Wanting to try SPS... Learning as I go. How do _you_ choose your SPS Types?

[TinyChocobo]

Hello!

When it comes to choosing SPS - how do you choose?

I've had soft corals in the past for a few years but I'm wanting to try SPS.

I picked up a bird's nest coral from the LFS and have him sitting on the sand right now. The tank is 47 x 22.6 and I have two Kessile A360We's on it.

So far the bird's nest seems to be doing good - but I'm still learning what to look for and how quickly I can move it to where I want it to ultimately be / what intensity I should run the lights at / etc.

I have no issues adding more lighting down the road if I need [likely another A360WE or two as I like the minimalist look] and I have no issues with dosing. With just the one coral frag which is small I'm just watching the parameters but I know that once I have more than a few I'm going to have to do something about alk/cal/mag/etc. Kalkwasser in the ATO is likely one of the first things I figure I'd do.

 

[Jimbo662]

After almost 5 years with saltwater tanks I'm finally starting to get more into SPS. I always ask the SPS guys in our local club for their recommendations.
If you seriously look at upgrading your light check out the Aquatic Life Hybrid unit. T5s that you can install your Kessil's in.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I had an Aquatic Life T5 on my 29G and I liked it beyond swapping the bulbs and the bulkiness of it all.

 

[Jimbo662]

I had an Aquatic Life T5 on my 29G and I liked it beyond swapping the bulbs and the bulkiness of it all.

The new units are much sleeker...only 1.5" tall.

 

[swebb]

I started out with sps recently. The tip that I have seen the most often are consistent parameters. I found this the easiest to do with a two part type system because there is very little guess work in the dosing amount. Another thing is testing a lot especially for alkalinity. The final tip that I hear is to go aquacultured rather than Wild ones. I hope that helps.

 

[Tahoe61]

Acquire healed frags, avoid fresh cuts, avoid maricultured colonies until you can grow aquacultured colonies. Go for the old standards such as Red Planet, Slimmer, Valida/tri-color. Do not spend big money on the latest sps craze piece, get some cheaper test pieces such as Slimmer.
Purple Stylophora and BN are good starters as are many Monitiora Digitata.
Shoot for parameters close to NSW/normal saltwater and maintain those, more is not better.

 

[TinyChocobo]

My plan with the corals is to go slow and get one every once in a while so that I can monitor parameters and keep things in-line. I don't want to start a run-away process .

I appreciate the advice on types to look for - I'll have to see if I can find them local. Is it recommended to buy online/have them shipped if I can't find what I want local?

 

[Tahoe61]

I buy shipped from reputable online vendors, many of them sponsors. Unless I know a local hobbyist personally I do not add their sps to my tanks, too easy to pick up the nasties like Red Bugs. If you go to a LFS check out their livestock care fully. Use a dip like Bayer, you'll need to research that. You can get the occasional pest from a well known on line vendor but the I never have. Only time I got pest were from LFS and local hobbyist so I am very careful.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I do have the bird's nest in my tank now - and it looks good / I can't see any pests or signs of pests. It's the only coral in the whole tank though.

 

[alton]

I like the idea when it comes to SPS is buy local. Of course I am spoiled because Farmer Ty is in the next city. But if you are unfortunate to have someone like him ask the question "What can I not Kill"? I have never lost a frag from Farmer Ty and I am super simple with only water changes every week or so. All the corals are under $40 and the ones on plugs where from Ty. The Frogspawn, GSP, Birdsnest, Tri-color, large SPS are from my 180.

 

[jda]

Birdsnests, Montis, Cats Paw and most of the stuff from ORA is a good place to start.

If you are good at growing coralline, then you can probably grow SPS.

Check your parameters often. If you are good at this and stuff grows a lot, then you will have to up your dosing regiment.

Colonies are different animals than frags. They enter a different phase with lighting and flow. Your game may have to change to indeed add those T5s for coverage or even up the flow.

Go slow. Pay attention.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Corals that have been in captivity for 5+ years are much more able to handle the swinging parameters of a home aquarium. I wouldnt say Montis, birdsnest, stylos are neccessary easier then certain acropora species such as green slimer or red planet. I've had montis, stylos and birdsnest die whil acros survive, depends on where you get them and how you acclimate them.

Don't make the mistake of following anyone elses light and photoperiod unless your going to match their nutrient levels. Low nutrients = lower ALK and Lower PAR. If you run higher nutrients you can go slightly higher on the Alk and Lighting. I think a safe zone is to go with 6 hrs max photoperiod around 200-300 Par in your tank with 2 hrs ramp up and down, while aiming for 8.5ALK, 0.05 phosphates. Im starting to see having a simple pump on each side of the aquarium alternating flow is actually reducing dead spots since 2 pumps constantly hitting each other just cause turbulence in the middle. With flow look at your animals and see how there polyps move to the flow, they should be dancing. Whenever Phosphates go to 0 thinks start bleaching so don't use GFO you can easily go to undetecable and kill them with a simple protein skimmer. Just me rambling my 2cents lol

 

[TinyChocobo]

Birdsnests, Montis, Cats Paw and most of the stuff from ORA is a good place to start.

If you are good at growing coralline, then you can probably grow SPS.

Check your parameters often. If you are good at this and stuff grows a lot, then you will have to up your dosing regiment.

Colonies are different animals than frags. They enter a different phase with lighting and flow. Your game may have to change to indeed add those T5s for coverage or even up the flow.

Go slow. Pay attention.

That's the plan. I figure the two A360WE's are fine to start with. I don't really want to go with bulbs I will have to swap out - would rather just get multiple LED units. Could get a couple of A700's or The Radeon30 Pro's perhaps? I could even conceivably just go with 3~5 of the A360WE's no?

I could but do not want to hang anything from the ceiling and my last T5 that I didn't hang from the ceiling was basically covering the whole top of the tank making any sort of maintenance a real pain.

 

[jda]

Please keep and open mind for maximum success. Lots of people think this and when they see the limitations of point-source LEDs on acropora, especially as they grow, they nearly always add T5s. Some just stock differently or live with the shadowing and limitations. The shadowing can happen side/side but also front/back.

To illustrate how different some tanks are, I have alk around 6.8 right now (usually 7.0 to 7.2), N at .1 and P at .005-.01 and I have very high intensity lighting similar to 3 or 4 Kessil 360s over a 2x2 area. I just turn on 250W Halides on M80 ballasts (super high output with par near 750 at the top and 350 at the bottom in most places, but some near 200 under some shadows) for 10 hours with no ramping. Stuff grows like crazy and has excellent color. Ashish above recommends lower light with these kinds of parameters... so you defiantly have to pay attention and figure out what is good for you.

 

[Saltyanimals]

+1 on comment here with "testing" easier to keep frags. Resist the urge to go wild and buy up everything especially higher end SPS until you know you can keep the easier ones for a number of months. Go frags as they'll adjust better to your lights and flow besides fact they're cheaper in case you lose them.