sure you kill everything

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

 

[East1]

My reef tank, even though its fullblown is fairly new. Also my Po4 is not .5, it hovers around .1 - .4, but close to .5, but never saw that high. But that's why I put in all caps ADAPTABILITY. acros tend to adapt well over time. And I have nothing But High end acros. Problem with having low nutrients for long periods of time in a enclosed system, and to maintain and have them adapt to low nutrients is harder to maintain in the long run. Also to succumb to more problems down the road. With all these other products that these companies want you to use. Why do you think alot of newbies have problems with dinos, and other nuisances. Because they believe low nutrients is the key to success and not knowing dinodinoflagellatess are so very present in every system and very opportunistic, and once you start using AB+, aminos, and other broadcast foods. BOOM, ....outbreak.
You want resilient corals, and have them ADAPT in a stable system long term. That's why I keep my nutrients (Po4) in that range of .1 - .4

I agree with this, if you read

you'll note that amongst reduced mucous production, elevated phosphates mean a more brittle skeleton, this means relative to skeletal mass, there is more tissue and there is more animal to be resilient to change, the inverse is at high nitrogen levels there is more skeletal mass to tissue and the coral is more sensitive. Hans Werner on a thread on a german forum bout Reef Actif talks about how acropora kept at high phosphate suddenly stripped down will experience STN till corrected, implying that the change tolerance to this element is more important than it's actual discrete level.

I was astounded at the amount of po4 a coral can consume, my tiny 5 gallon (system volume) gets dosed almost 1ml brightwell neophos, which is roughly 0.1ppm per day, and I have next to no measurable phosphate in my system.

 

[Robs Reef]

I agree with this, if you read

you'll note that amongst reduced mucous production, elevated phosphates mean a more brittle skeleton, this means relative to skeletal mass, there is more tissue and there is more animal to be resilient to change, the inverse is at high nitrogen levels there is more skeletal mass to tissue and the coral is more sensitive. Hans Werner on a thread on a german forum bout Reef Actif talks about how acropora kept at high phosphate suddenly stripped down will experience STN till corrected, implying that the change tolerance to this element is more important than it's actual discrete level.

I was astounded at the amount of po4 a coral can consume, my tiny 5 gallon (system volume) gets dosed almost 1ml brightwell neophos, which is roughly 0.1ppm per day, and I have next to no measurable phosphate in my system.

I read the article, ammonium and po4 was raised 10-20 times the the lagoon levels, which were already pretty turbid for a wild acro, of course they will wither and die. And another note these studies are done on wild acros, not aquacultured specimens. I hardly ever buy maricultured or wild acros. Getting these wild acros to live in a glass box is a long process and have them ADAPT to aquarium life. Vise Versa, I can guarantee you 100% that if you take a aquacultured acro from an established sps tank to the ocean reef, it will die in a few hours. The word I can not stress enough is Adapt.

 

[East1]

I read the article, ammonium and po4 was raised 10-20 times the the lagoon levels, which were already pretty turbid for a wild acro, of course they will wither and die. And another note these studies are done on wild acros, not aquacultured specimens. I hardly ever buy maricultured or wild acros. Getting these wild acros to live in a glass box is a long process and have them ADAPT to aquarium life. Vise Versa, I can guarantee you 100% that if you take a aquacultured acro from an established sps tank to the ocean reef, it will die in a few hours. The word I can not stress enough is Adapt.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying - they were exposed to elevated ammonium, phosphate or both, and when exposed to elevated phosphate had more tissue which gives more resillience - this indicates that a balance of detectable phosphate is liklier better for husbandry,

in addition, they don't deal with change well so like you've said, giving them a gradient to adapt to, vs going from extreme to extreme is more important than whatever level you decide to shoot for

 

[Robs Reef]

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying - they were exposed to elevated ammonium, phosphate or both, and when exposed to elevated phosphate had more tissue which gives more resillience - this indicates that a balance of detectable phosphate is liklier better for husbandry,

in addition, they don't deal with change well so like you've said, giving them a gradient to adapt to, vs going from extreme to extreme is more important than whatever level you decide to shoot for

Right on!

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Right on!

Can you post your par readings video Rob?

 

[Dana Riddle]

There should be enough to flow to sweep fish poop up and macerate it by the impeller/propeller. This ensures the stagnant water layer (boundary layer) is thin enough and the particles are available as a food source for the corals. Acroporas can do very well in light fields considered by some to be low (150-175 microMol/m2/sec), but if color is desired (especially the non-fluorescent proteins) shoot for 200-300. Of course, physical and chemical water parameters should be correct.

 

[Diesel48]

I am going to say stability and time. I thought I was doing everything right with my tank but 75% of sticks would slowly die. After my tank hit the 2 year mark I have a 98% success rate on frags. My process did not change only time did. This is with a bare bottom tank started with dry rock. I am baffled but it sure is much more fun now.

 

[ScottB]

Riddle me this.... Why do some salt companies sell coral pro salt with alk of 11-12 for sps? And there are hundreds if not thousands of positive reviews of the salt....

It is a good question. I actually use one of those (IORC) and change about 20% every 2 weeks. Gives me a small lift in dkh from 8ish to 8.5ish. But I have a ton of consumption so it doesn't stick around long nor build up.

If I have to do a big WC, I dump some acid in to knock down the ALK.

If you don't have a lot of stony corals, it really makes much more sense to use another low ALK brand like blue bucket.

 

[ScottB]

Thats what im talking about man!

Looks like your on it! I JUST finished fighting Dinoflagalletes. I will start Red Sea ab+ again today.

I usually feed frozen Mysis, Oyster Feast, and AcroPower. Do you recommend KZ Coral Vitalizer? Have you tried Acropower?

Careful with aminos for a while. Dinos LOVE them.

 

[Kristy0813]

I'm a bit jealous! I've tried a couple of the easier SPS but only managed to keep them going for a couple of months. I love the pictures of acro colonies! As I work to get my parameters to be more stable I will definitely try again. Thanks for the great advise in this thread.

 

[Richyreefer]

Make a checklist you uae every week to make sure everything is working properly, especially your powerheads and dosers

 

[Bmasculine]

Here’s my 2 cents, the only success I’ve had and it is here recently is simplifying my whole setup. I know there are people that dose tons of crap, have crazy filtration, run uln systems, I’ve been in all these camps. I eliminated my fuge, quit dosing all sorts of trace and amino elements that I can’t test for, and put all my attention on stable core parameters. And then I tweak small things from time to time. I do still add aminos because my nutrients stay fairly low. All I run for filtration is a filter pad and skimmer.

 

[fishface NJ]

I was struggling to keep my NO3 and PO4 above 0. Dosing NeoPhos and NeoNitro daily for over a year. Three weeks ago I decided to turn off my skimmer and only run it from midnight to 6:00 AM...NO3 and PO4 are in the right range now. The corals are becoming more colorful

 

[ineption]

We are slowly approaching the golden age of reefing where super simple and stable is key to success.
Keeping my po4 high I.e 0.07 to 0.2 range and my no3 in 10to 60 has been key to my recent success.
I am actually dosing no3 and have automated fish feeding so that I don't overfeed. I have great growth and colours on point.
Let your corals adapt to your system keep alk stable and ph high using kalkwasser. Feed barely enough so that you aren't using any phosphate absorbing media. That's it leave alone & let them do there thing and that's grow.

 

[ReefMagnet]

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

Testing water twice a week especially alk, nitrate and phosphate is most important for me. Red Sea trace color and coral amino dosing also keeps acro happy, color up and stimulate growth

 

[Treefer32]

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.

Reef Roids will give you a ton of phosphates... I was dosing once a week. That's when I started killing stuff.. My phosphates went through the roof per ICP test and I bought a Hana Tester after that.

 

[JayinToronto]

Been in the game for quite sometime, here is my 2 yr old 600g system, 450g DT 150g sump. Frags to colonies in a period of 2 years. Less is more in my book, I don't have to many variables to pinpoint if something goes wrong and there is no magic sauce or secrets. I use Reef Crystal or reg IO as my choice of salt. Large refugium with Miracle Mud and Chaeto or your macro algae of choice. Large Skimmer, Calc Reactor, UV, tons of flow and good lighting. Stability and ADAPTABILITY long-term is key. Also not all acros like the same parameters as far as nutrients go and par ranges. So you have to find a sweet spot for different species of acros to flourish. My DT and Frag systems are identical in methods, but nutrients are on the opposite ends.
DT Parameters.
Calc 450.
Dkh 7
Mag 1450
Temp 79-80
Po4 .1 - .4
No3 5
Frag system is absolute zero in nutrients, growth is great in both systems, but the color in my frag system is very dull and mute on all my sps, BUT my Tenuis in my frag system has way more polyp extension and colors are more vibrant. So my point is nutrients play a big role, and it affects different acro species a different way. Atleast these are my observations in my system. Also I don't dose anything else aside from the effluent coming out of my reactor, I don't dose coral food or aminos, corals get fed by fish waste. Like I said in the beginning keep variables low, so it's easier to pinpoint a problem when something goes wrong. Just keep your methods simple, when I transitioned and upgraded from 300g DD, I did the same simple methods and applied to my new system and and here I am again, with a full blown SPS tank in a matter of 2 years.

What's the par on this sps tank? Looks amazing. I have the same lights as you, what's your mix for the light channels?