Whats your key

thewackyreefer · Jan 13, 2011

That's a big move! I just removed all of my sand since I've adjusted to more of a grow-out tank and I'm not sure I'll ever go with sand in my display again! You can really ramp up the flow without creating a sandstorm! I should also mention that I THOUGHT I was keeping my sand really clean by stirring but man was there a lot of nasty detritus when I removed it and it was only ~6 months old.

clowns101 · Jan 13, 2011

SCRATCH the sand,LOL

I like to add flow alot...so scratch that....

DBarsotti · Jan 13, 2011

keep it clean, keep it stable and keep it classy

Paul_N · Jan 13, 2011

When I took down my 75 the dsb was 6 years old. The sand was not bad at all. I had tons of bristle worms, a pistol shrimp, a couple gobys and they kept the sand pristine. I NEVER stirred or cleaned the dsb in the 6 years I had it. IMO if you are going to have a dsb you have to get the critters to clean it for you. I had a 5-6" dragon wrasse that was being harassed by my purple tang. It ended up burying itself in the sand under a rock and died. The worms and critters in the sand were over it so fast that I didn't even get a spike in N and P. I will always have a dsb.

flipit13 · Jan 13, 2011

i'm using biopellets, skimmer twice the size of my tank, FM balling lite..... and the most important feed heavy
i love the heavy import heavy export method

JBs_Reef · Jan 13, 2011

Troylee said:
I also top off with kalk... I bet 90% of the people who can't keep sps tryed topping off with kalk they would succeed....;)

I agree about Kalk. I do run a calcium reactor but found I fought depressed PH malot of the time. Now I also run a Kalk stirrer and run a controlled amount of water (using a litermeter 3) through it to help boost the PH and take a little of the load off my reactor. The combination keeps things very stable and gives me peace of mind. If one piece of equipment goes down I can just boost the output of the other.

I also find it funny how poepl try to have these crazy off the charts levels of Ca and Alk. The key is to have BALANCED levels of the two.

I aslo swear by having a schedule and sticking to it. I entered a testing a maintenance schedule into my outlook calendar on my phone and it remonds me of everything I need to do from testing, cleaning and changing bulbs. It allows me to be proactive rather than reactive when something seems wrong. It REALLY helps

knockout · Jan 13, 2011

so this is post # 27 and so far we have established that:
deep sand bed is good
bare bottom is good
feed a lot is good
feed very little is good
lots of fish is good
no fish is also good
LOL
one thing you all seem to agree on is STABILITY so I will shoot for that!!!

clowns101 · Jan 13, 2011

LOL,I noticed that to...but I kinda go with my own things when I get tons of post like that!

But your right,we do all agree on stabability!

KLR · Jan 13, 2011

Paul_PSU said:
When I took down my 75 the dsb was 6 years old. The sand was not bad at all. I had tons of bristle worms, a pistol shrimp, a couple gobys and they kept the sand pristine. I NEVER stirred or cleaned the dsb in the 6 years I had it. IMO if you are going to have a dsb you have to get the critters to clean it for you. I had a 5-6" dragon wrasse that was being harassed by my purple tang. It ended up burying itself in the sand under a rock and died. The worms and critters in the sand were over it so fast that I didn't even get a spike in N and P. I will always have a dsb.

Agreed, i had a huge sand sifting starfish and a sand sifting goby in my 75 gal and they kept the sand so clean,the goby cleaned the top and the starfish ate all of the crud,ill call it.

If your considering sand you can get crushed coral instead of that extremly powdery sand,no it isnt as smooth looking but the crushed coral does not blow around as easy

clowns101 · Jan 13, 2011

Crushed coral is very bad!It is nothign but a alage magnet!I hate it!

SaraB · Jan 13, 2011

Stability is it ... Just put a CA reactor on about 2 months ago and the SPS is finally happy. Dosing 2 part, a Kalk reactor and weekly W/C's were not enough for my system.

reeftank21 · Jan 13, 2011

What is considered stable? How much is considered too much of alk swing? 0? If so how do you keep it at exactly 0 swing. Temperature fluctuations? 2-3 degrees? How stable is considered stable?

SPSkeeper · Jan 13, 2011

Kalkwasser, plain and simple. :)

MitchReef · Jan 13, 2011

I aim at dKH 9.2 to 9.4 and temp within a degree at all times. I don't like ANY swings, well I should say my corals don't like swings, so they don't get them!

Troylee · Jan 13, 2011

My temps flucuate 3 to 4* and I don't have any problems... My kh swings but it does it slowly over a couple days.... You could swing from 8 to 9 but just not over night you bring it up slow and the tank takes it down slow.... Swings are acceptable as long as it's not within a 24 hour i think
Personally....

nayrgaijin · Jan 13, 2011

FiReBReTHa said:
love.

Yes, I absolutely love this thread. I NEED to learn more about SPS.....

schminksbro · Jan 15, 2011

Stability, Random flow, and heavy feeding. I dose vodka and MB7 and skim heavily to keep the nutrients down. I run a calcium reactor and drip kalk to keep alk stable and Ph up. I run Vortech MP40s for flow. I almost never test but I observe my tank closely. I feed my fish a varied diet several time per day.