Diving into SPS

[Kungpaoshizi]

Best advice I wish people gave:
Before even introducing any corals, get yourself setup with some dosers and a controller. Get a 2 part system setup, or calcium reactor, and get things up and running BEFORE anything else.

This will make things monumentally easier.
(check out the red sea reef care program, drew's dosers from brs, and the reef angel)

 

[ryboy707]

I totally agree, I actually sprung for the apex, and neptune DOS right off the bat. I haven't setup my DOS yet though, water changes have been enough so far to maintain things

 

[ryboy707]

 

[ryboy707]

I think my first sps is doing ok??

 

[Russ265]

Thank you.
You are one of a little few who claims that you can have success like that.
Do you run a ZEO tank?
Can you post some pics of your tank?

he isnt contradicting anything by his claim.

eg:
if his fish and the food he inserts creates 1ppm no3, and .02ppm po4 in 24 hours, yet corals, bacteria, and whatever else consume .95 no3 and .019ppm po4, his readings will come out fairly low.

another example:
his tank creates 1ppm no3 and .02ppm po4 in 24 hours, his corals only consume .1ppm no3 and .001 phosphate.

he adds nopox or whatever bacteria additive to bring it back down. to the 0 state.

his tank has a nitrate surplus because he uses a bacteria/carbon based system for success. this is absolutely true for most reef keepers.

however:
if you have a nitrate deficit, the nopox or bacteria will not add any benefit short of decaying in to tiny amounts of no3/po4 due to starvation.

the main point is to not fall in either excess trap.

btw nice looking tank @DamianOZ