First SPS

[Brinkfish312]

Was kinda scared to try one, I've heard they're more difficult, especially with us being new to the hobby. But I got one anyways, a pink birdsnest, and I think for only 1 month the growth is looking pretty good! Of course, I think any growth at all means I have to be doing something right, so I always get that fuzzy feeling with any positive changes [emoji4]
This was it a month ago




And today


The pink is starting to show up more too.

We also got an acropora at the same time that I'm not sure about, maybe it's just picky... We've tried multiple spots trying to make it happy, but it just looks dead, beige, and blah. I was told it was a Walt Smith Acro, it's the white one with blue polyps. Any coloration you see in this pic is just a reflection of the led's above, not on the coral itself. Any recommendations are welcome, I'm not sure what to do with this.

 

[Brinkfish312]

FYI this is supposedly the coral it came from. It's gorgeous, maybe it just takes a while to start growing?

 

[Eckolancer]

Birds nest grows fast and easy to care for for. Acros are slower growers and mostly harder to care for. They can take a year to start showing signs of growth and color up. The birds nest might be a basketball size in a year.

 

[Rob&Gab]

i see you have a little alage, you have any mexican turbo snails? if not you should get 3-4 of them to clean that up.

just helping not trying to bash.


anyways , what is your DKH ALK AND mag sitting at right now ? sps once you get into them it is hard to get out of. its more addicting then anything else cause of the factor of the level you need to be on to hold SPS, its an amazing feeling when you see growth. i get excited all the time when i see growth even on a piece we had for almost 2years. amazing what coral can do to your mind,

looking good so far, keep us updated and dont go too fast. keep an eye on this birdsnest and see how it does for a few months. then get another dont buy too quick always think to your self where the placemnt will be so the coral can grow so you dont have to inturupt it in the future. space is always needed with acros.

good luck on your new venture! FOLLOWING! .

 

[Brinkfish312]

Ugh, since we started we've gone through a couple phases of funky algae. We had a bryopsis outbreak, fixed that then got dino's. That small, fuzzy, carpeting (I'm gonna call it that) has always been growing on stuff and I can't seem to get rid of it, even through the few blackout periods we did for the others. It doesn't really scrub off, and I've lost a lot of snails recently. I'm waiting until we're done with this ich treatment (yes, one more new prob we got) until I get some more. In the meantime I have 2 very large Nassarius snails and a sea hare, and an urchin . I did have a lettuce slug, but haven't seen him in a while, he's probably gone too [emoji20]
Ca: 450
Alk: 11.2
Mag: 1600

Thanks for the info

 

[Brinkfish312]

Birds nest grows fast and easy to care for for. Acros are slower growers and mostly harder to care for. They can take a year to start showing signs of growth and color up. The birds nest might be a basketball size in a year.

That is very depressing...LOL
I really thought it was dead. Still haven't thrown that notion out the window yet, but the only thing that keeps me from throwing it out is hope. "Maybe if there's one tiny cell in there still alive, it will come back!"

 

[Eckolancer]

Is the acro white? If so it maybe dead. The pic makes it look almost like it is blue or red.
As for the carpeting algae you have, is it red cyano? If so that is more a bacteria algae. May need to cut back on feeding and check water source for excess nutrients. They sell a red slime remover that will help short term.

 

[Brinkfish312]

Is the acro white? If so it maybe dead. The pic makes it look almost like it is blue or red.
As for the carpeting algae you have, is it red cyano? If so that is more a bacteria algae. May need to cut back on feeding and check water source for excess nutrients. They sell a red slime remover that will help short term.

It's not white, it's supposed to be white and blue. Right now it's a creamy beige color all over, nothing else.
We've been doing better about cutting how much we feed, we have no red algae, just the green fuzzy.

 

[Eckolancer]

Ok if it is beige then it is good. Just keep parameters in line and try not to have any big swings. Also keep working on eliminating algae. May look at better skimmer, more water changes, vodka dosing, ect....