Any tips for a SPS noob?

[jaws789832]

OK so I decided to dabble a little bit more into SPS for my mixed reef. I bought one of the 5 packs from Live A. Got them in, they looked a little rough, probably UPS was a little rough in handling because they were all knocked out of their Styrofoam floater, but I spent hours acclimating them, dipped them with RX and put them in the tank (I know, I didn't QT but my wife would kill me if I set up another tank, but that is for a different thread). They have been in there 2 days now and the polyps are showing themselves but the sticks are all butt ugly. They are just brown sticks. Is there anything I can or should be doing to get them to color up? It would be nice to see what colors they are before I start trying to find a home for them in the tank.

oops seems photobucket is down for maintenance so once it is back up I will post some pictures.

 

[Sabellafella]

OK so I decided to dabble a little bit more into SPS for my mixed reef. I bought one of the 5 packs from Live A. Got them in, they looked a little rough, probably UPS was a little rough in handling because they were all knocked out of their Styrofoam floater, but I spent hours acclimating them, dipped them with RX and put them in the tank (I know, I didn't QT but my wife would kill me if I set up another tank, but that is for a different thread). They have been in there 2 days now and the polyps are showing themselves but the sticks are all butt ugly. They are just brown sticks. Is there anything I can or should be doing to get them to color up? It would be nice to see what colors they are before I start trying to find a home for them in the tank.

oops seems photobucket is down for maintenance so once it is back up I will post some pictures.

Lolol yea just take your time with adding them and closely watch ur alk. Make sure its getting enuff flow Nd light, try to keep ur nitrates and phosphate down Nd your good to go, before you kno it the bug will bite =)

 

[hybridazn]

Coral rx can be pretty rough on sps as a dip. I recommend using Bayer instead. But give them time, as long as the tank is set up right they will recover and thrive.

Keep us posted and best of luck!

 

[Lenny_S]

I'll try and help....
First there is a good thread on SPS here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-successfully-keep-sps-corals.70893/

When first introducing them to the tank, put them in a high intermittent flow area around the middle (top to bottom) of the tank. Slowly increasing light intensity is important for new corals. Water quality is the next thing. There is a lot of different takes on some of the finer points in the link, but some of the water parameters I found help new Acros along are the following...
A little bit of nitrate (between 1 ppm and 0.1 ppm works fine)
A little bit of phosphate (between 0.03ppm and 0.01ppm)
Supplement with amino acids (I like Seachem Reef Plus)
Each of those will help "feed" new and stressed Acros as they acclimate to your tank. Acclimation is really a long process with SPS usually days or weeks, not minutes or even hours. The nutrients and amino acids will help while the coral is too weak for the polyps to feed and the zooxanthellae (a symbiotic algae in the flesh of the coral) aren't producing much nourishment either.
The other parameters like Ca, Alk, Mg, etc... Are important to be close, but are more important for long term health and growth than survival and the first few days/weeks.
Hope this helps, good luck.

 

[jaws789832]

Thanks for all the responses, I really appreciate any and all help. So before I put them in I built me a little frag rack that I placed at the end of the tank about 6 inches up from the bottom. They probably get about 80 par there (kind of a guess, but at the corners at the bottom its 60 par). As far as flow I have 2 WAV pumps in the tank that run at about 50% on inverse. My LPS and softies have good movement all over the tank, but the new SPS are out of direct flow atm.
Nitrates and Phosphates are a different story. I always read 0 on both. I run my skimmer 24/7. GFO and Carbon reactors 24/7, and about 2 weeks ago put in 2 Santa Monica UAS that have shown absolutely no growth in them since I put them in. I do tend to overfeed, and my fish stocking is light atm (I am slowly working on this, have a yellow tang in QT who is doing great). I do have a little algae growth on the back wall of the tank so the 0's are probably a little misleading. You might say the above is overkill but on my 30 gallon tank I had a GHA issue. It wasn't out of control but it was a constant battle so when I set up this tank, about 6 months ago I was determined to stack the odds in my favor so put everything in place.
ATM I dose ALK and ca using the BRS 2 part. Its not much though as my consumption is pretty low but I wanted to get the numbers down before I added more sps. I dose 40 ml of alk at night and only 5 ml of ca during the day.
Alk stays steady at 8.5dkh and ca at 450. mg has never been an issue yet steady in the 1350 range.
As far as other supplements I do have the Red Sea color pack A,B,C,D. I haven't dosed any of them yet, as I haven't tested for anything and dosing without testing always makes me a little nervous. Don't know if they have the amino acids in them but will do a little research to find out.
I was doing water changes of 15 gallons about every 10 days but I have slacked off on this due to trying to get the dosing dialed in. Its been about 21 days now since my last water change except for acclimating corals in fish, so there has been about 15-20 gallons changed due to this process. I do feed Live baby brine about once a week and BRS reef Chili about once a week. feed the fish once a day with LRF and some black worms about twice a week.
Anyways here are a few pics.

This one is about 6 hours after putting them in the tank. The zoas are pretty much closed and no polyps on the sps.

The next 3 wee taken last night when I started this thread (about 2 days after placement in the tank). The first 1 is under tank light the next 2 are with a flash. The polyps are coming out on the sps but the corals are still real brown and ugly. I am not even sure what kind of corals they are except for the monti. All the zoas are out an happy.

Anyways thanks again for the help.

 

[BigKid4788]

Best advice is don't chase numbers. Consistency is key. If alk, ca, p04 doesn't fluctuate things should go fine

 

[duncangweller]

The BRS 2 part, as with most 2 part additives are a 'balanced additive' meaning that you must dose equal parts of both alk and calc daily in order to gain a balance.

Randy Holmes-Farley is a frequent flyer on here and everyone's go to guy for chemistry questions. He has written some excellent articles on dosing and how to correct problems.

My favourite reference links are:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/11/chemistry

And

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/

These two should give you a pretty good idea on what you should be doing and how to correct any problems you may encounter.

Just maybe put the kettle on or grab a beer before you commit to it, its quite the read!

Good luck,
Dunc

 

[jaws789832]

When I started dosing a little over a month ago I was doing that but my calcium shot up to about the 600 range. I stopped dosing calcium for a few weeks and got it back down. I started back up just the other day but only at the 5 ml mark. Just tested again Alk at 8.6 DKH and Ca at 454. 5 ml seems to be what my tank needs to keep the numbers right. I have heard 2 different stories on dosing 2 part. 1 is what you said, you must dose in equal parts, but others say dose what you need and don't dose without testing, its all dependent on the salt you use and other factors that are way above my head. If I don't do anything but water changes my Alk drops to about 7.7 and maintains there and ca sits about 400. I know those numbers aren't horrible but I wanted to get my feet wet on dosing so when the time comes (like adding more sps) I have a better understanding of what I am doing. so I shot for 8.5 on alk and 450 ca.

Thanks for the links though. I will read them in a little bit.

As far as chasing numbers. I actually enjoy testing. Its kind of a morning ritual for me where I test something, be it alk and ca, or ammonia and nitrates on my QT, or the rare occaisional stonium (don't even know what strontium is but I test it anyways) or something else. Usually don't do anything about them unless something is way out of whack, where I will retest using a different kit to see if my original test was right. This might be called chasing numbers but I thinks its fun and gives me a better understanding as to what is going on in my tank.

 

[Lenny_S]

The "chasing numbers" term is used more for the practice of making constant adjustments of water chemistry to try to achieve some kind of "perfect" set of numbers.
From all I've read though, it seems like you are definitely on the right track. There's a lot of good info in this thread, digest it and apply what makes sense.

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

"Never dose unequal parts of the two components. There is no reason to ever do this as both parts are always consumed equally and converted into calcium carbonate and nothing else. If you try it, you will just knock your tank out of balance again."

Learned this the hard way a couple years ago...

Full article here(not as long as the others):
https://joejaworski.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/the-right-way-to-use-2-part-additives/

 

[MikeyAl]

Coral rx can be pretty rough on sps as a dip. I recommend using Bayer instead. But give them time, as long as the tank is set up right they will recover and thrive.

Keep us posted and best of luck!

Plus 1

 

[Chris Ferrell]

"Never dose unequal parts of the two components. There is no reason to ever do this as both parts are always consumed equally and converted into calcium carbonate and nothing else. If you try it, you will just knock your tank out of balance again."

Learned this the hard way a couple years ago...

Full article here(not as long as the others):
https://joejaworski.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/the-right-way-to-use-2-part-additives/

Wow wish I had come across this sooner. I have been dealing with this problem the wrong way. I read both articles and now better how to handle my problems. Thanks guys.