Keeping sps has certainly gotten easier and more accessible than ever over the last 10-15 years. Advancements in technology and the sharing of knowledge and wisdom have accelerated the green hobbyist's success rate exponentially, and made the entire experience far less “daunting” and intimidating than ever before.
Fading fast are the notions that sps are to be reserved for advanced or experienced reefers only, and that "one day maybe" sentiment has become an insatiable appetite for acropora. It’s true that just about anyone can have success with acros these days, and that is a tremendous accomplishment in this hobby over all.
But one area that will always serve to both frustrate and amaze, is that first year you spend with you new frags. No matter how versed you are in keeping sps, and no matter how many tricks you have up your sleeve to keep them happy and get them growing, that first year is just excruciating. And by that I mean it just seems to take for ever for that little frag to move, and eventually blossom. Having had to start my own display over a couple years ago now after an unfortunate leak, I am right there in the throes of it all myself. In fact I’m just now finally starting to see some actual movement in a lot of these pieces I’ve been staring at all this time now lol. Let me just say, having had the tank full of colonies as well, this entire period, this "first year", is as awesomely exhilarating as much as it excruciating and will probably be the best time you and you little frags share by far. We can't help but fixate on the most minute amount of observable growth possible. Like a watched pot, the longer you stay, the less action you’re going to see. We just can't stop staring. But all of this neurotic behavior finally finds a reward in a sprawling sps colony maybe a year or two after the expiration of this most enjoyably brutal first year.
And after you’ve got the grown up colonies that you are so familiar with. Every single stalk and nook a perfect memory. The moment you plant a new frag in that tank, this now is the object of your obsession, and the whole process starts again!
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