How successful are you?

Acro maniac · Jan 1, 2017

I would consider myself pretty successful with sps. I get good growth and i think decent color. Definitely not the photoshop colors but good enough for me.
I was thinking about a few colors ive had that i havent had the same success with as the others and it made me think. Am i the only one that has a couple sps that have not flourished when others do?
The question is what sps have you not had sucess with while other sps flourished?
Mpe i have upwards of 40 sps and i have a tort that is my Achilles heel of reef growing. No growth no pe and slight stn at base. Everything else is great. I have millies, validias,stylos, montis, psammocoras, and many other acros all doing well.
Dont be afraid to share your faults it might help someone.

george1381 · Jan 1, 2017

Torts definitely do not fair well with me nor does the Tenuis for some unknown reason. I also have issues with some encrusting montipora. It's very frustrating everything seems on point. I have researched and asked many of people, but no real answers.

george1381 · Jan 1, 2017

I don't have ATO that's about the only think I can think of. Maybe the fluctuations in salinity .255 -.27

Acro maniac · Jan 1, 2017

If your saying 1.0255 to 1.027 that a big swing

bif24701 · Jan 1, 2017

I have had better success keeping and growing SPS of all kinds than keeping fish alive lol.

My current problems, low nutrients due to my display going fallow for the last 30 days.

I have a lot of aiptasia. I bought the aiptasia eating nudibranchs and they are reproducing very well, cleaning off several rocks now and working on the others.

I've had AEFW, monti eating nudis, moved 4 months ago, upgraded to a 180 just months before that, low pH problem, and other stuff. Now things have improved and I don't lose any corals, <10% of new arrivals. My system is very stable and have all the equipment. All in all I've improved a lot in the last 10 months since I got back into reefing after several years off.

Acro maniac · Jan 1, 2017

I havent lost any resident colonies. And actually i haven't lost any new arrivals but i have had a couple rtn upon introduction that have been on the road to recovery for the past 3 months. Slow process

Vaughn17 · Jan 1, 2017

george1381 said:
Torts definitely do not fair well with me nor does the Tenuis for some unknown reason. I also have issues with some encrusting montipora. It's very frustrating everything seems on point. I have researched and asked many of people, but no real answers.

Torts, tenuis, and encrusting monties grow well for me, and I also have no ATO and my salinity fluctuates a lot (from 1.026 to 1.030). IMO all three sps have big appetites. I feed reef roids daily and keep my nutrients as follows: NO3 between 2-5 ppm and PO4 between .1 and .25 ppm.

brownsalt92 · Jan 1, 2017

Acro maniac said:
I havent lost any resident colonies. And actually i haven't lost any new arrivals but i have had a couple rtn upon introduction that have been on the road to recovery for the past 3 months. Slow process

They go so fast but take months to bounce back very fustrating

sowellj · Jan 2, 2017

I haven't found too many people more successful at sps eradication.

Vaughn17 · Jan 2, 2017

sowellj said:
I haven't found too many people more successful at sps eradication.

Lol, I think everyone who successfully grows acros has killed their share as well.

Acro maniac · Jan 2, 2017

I thought this thread would be helpful so people dont get discouraged when they lose a frag or even a colony.
To know that others that are sucessful have had loss could be incouraging.
I personally dont think you can have sucess with sps without loss. Sometimes its very unexpected.
But keep them coming

tomtom2245 · Jan 2, 2017

Green slimmer has never liked my tank and I've had issues with montis as well. My latest attempt has been ice fire echinata which is only going so so right now. Red Planet, tri color validia, birdsnest, red dragon, and other acros are doing just fine though.

bif24701 · Jan 2, 2017

Acro maniac said:
I thought this thread would be helpful so people dont get discouraged when they lose a frag or even a colony.
To know that others that are sucessful have had loss could be incouraging.
I personally dont think you can have sucess with sps without loss. Sometimes its very unexpected.
But keep them coming

So true, I think the more success ones are the ones that learn from their mistakes, stick it out and work at it always looking to improve/learn.

Though I've lost <10% of my acros in my last 10 months since I've returned to the hobby, had a tank swap, moved, and upgraded/changed my entire filtration. I've had some problems with the fish. Learning to QT well, diagnose problems and react is very important.

happyhourhero · Jan 4, 2017

I can grow montis and birdsnests well. Acros were doing fine until I fed them to AEFW. 8 days left in my fallow period.

Acro maniac · Jan 4, 2017

In the 8 or 9 years my reef has been running ive spent alot of time on different forums. I really thought there would be more comments from people that have been around and there dealings or mishaps with reefing. That could help others understand sucess isnt always having a perfect system. Most times its how you recover.

alten78 · Jan 6, 2017

In my 13 years or so there isn't a mistake I haven't made! I agree and think success comes from not repeating those (even though I have many times over) mistakes and how well and quickly you are able to recover.

Regardless of how successful I think my little slice of ocean is, my Achilles heel is the Red Dragon. I've had several big and small pieces last from 6 hours to over a year. Currently, I have a beautiful limited edition two toned frag, half red, half bone white lol. I know the issue this past time, was able to get things corrected and settled down and its recovered/growing again. Fingers crossed this go around!