Acropora, really that difficult?

[Dr. Peter Venkman]

Hey everyone. So i snagged two acropora corals during the WWC sale over the weekend. I've never had acropora's before, mainly because i have been scared away, because everyone says they are the most difficult to keep. However, I've finally decided to give it a go. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dburr1014]

What's your par and flow like?
Parameters stable?
Tank age?

Not at hard as you think as long as you have the basics.

 

[mrpontiac80]

Hey everyone. So i snagged two acropora corals during the WWC sale over the weekend. I've never had acropora's before, mainly because i have been scared away, because everyone says they are the most difficult to keep. However, I've finally decided to give it a go. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I started having success with acros once I switched from two part dosing to all for reef. I don’t think it’s all for reef necessarily, but I dose by hand and with two part, I could test and my parameters would be close but but I would need to adjust now and then. With all for reef, EVERY single time I’ve tested over a few months has been the same numbers.

So my answer is stability.
no matter how you supplement your parameters, I think you need to be consistent. Light is important too but even lower light can grow them, but you might not get all the cool colors.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I've had tanks that stuff grew like weeks and tanks that struggled -much with the same equipment and maintenance.

If your tank grows Coraline algae like crazy and you can't keep it off your powerbeads and glass, good news you will have a fairly easy time with sps. If your tank inexplicably has no Coraline it will be a tough road. That being said I do wonder how many of those times were due to pH now that we know a bit more about that connection. But I have always kept a night lit refugium so the likelihood my pH was super low on random tanks is not high.

It also really depends on the acro. A lot of us who talk about how difficult they are still remember the days when they were wild colonies that were nearly impossible to keep -and mostly ugly. Fast forward and I think if I were starting with acros I would pick up something like red planet, strawberry short cake, pink lemonade, or Pink Floyd. They are all stunning and just bomber. That being said sometimes one just won't take off -every tank is different. Start with some classics that have been around a LOOONG time and survived in a WIDE variety of tanks.

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

Had tons of issues until my tank was nice and established.

Even then was hit or miss on some pieces.

I'd also QT my coral for 3 months before going into the display, so that probably didn't help.

 

[ScottB]

If the system is new, the struggle will be real. If the system is new and started with dead rock, the struggle will be very very real. If you are not yet measuring ALK, NO3 and PO4 it gets harder still.

Got numbers?

 

[Loosechangereef]

Its a passion to keep acros,
people on the sps forum mostly give great advice.
Look on Jason Foxs webpage he does a video on how he keeps his tanks.
Some thing Jason says in this hobby that sticks in the back on my head is that , these tanks you cant turn off and on , 2 weeks test 1 month neglect.4 weeks test so on and so on.Get my drift

 

[Alexraptor]

I'd say the difficulty is very much down to individual species, varieties and even strains.

I have a maricultured tenuis and efflorescens in my systems, that are doing pretty ok, despite some neglect. Actually my forestfire and bubblegum monti's in the same tanks, have bleached. Have managed to stabilize the tanks, but no idea if they will bounce back.

 

[mattdg]

They are not difficult as frags. Just need a stable system with plenty of light and indirect flow. When they grow bigger and start pulling alk / cal / mag / trace, out of the water, is when the SPS keeping skills will be necessary.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Stability promotes success!! How hard can it be!! It's easy the first year but by then you get the hang of it, it's full blown colonies that are hard. Frags are easy peezy

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I actually disagree with frags being easier to keep than colonies. I like it when they get big and start sucking down the alkalinity then I know how much to give them, lol.

Frags can sometimes up and die for no reason. Acropora are very hard unless you're dedicated and know what you're doing. I find that 99% of the people fall into 3 categories - poor or not enough equipment, lazy, or they can keep husbandry up.

Acros are not an "I'll leave for vacation for 2 weeks and they'll be fine" type of coral. Can be, if you have automated setup.

If you're confident in your chemistry ability to keep your phosphate, Nitrate, Alk, Cal, Mag where they need to be, you'll be on the right path.

 

[jsker]

3 categories - poor or not enough equipment, lazy, or they can keep husbandry up.

would the 4 categories

Good way to sum it up.

Myself it comes down to husbandry, when I get really busy and not home much. It is hard to keep up with husbandry. Trust me, I can kill an Arco.

I have had my best growth with chalices, Monti's mushroom, cyano, and GHA. I have had two weeks of working at the home office and my tank is looking great. Next week will be different.

 

[skimmerman]

I love acro no matter how many times I failed. Finally got it right . No gadgets just good skimmer and calcium reactor

 

[hotdrop]

I've had tanks that stuff grew like weeks and tanks that struggled -much with the same equipment and maintenance.

If your tank grows Coraline algae like crazy and you can't keep it off your powerbeads and glass, good news you will have a fairly easy time with sps. If your tank inexplicably has no Coraline it will be a tough road. That being said I do wonder how many of those times were due to pH now that we know a bit more about that connection. But I have always kept a night lit refugium so the likelihood my pH was super low on random tanks is not high.

It also really depends on the acro. A lot of us who talk about how difficult they are still remember the days when they were wild colonies that were nearly impossible to keep -and mostly ugly. Fast forward and I think if I were starting with acros I would pick up something like red planet, strawberry short cake, pink lemonade, or Pink Floyd. They are all stunning and just bomber. That being said sometimes one just won't take off -every tank is different. Start with some classics that have been around a LOOONG time and survived in a WIDE variety of tanks.

I think it has to do with available non hostile substrate. If you don't have Coraline everywhere that surface is very vulnerable to colonization by various unwanted pests like Algee, dinos, diatoms etc. Once the Coraline has fully encrusted everything your tank is significantly more resistant to all sorts of major outbreaks and hence the stability factor.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I think it has to do with available non hostile substrate. If you don't have Coraline everywhere that surface is very vulnerable to colonization by various unwanted pests like Algee, dinos, diatoms etc. Once the Coraline has fully encrusted everything your tank is significantly more resistant to all sorts of major outbreaks and hence the stability factor.

I've built and maintained too many tanks to count. The last two specifically, we're 100% fresh everything with the goal of keeping a pest free systems.

I can tell you in my experience that's impossible. I currently have a diverse ecosystem and it started before I introduced Maricultured Acropora. I had 4 ORA frags, which are super clean when you receive them. I was going to grow ORA only, but my desire for larger colonies quickly shut that down, lol.

I removed all of the Maricultured Acropora stands/plugs with the exception of 3 that were larger Millepora and I didn't want to break up the colony. I've dealt with a few Aiptasia that seemingly came out of thin air. Sponges started showing up early in before the corals and now they're everywhere in my sump etc. The small pineapple variety that are looked at as good.

These things find a way and outside of FOWLR, I don't see that it's possible to keep a totally clean system.

Coraline is a strange one. It seems to either grow or it doesn't. I'm sure I have some, but nothing apparent to the eye and I even seeded early with the bottled Coraline you can buy. My parameters stay near perfect, for what I think is perfect, and still no extreme Coraline growth.

Lastly, I've seen rookie reef keepers that just start the hobby and fill their tanks with a mix of Acros, LPS, etc. and they have immediate success and long term success. I've seen seasoned reef keepers that start a new system and struggle badly or have something that goes wrong. The more I observe this, the more I lean toward water quality of different countries and states in the USA. I spoke above about the sponges coming from nowhere. These are caused from silicates mainly and I have a 7stage RODI. It's like there are components of our water that we can't control and some areas are very conducive to coral success and others not so much.

 

[hotdrop]

I think it’s just luck. Whatever organism wins out first in the battle. That’s why it’s common to have huge tank swings going from one oraganism having too much food, to die off to another until things get stabilized