Recently, I have read three Posts by Reefers who have suffered substantial loses of their SPS Coral Dominated Tanks due to undetermined RTN/STN events. While I'm sure there are root causes TBD, these large-scale events in large systems caused devastating loses after spending years to populate and grow out. The expense and stress seem to contradict enjoyment of the Hobby. I am fascinated with SPS Corals even though I know very little about keeping them and would like to add some Frags to my large DT at some point, but maybe I should reconsider and just do a small SPS Tank instead. It seems these heavily stocked large Systems with large Colonies are extremely difficult to manage over time and smaller Systems with say large reserve (sump) capacity might be easier to maintain.
SPS Dominate Tank Size
- Thread starter W31Olds
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RTN or STN have happend to all of us. There is so many things that could lead to corals having issues all from temperature issues to over dosing anything. For me the importance is to try and keep everything as stable as possible and look at my corals daily and see for any signs. If you catch an issue on time you could maybe reverse or stop RTN or STN.
AS volume I think the more water and the more mature time of the tank the better the reef gets to be more bullet proof
AS volume I think the more water and the more mature time of the tank the better the reef gets to be more bullet proof
Marco_99
Well-Known Member
I don’t believe that is the case at all and while these events are highly emotional I think they get blown out of proportion. One member claimed he lost 100k- 150k in corals, cmon if you had 500 corals at $150.00 a piece you are only at $75k. These posts are dramatic and like everything there is usually a root cause that created it, like i was on vacation for 3 weeks. The other thing is peoples fascination with stacking frags in on top of each other like a hoarder collecting Amazon boxes, like try and let something actually grow and have space. Anyhow, go get you some sps and enjoy them as living in fear is not living, everything on the internet needs to be taken with a grain or two of salt
Reginald Reefer III
Coral Connoisseur
I don’t believe that is the case at all and while these events are highly emotional I think they get blown out of proportion. One member claimed he lost 100k- 150k in corals, cmon if you had 500 corals at $150.00 a piece you are only at $75k. These posts are dramatic and like everything there is usually a root cause that created it, like i was on vacation for 3 weeks. The other thing is peoples fascination with stacking frags in on top of each other like a hoarder collecting Amazon boxes, like try and let something actually grow and have space. Anyhow, go get you some sps and enjoy them as living in fear is not living, everything on the internet needs to be taken with a grain or two of salt
bobnicaragua
Valuable Member
Bigger is better for a SPS tank, but it’s more work.
I don’t have a SPS tank, I have an acropora tank and I think that’s what you’re talking about.
Some STN/RTN will happen to everyone, but tank design and maintenance make all the difference. If you tick off an acro, it will brown out and take months to recover(if you’re lucky). The trick is to maintain the water parameters, light, and flow all the time.
Whether a mixed reef or SPS tank, set up everything for SPS. That should be the complete focus of your tank. High flow, good light coverage without a lot of shadowing, stable parameters. High PH definitely helps. It’s the challenge that keeps you engaged.
Camaro Show Corals
7500 Club Member
I think a lot of the time members claim price of coral for size such as $50 per polyp zoa for 20 polyps of GMK ETC or 10 1/2” branches of Homewrecker that I sell for $100 per branch priced at $1000 for example. I’ve never seen it done again but my homeowners covered coral when I had my house fire and that’s how I did it. Which I estimated about $50k in coral at the time in 2019 which I could have sold being a vendor and generated about $30k in documented costsI don’t believe that is the case at all and while these events are highly emotional I think they get blown out of proportion. One member claimed he lost 100k- 150k in corals, cmon if you had 500 corals at $150.00 a piece you are only at $75k. These posts are dramatic and like everything there is usually a root cause that created it, like i was on vacation for 3 weeks. The other thing is peoples fascination with stacking frags in on top of each other like a hoarder collecting Amazon boxes, like try and let something actually grow and have space. Anyhow, go get you some sps and enjoy them as living in fear is not living, everything on the internet needs to be taken with a grain or two of salt
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
although what happened to that reefer is truly devastating, I think he's claiming the potential monetary amount he could have made as a total loss of $150k. Colonies of acros don't sell for huge amount (e.g. a Walt Disney frag may sell for $100, lets say, but a whole colony that you can frag 50 pieces off of, won't sell for $5k).I don’t believe that is the case at all and while these events are highly emotional I think they get blown out of proportion. One member claimed he lost 100k- 150k in corals, cmon if you had 500 corals at $150.00 a piece you are only at $75k. These posts are dramatic and like everything there is usually a root cause that created it, like i was on vacation for 3 weeks. The other thing is peoples fascination with stacking frags in on top of each other like a hoarder collecting Amazon boxes, like try and let something actually grow and have space. Anyhow, go get you some sps and enjoy them as living in fear is not living, everything on the internet needs to be taken with a grain or two of salt
to the OP - Having a smaller tank for SPS isn't necessarily better, and you won't be "minimizing" your losses just because it's smaller. RTN/STN can and probably will happen to anyone who's into SPS (namely acropora). When it does occur, you just have to try and mitigate the damages and frag-save what you can. It's a very real part of the game, unfortunately, and I've been down that road before.
Just enjoy it, but some people do suck at keeping acros.
