How to keep sps colorful and growing
- Thread starter Sakis
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footballdude2k3
Acroholic
Stability
spspirate
Tidepool Explorer
Keeping it simple and your parameters consistent. I also think that one of the main factors among many is keeping your oxygen levels near or at a supersaturated level. Oxygen plays a major roll in our enclosed ecosystems from fish, inverts, bacteria and the breaking down of wast all consumes oxygen. Oxygen also stabilizes ph. Good water agitation and over rated skimmer are a good way to achieve this.
spspirate
Tidepool Explorer
Great thread! I would also like to note that in my findings with SPS more so with acropora sp is having fresh bulbs. Replace your bulbs at the end of their peak so your corals are not stressed and have to photo acclimate from a low intensity old bulb to new and high intensity bulb. With LED's well........Im not a LED guy..LOL.
Gwitness
Well-Known Member
JUST sold my LEDS and went T5!! How often do you change your bulbs? 9 or 10 months?
Stoneyman
Active Member
Great point about changing out bulbs sooner. I wish i had known that last month i would have saved a bunch of pieces.
And congrats to ditching your leds! I did the same last year and my reef took off under the t5s.
And congrats to ditching your leds! I did the same last year and my reef took off under the t5s.
prsnlty
Jackie
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What about frag tanks? I have a sunpod 14k mh, hob filter, reactor with chemipure elite and a powerhead. Only sps frags in it and it's a new setup. What am I missing? I was told no protein skimmer is needed. Not 1 fish in it yet. I add coral amino and reef chili in very small amounts. This is a 20L tank
best3175
New Member
This awesome tank uses a two part to maintain calcium and alkalinity and a few Zeo products namely Coral Vitalizer, Amino Acid Concentrate, and Pohl’s Xtra.
jservedio
Active Member
#1 The "Basics", #2 Stability, #3 Lots of Food, #4 Good Nutrient Export
By "The Basics" I mean you meet the equipment requirements of good light and flow. Obviously stability is the most important factor since your acros will die without it and the less stable the system is, the more stressed they will be. Doesn't matter how you keep stability whether it is Kalk or Calcium Acetate, 2-part, Calcium Reactor, tons of water changes, etc.
#3 and #4 go hand-in-hand. Your corals need nutrients to grow - in order to build their skeletons corals use energy and in order to supply that energy, they need nutrients! Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus are all needed for your corals to convert all your light into energy. Also, SPS have polyps too and like to eat just as much as any LPS does, albeit just smaller particles. Advanced Aquarist not too long ago reported on a study that found acropora grew up to 4x faster when provided with as much baby brine as it could gulp down when compared to non-fed acros. A well fed acro is a happy, colorful, growing acro. Without nutrients and food, you will have very, very pale slow growing acros. And don't forget, fish poop is food for your acros too.
Obviously, with all of this food, you need to make sure your tank can process it and not foul up the water! A good skimmer, maybe GFO if it is need, and regular water changes - that is really all you need for healthy, colorful acros. Obviously there are many ways to skin the nutrient export cat, but as long as you aren't over-stripping the tank of nutrients and keeping your carbon:nitrogen: phosphorus ratio within it's natural range you will be good.
And don't bash LEDs, they work great. I have been using Radion Pros for a year and a half now and my acros look fantastic.
By "The Basics" I mean you meet the equipment requirements of good light and flow. Obviously stability is the most important factor since your acros will die without it and the less stable the system is, the more stressed they will be. Doesn't matter how you keep stability whether it is Kalk or Calcium Acetate, 2-part, Calcium Reactor, tons of water changes, etc.
#3 and #4 go hand-in-hand. Your corals need nutrients to grow - in order to build their skeletons corals use energy and in order to supply that energy, they need nutrients! Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus are all needed for your corals to convert all your light into energy. Also, SPS have polyps too and like to eat just as much as any LPS does, albeit just smaller particles. Advanced Aquarist not too long ago reported on a study that found acropora grew up to 4x faster when provided with as much baby brine as it could gulp down when compared to non-fed acros. A well fed acro is a happy, colorful, growing acro. Without nutrients and food, you will have very, very pale slow growing acros. And don't forget, fish poop is food for your acros too.
Obviously, with all of this food, you need to make sure your tank can process it and not foul up the water! A good skimmer, maybe GFO if it is need, and regular water changes - that is really all you need for healthy, colorful acros. Obviously there are many ways to skin the nutrient export cat, but as long as you aren't over-stripping the tank of nutrients and keeping your carbon:nitrogen: phosphorus ratio within it's natural range you will be good.
And don't bash LEDs, they work great. I have been using Radion Pros for a year and a half now and my acros look fantastic.
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