Any good info out there

[gonewild34]

Hey guys i hae been doin alot of research and over the years have tryed to have an sps tank i have been in the hobby since 2004 and for the lie of me can never get sps to stay alive all my peramators are good im using 3. 250w mhs on a 125 it has been running for 15 mo ths now i just dont get it read alot of stuff on how tokeep them san jay has some good info i just dont know what to do im ready to give up

 

[JaimeAdams]

No one is going to give you some magic bullet. That being said there is a ton of good information out there. With SPS the key is stable parameters. High light, which you have, massive amounts of water flow, low nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate. Granted everything that is said is relative. People come to the store all the time asking questions, but inn reality if we aren't talking measurable numbers it is relative. To some people 30 Nitrate is low for them while others wouldn't consider low nitrate any amount that a test kit can pick up. The same can be said for the others things.

In my 30 gallon Acro tank I have 2 MP10s ramping to full power with two additional smaller power heads, 2 XR15's ramping to full power, 3 fish (I think too high a bio load), an over sized skimmer. You really need to keep Alkalinity rock steady for a lot of Acropora to be happy. I know folks who run calcium rectors whos alk numbers are high, while most run in the 7.5 - 8.0 range or at least shoot for those numbers.

Do you have more information about your set-up such as nutrient levels, flow, what sps you have tried?

 

[Oberst Oswald]

I had trouble with SPS and couldn't keep them alive no matter what I did or money spent. Kept on trying, spending over $1000+ on the "easy ones", until I finally found success with the Triton Method. Not cheap by any means but to me it was like a gift from Heaven, could buy different type SPS corals, and say "I got it... I'm a Reefer". For about 9 months things were doing quite well with everything living and growing fast others slow. No happy ending though... I lost about 75% of my corals to a very bad Dino outbreak, by letting NO3 & PO4 stay at zero far too long, that I could not stop. Sort of under control now and very slowly adding LPS corals, snails & crabs. Know my tank better and a bit wiser now. Wonder if SPS are worth the expense and despair. Anyway don't give up until maybe give Triton a try. Just letting you know that it worked for me.

 

[gonewild34]

Thankx i will post more info tonight after work but reading and watching tons of videos im thinkin i need more flow i have a mp40 turned up that is it for flow and the pump from the sump

 

[Oberst Oswald]

You live not far from me. We will probably cross paths at Something Fishy one of these days.

 

[PatW]

Each tank is its own little system.

Some SPS are tougher than others. ... birds nests, pocillipora, seriotopia amd some montiporas. I would suggest getting some tough stuff and once they are growing and happy move to the more finicky acroporas. Even then try to start with the hardiest acros.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I think stability is key with most corals, but seems to me with acros in the home environment it is critical. Weird since out on the reef they are subject to so much abuse that we have trouble in our systems. I do not keep sps anymore, but did years ago with little difficulty until a terrible bacteria outbreak killed them all after a one time alk spike. horrible!

See if anything easier will tickle your fancy and try that. Maybe then you can go back to sps or maybe you will find that other corals are more fun. Never know.