What point in time you can confidently say to yourself that I've made it into SPS world?

[kevlow]

I look forward to coming home and seeing my reef. I consider that having made it. The periods that I have dreaded looking into my tank, I definitely had not made it. LOL.

The bar keeps moving for me. There have been moments when I thought that my reef was the best it had ever been and it was where I wanted it. Then it will improve a little and I will realize how much more is possible.

The "having made it" line seems to stay just out of reach.

 

[Heather w]

I tend to just smile when my fish count ins there and my corals and anenome are plump and "Look happy" when I voice my excitement everything seems to go sideways. Currently, I am grinning ear to ear. [emoji2]

 

[Z3speed4me]

I just started sps about 6 months ago, nowhere near saying I am "good". Don't expect that anytime soon either. Got a ton coming from the Aqua SD sale that just happened, so wish me luck with some of those pieces!

I do however think that discerning a colony from a frag would be the time you can actually cut it into multiple frags again but still have enough of your original to call the mother colony still. That answer is still not clear per-say in regards to size but I think it sounds logical.

 

[RussiReef]

Would you say that's common growth duration?

If acro is happy and healthy the growing process is much faster and totally depends on the acro species. During the first 3 years of being in this hobby I was struggling to keep acros alive.

 

[Acro maniac]

Personally, i think when you can grow sps (dont mean montis or birdsnest since those are fairly easy) into a small colony..i think you can consider yourself on the right path.

I agree with this post but also add stylos and psammocora to that list.
I beleive, when you can detect and prevent issues from happening that would be successful keeper.
I also think you can grow sps for years with routine maintenance successfully but until you have to assess and correct (pest,parameter swings, foreign chemical being introduced, etc etc....) to maintain health. Thats when your a successful keeper.
Its not how your tank looks when everything is going great, its keeping it that way when challeges arise. Because eventually they will.

 

[Holy_makerel]

Been keeping SPS(stylo, poci, monti, acro, several of each) in my little 32 biocube(modified) for about 6 months now. Been having great sucess with it. Growth really took off after adding a dosing pump and performing ALK, Ca, mag tests regularly to find the correct maintenance dosage.

The real test is gonna be after i get my 93 cube up and running. Hopefully i can replicate my sucess on a larger scale over the course of years.

 

[N4sty T4te]

You've made it in sps when you start having to consistently trim corals in the tank to keep them from growing into one another.

Ohh, and gluing frags too close together Disqualifies you.

 

[Scorpius]

When you can reverse an Acropora from RTN/STN you've arrived.

 

[Neil Fox]

When you start trying to colour them up and get PE rather than just keeping them alive and growing them.

 

[bif24701]

I was gone two weeks with a family emergency and came back to the tank looking better than ever.

Did a big water change, empty skimmer, and filled ATO. Everything else is spot on!

 

[DarkSky]

I've been running a reef tank for 2 and a half years and my SPS tank for almost a year. I had a few montipora in my first tank and grew them just fine, wanted to get my feet wet in SPS and started last June.

I lost a few frags at first when the tank was new and I didn't realize how high my lights were, but for the last 9 months everything has been encrusting and growing quite rapidly. I'm no longer making any major changes to livestock, coral placement or equipment.

I've been able to keep my parameters rock solid,

500-180PAR,
475ppm Ca,
8.8 Alk,
1400ppm Mg,
3ppm NO3,
0.02ppm PO4

for the last four months. I am having to slowly increase Ca and Alk dosing as frags encrust off their plugs and onto the surrounding rock.

As long as I can keep my parameters stable I think I'll be good.

 

[Lesley]

When these after 19 months started looking like colonies and saw massive growth & good colours started on frag plug 19 months ago

This was 1 broken stick out a friends tank

 

[potatocouch]

Lookin good @Lesley!

 

[Lesley]

Lookin good @Lesley!

All dead now lost all but 9 softies & Lps
Tank seal burst 400g emptied in 6mins
But thank you. It was looking good