The SPS Q&A Thread.

[mcarroll]

I think I'd keep doing what you're doing and just look for small things you can cut back on or eliminate. Carbon, GFO and the like in particular can always be scaled back to a smaller and smaller dose.....then when test results indicate you've cut too far back, then bump it back up a little and you should be just right. :) Just make any changes small, and allow plenty of time for observation between them! (weeks)

 

[FLreefhunter]

So I got a nice frag in mail today and I drip acclimated only, no dips nothing,. And I twisted frag plug in my fingers under water And put in my display tank and immediately noticed skin coming of in some places. So did I really just twist some skin tissue off

 

[mcarroll]

It's possible...the skeletons are like razors and their tissue is extremely thin in places.

Pic?

 

[dlightning]

Just starting out after upgrading from a 29g biocube with lps. I want to do all sps using the entire red sea reef care program using the equipment below and a 7 inch filter sock. Please let me know if I am on the right track and if you have any suggestions. Thanks in advance!

A. Total water volume ( Please include sump, etc.)

120g tank plus 30g sump

B. What are your parameters? ( CA, ALK, PO4,Salinity, etc.)

CA 500, ALK 12 dkh, PO4 .5, NO3 .2, Salinity 1.026, Mg 1460.

C. Type of lighting. Please include age, watts, and bulb/ballast name.

6 T5 bulbs in 3 Aruba sun retrofit kits (3 54W 10K daylights and 3 460 nm royal blue)

D. Filtration method (Skimmer, GFO, DSB, etc.)

Bubble Magus NAC6 protein skimmer SP2000

E. What types of corals do you keep other than SPS?

1 chalice

F. How long has the tank been running?

5 weeks

G. What are you dosing? Dosing schedule?

Red Sea Reef Care Program, daily

H. Which brand of salt are you using?

LFS (not sure)

I. What brand of test kits are you employing?

Red Sea Pro

J. What are you using for CA/ALK supplementation?

Red Sea A and B

K. What are you using for flow? (Pump names, how many, placement, etc.)

Hydro Koralia Evolution Circulation pump 1500 gpu (center rear of tank toward the top facing front glass)

Apex 1982 gpu return pump

[/QUOTE]

 

[dlightning]

Sorry. I have been posting the tank has been running for 5 weeks. It has actually been running for 9 weeks.

 

[mcarroll]

Is that a drain box, or a CLAPTRAP in yout tank??

 

[dlightning]

Is that a drain box, or a CLAPTRAP in yout tank??

Lol...that is so funny. I had to look up what that was. It does look like a claptrap. My wife and kids could not stop laughing:p

 

[dlightning]

Sorry. I have been posting the tank has been running for 5 weeks. It has actually been running for 9 weeks.

I need help dosing nopox by red sea. My nitrates are .15 and phosphates .45. I believe my nitrates are too low and phosphates too high? At this point I don't know what I should be dosing.

 

[mcarroll]

You really don't need to be using any products like that right now, or even in the near future. No GFO, no carbon-source dosing, no amino acids or trace elements, no bio-pellets, etc. The tank is still developing – as in, it's still a baby – and a source of dissolved nutrients is a necessity. Don't mess with that. :)

If you did anything at all besides sit back and watch the tank develop, you'd be much better off dosing a little bit of KNO3 just to keep NO3 from zeroing completely out than what you're doing.

I'd just sit back and watch the tank grow in, personally. Stop doing 100% of the extra stuff. Do water changes to help maintain alk and calcium if you want/as needed....or run two-part in a doser for the same purpose. Feed. :) That and keeping the skimmer clean should be about it. Within generous reason, let algae and everything else that'll grow, grow! It's a cycle and even the ugly stuff will pass.

To make life better and easier:

Focus on stocking the tank with fish very slowly – and keep your coral population AHEAD of your fish population.

 

[dlightning]

Thank you mcarroll. I will stop dosing nopox and wait. I do not have any fish for now. The first two clowns I added two weeks ago had either inch or "brook". Now I have a quarantine set up and will wait 76 days to add any fish. I have been feeding the 10 hermit crabs rodsfeest and the corals red sea reef energy. Hopefully I will get some nitrates into the tank with that. In the meantime there is some weird algae growth I can't identify.

 

[dlightning]

Here is a pix of the algae I can't id.

 

[mcarroll]

That could just be a natural layer of slightly-starved periphyton growing in. It's natural so try not to worry about it and focus on the nutrients "asap". :)

If all you have in there are 10 hermit crabs, then that thick perphyton layer also makes sense: You need some more grazers – snails! I actually try hard to do it all with snails and leave the hermits out or only keep them in small numbers....hermits wear snail shells, so you should be able to predict what's eventually going to happen to your snails. ;Mask

Ultimately get one or two Turbo snails and a fleet of 10-20 Cerith snails. Since you have no fish now, build up to that slowly. Maybe add 1 turbo and a 5 pack of ceriths to begin with and just see how they do while you turn around the nutrient situation?

Remember though – to be safe, fix the nutrients first and maybe give it a week before adding any new critters, including CUC.

 

[SDboatguy]

So , I've recently started stocking SPS . My question is can I place similar corals too close ? I would assume frags from the same mother colony wouldn't be an issue . But acros that are diffent ? Tables next to stags , austeras next to tenuis? How about Millipora , can different strains of Millipora co exist in close proximity ?

 

[kennedpa]

.

 

[kennedpa]

So , I've recently started stocking SPS . My question is can I place similar corals too close ? I would assume frags from the same mother colony wouldn't be an issue . But acros that are diffent ? Tables next to stags , austeras next to tenuis? How about Millipora , can different strains of Millipora co exist in close proximity ?

Too close and they will compete for space resulting in deformed natural colony structure.

Those of the same species will not be aggressive towards each other. They can actually be grafted together, but again changes colony formation and how much they can encrust in which direction which is really important in acro growth.

If they are of a different species its survival of the fittest. They will unleash coral warfare, sting each other, and blunt growth or maybe even loll the other. A colony getting killed by local competition for space is less likely than growth inhibition and isolated tissue damage but if they're still small it could occur. This can also result in tissue infection/algae growth on the skeleton depending on your water conditions which could trigger RTN/STN.

 

[mcarroll]

Too close and they will compete for space resulting in deformed natural colony structure.

I agree you should maximize your "planting space" initially, but....

Deformed?! Are you thinking exclusively of young (< 5 years) tanks? ;)

Any successful SPS reef is going to have corals growing into each others' space – hopefully sooner than later! ;) Isn't it?

That's sure been my experience! :)

 

[becks]

I picked up a Bali green slimer last week or the week before, I removed the frag plug and epoxied it onto a a small bit of live rock. Already it's basing out over the epoxy and its really starting to turn bright green, but I've noticed it's still whitish in the shaded side, will this part eventually colour back up?

 

[mcarroll]

I would expect it to! :) But let us know!