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

[KTTX]

Stability is key. Any changes should be slow and gradual.

 

[Ferrell]

Ok I’m gonna chime in on the other side of the coin. I am a new Reefer, 2017, and I tried to put hardy SPS in at six months and then at 12 months and then at 18 months and had no success but coming up on the 24 month mark I am starting to see more success. I’ve gotten to know my tank over the last couple of years and what the husbandry needs are to be successful. I have been able to grow most LPS and softies like crazy but until now haven’t seen much success with the SPS. I’m giving it another go now and we’ll see what happens. I’ve run in to most newbie pit falls along the way but now I think I’m on the right track. Just put my new acro’s in this weekend and they are looking very good. The next few months will tell for sure

 

[KTTX]

Fluctuating Alk is the most important in my experience. I keep SPS and I notice SPS suffer the most when Alk changes quickly. Second to all IMO is lighting changes to quickly. Third is nutrients.

Keep in mind that you might not see an issue you caused for a few days.

 

[DeepBlueSeaV1]

I p

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 personally didn’t wait a month and almost 3 years later it’s my largest colony. I have / had reef keeping experience. Definitely wouldn’t recommend what I did. But it can be done.

 

[Reefcowboy]

Waiting until coraline is growing is ideal, but I am impatient and loaded my tank with frags a week or so after it had cycled.
Didnt lose any for many , many months, until went away on a work trip and my wife miraculously raised my nitrates from 4 to 80ppm in 2-3 weeks.
Again not encouraging wrong practices but if you know what you are doing it can be done without any issues.

Heres the tank progression from just cycled to a year old or so and today

 

[ReefHunter006]

I wouldn’t consider myself a novice acro keeper, but I’m not an expert either.

My frag tank

Yet, my 7 month old DT is struggling to keep the acros like Bali slimmer, monti, birdsnest, etc.

Photo below is from 3 months ago, rocks have better coverage in coraline today. Drives me nuts (but I’m happy that you can) that some people can just throw them in nd go.

Admittedly, my alk swings in the display are larger than my frag tank. But all swings are under .5dkh daily.

My frag tank is less than .15dkh daily,

 

[rusgum]

If you have a live stone, then you can plant acropores the next day after the start. If a dead stone, then at least four months

 

[Fishfreak2009]

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?

My first Acropora in my 75 gallon was this purple Acro 24 hrs after filling the tank with water. The Acro went in on December 26th. First pic is that day. 2nd pic is today.

This tank was started with all dry rock and dry sand.

 

[Lawpoke87]

I put acros in at 4 weeks. That said, I am using 160lbs of live rock from my old tank which had been sitting in my sump for 2 months. My formula was as follows:

LR as mentioned
New sand
Added pods
Light dosing of phyto
Watch parameters carefully. Keep alk stable
Light bioload.

Minimal ugly stage. Had hair algae on sand and aquarium surfaces from weeks 3 to 6.

Tank is now at 8 weeks. Acros just started taking off this past week. Lots of new growth and coloring up. No losses as of yet. Have added roughly 20 acros and various LPS and a few zoas. I have begun dosing nitrates as they were reading zero.

I do have 30 years experience which obviously helps. The LR and stable parameters are key imo. I’m also a big believer in a healthy pod population and phyto.

 

[WallyB]

I think many points above are valid. Certainly one should start SPS corals after some experience in maintaining a stable tank. SPS are unforgiving for water/lighting instability, mishaps, or neglect. It's not so much cycling tank, it what come after cycling.

It's best to wait a while on a new tank for any coral, including SPS. New tanks, especially one with dominant dead rock need a bit more time to go thru ugly stages (A-Cyano) (B-Green Hair Algae), etc, and many other hidden suprises (ie pests [aiptasia, flatworms, planaria, etc as you add corals, or some live rock)...the latter is best to make sure new tank is pest free so treatments can be done early in the New Tanks Life.

(C) is the good Coraline Foundation Stage others have commented above.

100% Live rock can speed up the ugly stage, but not guarenteed. Downside of live rock unless know to be pest free is risks of unwanted organisms. Again, if treated early can be greatly reduce risk. There always is a risk since we add corals from other systems. Thus dipping of new Coral stock, and doing QT on new fish is a must habit.

During that ugly stage you may have to do some adjustments that intruduce instability, so it's best to wait till tank is closer to prestine and fully stable before attempting SPS.

Once the ugly stage passes you can add your sps slowly to see if they survive. A year later you can achieve some degree of success with Frags like this.

2021-04

18 months later

2022-10

To be fully honest the Two photos above are 18 month apart, however the time for me to achieve the skills and experience to produce living, colorful and growing SPS vs Dead Skeltons was 4 years after water went into the new tank. I'm to blame for the long learning curve, due to all the tinkering I did trying to fix, and improve things. I still tinker with my other two tanks, but I've learned that the best thing I ever did to finally be able to keep sps is not to touch the tank and change things. Only changes are to keep things stable.

2018 (The Beginning)

Actually the Real Early Beginning of The 110G SPS tank happened like this. Fresh water new tank leak test.




I do have memories and momentos (photo below) of the first 3 years of killing SPS.
Good experience but pricey. Very painful and stressful to go thru.



All the best on whatever you decide.

Doesn't hurt to start learning with 1 Slimer Acro I learned a hundred times that to figure things out ;(

Reading these Forum posts and threads is one way to learn, but the better way is doing it, and learning yourself.

Enjoy the reef tank experience, it's a Journey with many bumps and turns, but worth it when things click.

 

[SecondCityCorals]

I wouldn't say that there is a point in time where you can add acros. The thing is, SPS species vary widely in terms of survivability. If your tank is stable and cycled, I would start off with something easy that grows like a weed. Maybe an orange setosa? Its cheap and grows easy.

 

[Charles Zinn]

Waiting until coraline is growing is ideal, but I am impatient and loaded my tank with frags a week or so after it had cycled.
Didnt lose any for many , many months, until went away on a work trip and my wife miraculously raised my nitrates from 4 to 80ppm in 2-3 weeks.
Again not encouraging wrong practices but if you know what you are doing it can be done without any issues.

Heres the tank progression from just cycled to a year old or so and today

Nice progression