What is the earliest time period that you can put an acro in a new tank?

[CyberGuy]

It is wise to wait for a tank to mature in order to put in acros? However, for those who are impatient, what is the earliest time frame that you can have an acro grow and color up well from the time the tank is first set up.

If I was to try out a simple acro such as a green slimer, can I keep it healthy at 3 weeks mark after it has been cycled with bottled bacteria? Can it be kept even sooner?

 

[jda]

Read through the first few pages of the build link in my thread. I really know what I am doing, had real, cycled live rock with the bacteria, algae and microfauna and good equipment. You can see what I did.

Generally, I like to wait until I see some coralline, but I did go early.

 

[BeejReef]

Claiming no great experience here...
The thing is, they won't really grow.. lol. There may be some who can grow them, but it's kind of uncommon.
Usually, "new" tanks with thriving sps are new tanks with old, established rockwork.

You may well keep them alive, but it's maddening to stare at something for six months and watch it not grow.. lol.
Plus, you'll be blasting a young tank with very high light and flow, making algae control all the more difficult and creating a less hospitable environment for coral you could be growing, such as softies as some lps.

Don't know how experienced you are, but battles with stability are common as well. It's not that you don't know how to control alk,calc, nitrate, phosphate, etc.. it's just that you can only learn by observation how your tank responds to varied approaches. If a swing gets away from you, you may lose your coral.

I put in a few acro frags that were given to me at about two months. One stn'd to death during an alkalinity battle. Still have the others. They started growing around the 5 or 6 month mark... shortly after the coraline came in heavy.

 

[bubbaque]

If you are new to acros you should wait until you fully understand your tank and learn what’s needed to grow coral.

I upgraded tanks but started with all dry, all new equipment and added acros on day 1. I didn’t lose any corals. I had slight color lose but corals are growing, healthy and colored up.

The biggest challenge will be experience.

 

[TheHarold]

There is no single number. It all depends on your experience level, how you have stocked the tank, and how well you understand your system. As @bubbaque mentioned, he has no issues putting in acros on day 1.

I added acros to my new frag tank (Sterile system; dry rock and no sand) on day 2 or 3, when the water cleared. Because I understand the proper amount of feeding required, I am able to feed while maintaining low nutrients even without a developed biological filtration system.

You just need to have a good understanding of parameters and nutrient levels/feeding. Reefing isn't as clear cut as "in 42 days everything will be perfect".

If you are new to reefing, some people recommend waiting for coralline.

 

[X-37B]

Really depends on your experience. Go slow if your new.
My 120 is comming up on 4 months in a couple of weeks now.
First corals went in at one month but i started with 30lbs live rock from my nano that was 2 years old and the balance was 30lbs caribsea. I have over 30 sps in there now and all are growing but I have been at this since the late 80's.
When coralline is growing you should be good to go as long as you know how to maintain stability.

 

[OnPointCorals]

It’s not the maturity of the tank that matters it’s the maturity of the Acro keeper. This has been misunderstood for a long time.

I started my recent build with 85% dry rock. Acro colonies in on the 1 month mark. Some brief coloring down that was it.

 

[Om84]

I started a brand new 66 gallon SCA rimless SPS dominant tank in early August with all reef saver rock. I intended to follow the WWC/BRS video on keeping a thriving SPS tank. However my impatience took a hold of me and I started adding SPS at the 3 week mark. I did use BioSpira and Dr. Tim's twice through the weeks prior. I am at the 2.5 month mark now and the SPS bug bit me hard and I couldn't stop buying corals because they were doing well and showing good encrusting and growth. So to say SPS will not grow in a new tank is not true at all. I am not claiming I am experienced in any way. On the contrary. Despite the positive experience of being able to grow SPS I will add that I do not recommend this at all. The amount of diatom blooms, bacterial blooms, cyanobacteria, and green hair algae I have been dealing with has been extremely annoying and anxiety provoking given the amount of time and money I have put into this tank. I am now starting to get coralline growth. I need to start a build thread to document my journey because I am learning a ton. I think the biggest thing that has helped the SPS grow with good coloration in my tank is the amount of time I spend inspecting every thing, testing parameters, ensuring stability, and finally my metal halide + T5 lighting. Neptune Apex has really helped me with stability. In short, you can grow SPS in little as 3 weeks in my experience yet I do not recommend it because of the possible failure you set yourself up for later. WWC/BRS recommend the 3 month mark because you will have sorted out the cycle and algae bloom phase and have more chance of success. At this point I am going to agree with this approach.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

IME tanks do tend to get more stable with time. That said, you CAN successfully keep acros once the tank has fully cycled if you're diligent about husbandry.

 

[TheHarold]

you CAN successfully keep acros once the tank has fully cycled if you're diligent about husbandry.

I dunno man. Cycling seems overrated ;Woot

 

[Sailfinguy21]

My tank was in hypo at 1.007 for 2 months to kill ich.. which worked.. i put 30 corals in right after and this was a newely setup 135g tank. Most were all acros and sps.

I didnt lose any.

I didnt cycle the tabk either.. zi put in a gallon of nitrifying bacteria from fritzyme i think its called.. instant cycled my tank for my fish in hypo

 

[Daniel@R2R]

My tank was in hypo at 1.007 for 2 months to kill ich.. which worked.. i put 30 corals in right after and this was a newely setup 135g tank. Most were all acros and sps.

I didnt lose any.

I didnt cycle the tabk either.. zi put in a gallon of nitrifying bacteria from fritzyme i think its called.. instant cycled my tank for my fish in hypo

Right. It would have been considered cycled once the bacteria population was strong enough to support the natural cycle of ammonia --> nitrite --> nitrate.

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

I think SPS are overrated. Hey, to each his own

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

I had acro frags in my bare bottom frag tank a week after I added fritzyme. Haven’t lost anything in there, but I did have a gha phase and now I have this weird Brown slime/Dino outbreak that only settles on my black egg crate, but it hasn’t bothered the corals, so I just siphon/filter into a 10 micron sock. I figure/hope it will eventually go away. But the acros are fine. Just make sure you give them enough quality par, fish poop, and don’t worry about keeping low no3/po4 and they’ll be fine. Last time I checked no3 was somewhere between 50 and 100 and po4 was 0.35 and they’re all just perfect.

 

[CuzzA]

It is wise to wait for a tank to mature in order to put in acros? However, for those who are impatient, what is the earliest time frame that you can have an acro grow and color up well from the time the tank is first set up.

If I was to try out a simple acro such as a green slimer, can I keep it healthy at 3 weeks mark after it has been cycled with bottled bacteria? Can it be kept even sooner?

I've added coral almost instantly and had success, but experience has taught me to get all of my fish in the system first then add coral. This has two benefits in that if you need to take care of a fish issue early on you are not risking beating up your coral. And second, you will have allowed time to get your nutrient levels balanced out.

For all new dry rock, and a new system, with new equipment that came from dirty factories, you're playing with fire adding sticks right away. I like to run a bunch of carbon first and test the water with inverts.

I am almost three weeks into my latest build being wet (dry rock and new equipment) and my progression has been bacteria, (two inverts I picked up while diving) pods, snails, and now fish. Once I am done adding fish, then I'll add coral. Could I add coral today? Sure. But I'd rather ensure success, plus the pieces I plan on putting in my tank aren't going to be cheap. There's not much more disheartening in this hobby than watching coral die under your care, right up there with fish. And everyone has experienced it. Often because they rush.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Read through the first few pages of the build link in my thread. I really know what I am doing, had real, cycled live rock with the bacteria, algae and microfauna and good equipment. You can see what I did.

Generally, I like to wait until I see some coralline, but I did go early.

@jda can you post a link to your build thread?

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I think SPS are overrated. Hey, to each his own

Thats why my tank is mixed.. i have a huge ctorch coral with bout 5 heads. A probly 40 or so head candycane coral. 4 bubble corals. 2 are purplish grapes one is a pink pearl and one is a basketball sized green bubble.

I have a 9 headed octospawn, a near basket ball sized purple cepitulara, some shrooms and other leathers. Some zoas

But i also have 9 acroporas, and bout 10 other sps.

 

[bubbaque]

@jda can you post a link to your build thread?

Takes you off site but this is it.

FS: Jason Fox cat eye zoa colony

At least 75 polyps. These are tall and large! Colony is softball size. Only trades I would be looking for right now is RR 65 to 75 gallon tanks with stands. $250 OBO. JF sells these for $59 per 4 polyps. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using MASC mobile app

www.marinecolorado.org

 

[Ashish Patel]

If your starting with all dry rock, no way.. If your starting with established rock, yes

 

[SeaDweller]

I had acro frags in my bare bottom frag tank a week after I added fritzyme. Haven’t lost anything in there, but I did have a gha phase and now I have this weird Brown slime/Dino outbreak that only settles on my black egg crate, but it hasn’t bothered the corals, so I just siphon/filter into a 10 micron sock. I figure/hope it will eventually go away. But the acros are fine. Just make sure you give them enough quality par, fish poop, and don’t worry about keeping low no3/po4 and they’ll be fine. Last time I checked no3 was somewhere between 50 and 100 and po4 was 0.35 and they’re all just perfect.

It will go away, i had that issue with my frag tank too; thought it was the white crate, but occurred on black too; once I dosed nitrate and fed it went away, almost systematically. It probably was dinos but I didn't confirm it.