Fast growing but easy SPS

[i cant think]

I’ve been looking at SPS for a while as a plan. I plan for the easier SPS but also would love to fill in some of the area rather quickly. I’m up for any slower/medium growth SPS though.

So far I have:
- Montipora spongoides
- Acropora cervicornis

I’m looking for some nice growth rate but easy SPS. I’d love a couple colonies of Cervicornis but so far all I have is an RD Joker. I love montipora aswell and would like a couple recommendations of good branching monti aswell as plating/encrusting.
Other coral I’ve looked at are:
- Seriatopora hystrix
- Pocillopora damicornis

The main colours I’m after are Oranges, Blues, Yellows, Reds. I have a lot of fluorescent greens but would love some other fluorescence. The oranges I have looked at from the cervicornis, same as the blues but other ideas are welcome!

 

[blaxsun]

I have some really nice montipora caps in red, bright red and green that have been fairly resilient despite all attempts on my part to inadvertently hinder their growth. I also have a pumpkin patch psammocora (green with orange dots) and a brilliant green hydnophora which likes to kill other corals. Oranges I haven't seen a lot of, but I have a bunch of zoas, mushrooms and a neon orange plate (LPS). Same thing with blues (flowerpots).

 

[HuduVudu]

Purple Stylopora

 

[Brucealmighty]

You can get a forest fire montipora they appear red from a distance but are lime green with red polyps

 

[SamMule]

Montipora Setosa is pretty Hardy and bright red/orange. Also has a very unique growth form.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Confusa montis, birdnest, poccilapora, stylophora.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Honestly I love all my Acropora and they seem to grow pretty fast, at least as fast as my mushrooms. Not as fast as my candy canes or sun coral, but still plenty fast enough. Red montipora digitata is another good choice. I also love Blue Ridge Coral, but it tends to get overlooked because it doesn't fluoresce gaudy colors.

Only Acro I've lost in the 75 gallon, even with my nitrates bottoming out and having a dinoflagellate bloom, and having an alk drop, was a single aqua colored tenuis that got knocked off the frag plug and onto an Acan echinata.

 

[FishieFlashdrive]

I don't remember what this one was called (Sorry, maybe someone on here smarter than me knows?) But it has been growing so well and very forgiving!

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Maybe try a mystic sunset(montipora verscusa) milka stylo(any kind of stylo really but that purple brown ugly milka is hard to kill) maybe a emerald green pavona or if your testing cal alk and mag once a week(daily) and doing wc daily or bi weekly maybe go with something more colorful like a bubble gum, forestfire, or tub's digita as these pop a lot of color if params are dialed in and will color down if you're caught sleeping

Then you can graduate to something like a bali green slimer( acropora yongei) and then maybe try an garf bonsai(acropora valida)

As this was my learning curve going into sps
I took a chunk of ugly green brown dull lepto home from the lfs one day it did good I came back for a seriatopora and pocci the next week and my and over time the lepto colored up that was over 12 years ago now and I'm still killing sps so dont be to hard on yourself out of the gate if u kill thing yes granted it is your fault but death and guilt is what will make you better over time

Rome wasnt built in a day
Alot of heartache can come with having a reef so u cant be to hard on yourself if thing take a turn for the worse and dont turn out

I'd say start with encrusting sps like montis leptos and stylos then try seriatopora poccis and digis if you can grow those you can grow sticks then get a green slime to see if your tanks ready and more or less if you're ready and your maintenance regimen is up to par u have propper lighting and numbers and ur feeding a propper amino line and are testing salinty 2x a day and are on daily or bi weekly wc and dosing propper 3 part and testing and adjusting accordingly

But sps is one of those things if you're vigilant resourceful and have a keen eye you'll do good at it

If youre slacking on Maitenence numbers are all over the place, your not religious in testing and wc, things are not gonna be fun and your probably just gonna barely keep the coral alive let alone growing and happy

Just my 2 cents

When I first started they said you couldnt keep sps boy did we learn alot not only did we learn to keep them but we also learned how to culture the sps thought to be mythical and impossible to grow a decade prior to those heinous statrments


But on the same hand were these people using the propper lighting probably not, were they using the propper water filters no... technology has came a long ways and u can grow coral with very little as long as you view it as a closed system and start with a good clean base water and decent salt

Which means running drain to waste in a aio or sumpless setup a daily wc is unfortunately necessary in anything less than 50g to keep up with mineral depletion and evaporation

That's why alot of beginners kill their sps is overlooking the importance of wc to keep equilibrium in small systems

Sure you can dose bottles but a 3 part can only do so much

Now granted this isnt always necessary but this is something I wish somebody told me when I first got into sps because I was dosing bottles like crazy sometimes less is more and it took a long time to figure out that I was at fault not my system not my equipment not my chemistry

But the fact that I was doing to much
And being inconsistent in my matience routine

Rember when u first start out wc weekly leave coral alone

Sometimes bi weekly if u have a heavy bioload

But if youre doing this for profit or youre doing this for a business endeavour or u just wanna take care of your animals the right way 10 to 35% water volume a day and I will guarantee sucsess or at least 2/3 s of the problems will disappear

And the stress that comes with reefing will go away once you have a setup where it's easy to do water change water in water out, test salinty ,
1.025 boom done in and out


Test salinty 2x a day lights on lights out

And test cal alk and mag daily and go from there

And see where the corals are in a month

 

[UnderseaOddities]

Dont bomb the tank with reefroids either if u wanna feed ud be better off running all 5 ocean nutrition bottles over refroids as the wont spike the p and wont get skimmed out as fast


And then if nitrates and phosphates are low maybe add a fish or 2 start feeding more

Or start dosing something like acropower by tlf or redsea ab energy or brightwell aminos 1 drop, ligol iodine 1 drop

But I feel oyster feast is crucial to sps diet

 

[Hermie]

most montiporas tbh

 

[UnderseaOddities]

But also rember when you're dealing with things like montis and zoas you're better off buying aquacultured specimens this means avoiding coral chop shops and wholesalers and finding a hobbiest that has a clean tank and has one vailable or a trusted lfs
That grew one out

The only reason I say this is wholesalers cesspools are a whole slew of nasty wild things from the ocean were it gets overlooked and passed off to u the buyer because they have 300k coral in stock this week and have to sell atleast 100k of those to make room for new


So you end up with thing like redbugs, nudibranch, predatory snails, worms, starfish,nuscianse algae, sponge etc etc

The list can go on for days and then places like that make millions and you get nothing just a coral in comprimised health bc it was poached from the ocean 2 months prior to and sold as an"aquaculutured specimen"

And then it dies u blame it on yourself and your tank but corals are fine numbers are fine

U blame it on the shipping but it was nice out and only a short trip

You my friend are now stuck singing I got got aka the I bought the flat worm blue

While you probably just bought an ex coke dealer in florida a new boat me you and 10000 other idiots online bc they have radions in their facility and are sponsored and have a following on insta


No these people are crooks dont give them your money they dont care about the animal only the almighty dollar,

The only reason they care about the animal is because the animal is worth something to some one somewhere not even themselves..


And that's one for everyone to sleep on idc if it bans me even it's the truth...

 

[GHOSTLY]

@UnderseaOddities
Agreed to what they say

 

[Jedi1199]

In my experience, Quality lighting was the clear difference. My 55G mixed reef is pretty much the same as when I set it up.

When I set it up, my goals were simple, as most new reefers with aquarium experience tend to be. "I just want beautiful fish and maybe a few nice softies or zoas". Sound familliar?

My original setup was the same as my old FW tank. Only change was new substrate and rocks. Reused the same Rena XP3 canister filter, Aquaclear powerheads for flow. Added a cheap HoB skimmer and a cheap 48" LED light. Later, I switched to a pair of Wills 165 black box lights. The tank was ok but SPS died. Other corals did ok but no real growth to speak of.

Sometime is the summer of 2021 I added a Fluval FX6 canister filter to supplament the Rena. Again, no significant noticible difference in the way my tank ran or any growth to the corals in the tank.

In December 2021, I installed 2 new things on my tank. You can take what you wish from this as to what is the mitigating factor here. I got an external overflow and plumbed in a 10g tank for a "sump" which basically is nothing more than a home for a large skimmer. At the same time, I added a pair of Kessil A360x tuna blue lights.

My tank has never looked better. Every new coral I add grows as if it it has been waiting for my exact setup.

For SPS that I have that grow well.. I have a beautiful purple plate Monti that is growing exceedingly well. a green plate monti that was severely damaged by a Goniapora that was too close and stung the bejezzus out of it till I moved it away, now the green plate has fully recovered and showing all signs of quality growth. Green elkhorn acropora started off as a frag of 2 sticks.. it has grown several new branches and up until a couple days ago was happy and healthy with ployps all over it. (I found it this morning knocked off its spot and now the bottom 3rd is completely white.)

 

[Jedi1199]

Birdsnest also seems to grow fast and easily for me.


I think that as with all things reefing, what works for one may or may not work for another.

My best advice here, start with an inexpensive piece of something that most reefers have no problems with. See where that goes and then you can gauge what else you might be able to keep.

Also keep in mind, more expensive equipment (with the exception of lights) does NOT mean easier husbandry of SPS or any other coral. It is up to YOU to learn and provide the requirements of whatever you add to your tank.

 

[LRT]

I'm probably going to get cancelled for saying this especially because I have a tank full of shrooms and only some sps but I honestly do feel like a fully automated tank full of sps would be easier as long as tank is stable and all params are locked and maintained with due diligence. Probably going to switch over soon Tbh

 

[Jedi1199]

I'm probably going to get cancelled for saying this especially because I have a tank full of shrooms and only some sps but I honestly do feel like a fully automated tank full of sps would be easier as long as tank is stable and all params are locked and maintained with due diligence. Probably going to switch over soon Tbh

You make me wish I was an LFS owner in Mesa Az.

 

[LRT]

You make me wish I was an LFS owner in Mesa Az.

Fair enough just saying. I have sps that are supposed to be super hard to grow that are growing alot faster and seem much hardier than some of my most finicky, flow picky, nutrient needy, light sensitive primadonna shrooms. I know my comment was biased but when you've seent it you kinda seen it.

 

[Jedi1199]

I think that as with all things reefing, what works for one may or may not work for another.

@LRT See above

 

[LRT]

@LRT See above

Totally disagree. What are you trying to say that sps are harder to grow than any other coral on a stable reef operating at fullest efficiency?
Im saying as long as par is mapped and params (temp,salt,ph,alk,cal,mag,n, p) and flow are locked in to greatest capability. Im not finding any sps harder to grow than my most picky shrooms lol. Its quite the contrary.