How to successfully keep SPS Corals!

[Macdaddynick1]

Keeping it simple, less variables to pinpoint when something does goes wrong. I have been keeping sps successfully for quite sometime, growing 1" frags to massive colonies in a few short years. I always tell folks is that keeping water is the secret and not concentrate in keeping corals specifically, pick a set of parameters and sticking with it long term and sps will adapt and become resilient. I don't really test much like I should, but have been doing this for quite sometime and you develop a sense that I can't really explain, so more often than not...I just test with my eyes. The corals tells me, if something is going sideways. I use to manually test alot, but all it did was drain my pockets and my reef tank never improved. Because all the chasing numbers never made my reef tank stable, is was all over the place and the corals was never able to adapt. I always used the same methods from day one, way back to 1996. As technology changes, so did the equipment I used. But the methods still are still the same.
My order of Importance...
1. Water (w/ IO or RC)
2. Flow
3. Lighting
4. Calc Reactor
5. Refugium w/miracle mud

And when I started to just sit back and let the reef tank do its thing, things started to take off and I stopped testing...only tested dkh maybe once a month. Also note, I don't use filter socks, and rarely use gfo or carbon. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Also Water changes once every month or 2. I'm not here to tell you not to test, if you have a system great, keep doing it. I'm here to tell you how I do it, and quite frankly it's as simple as you can get. My 2 cents....

Ok you win. Lol can you tell me more about the flow or post a pic of the location of your pumps.

 

[52728299]

Oof the more I read the more confused I feel. My tanks only 3 months old and just lost my first attempt at keeping an acro. Only stony corals were 3 lps and the acro.. my alk 9.1 mag 1275 and ca 375. Those numbers did drop a bit in the 2 weeks after I added the sps. Before my alk was 9.3 ca was 415 and I actually had not tested mag myself until today but it is a tad on the lower side.

53g tank, radion xr15 with 3 small wavemakers. Acro was placed and left alone at the highest point in the rockwork in a high flow area. It looked the same as when I first got it up until today when it just melted away..

Been doing 4g water change once a week and nitrate is 10 phos 0.05 ammonia 0. I guess my question is is a 3 month old tank just too young to support sps? If I started dosing would i be able to keep healthy sps? And I could use some specific advice on exactly what to dose as I was hoping to just use all for reef but dunno if it's adequate for sps.

Thanks for any help guys

 

[Koigula]

I had great success in hobby at one time when I was less knowledgeable. I had real Florida live rock, Ocean direct sand, a life reef venturi skimmer, halide t5 combo, large chaeto sump filled with pods. and easy sps and montis. They would grow to top with kalk and basic calcium reactor at dkh 11.

When I got on the BRS site and bought stupid crap the tank crapped out too. That is harsh but real. Previously I never measured phosphate, and adjusted mag quarterly.

I purposely went back to that setup with several trips to the dumpster. I now use ATI 8x 54w 2UV, 2 Coral+, 4 blue plus, 3 MP40s, 36" life reef mazzei skimmer, and 40 gall chaeto tank almost acting as a turf scrubber at times. I need some Mexican turbos.

Even though I am back to normal, I still make mistakes. I had old school shortcake size of a baseball just bleach overnight one day. I really believe SPS have a 10 day to 90 day stress response whih is not something people are good at associating.

Really with SPS you carefully do nothing once stable and as tank florishes it rewards you with RTN and STN.

It is always the basics!
1. 10% water changes weekly, while not effecting kH by more than 5 ppm.
2. leaving out of whack parameters alone, just painfully bring back to normal with slightest adjustment.
3. Stay off vendor sites showcasing bleeding edge technology. Yeah site is sponsored, buy their most basic stuff only
4. I really think everyone acting like they are running a petshop is **** for the hobby. Bring healthy frags to LFS so they can squeak by and stay open.
5. Run kalk with ph control, dosing control and limited top off water as my preference.
6. Most additives are trash. Strive for slightly faster nutrient cycling as tanks grows. Fish poop is magical and dry foods make sewer water.

Here is a reboot of a system I changes out over encrusted rock for at one time. It was a Mike Palleta blue in middle, I miss the the moster yellow scroll. It was bullet proof. Pink Pociliphora{sp}, florida stag horn, tan pavona, and red milli. All fairly cheap.

 

[las]

Keeping it simple, less variables to pinpoint when something does goes wrong. I have been keeping sps successfully for quite sometime, growing 1" frags to massive colonies in a few short years. I always tell folks is that keeping water is the secret and not concentrate in keeping corals specifically, pick a set of parameters and sticking with it long term and sps will adapt and become resilient. I don't really test much like I should, but have been doing this for quite sometime and you develop a sense that I can't really explain, so more often than not...I just test with my eyes. The corals tells me, if something is going sideways. I use to manually test alot, but all it did was drain my pockets and my reef tank never improved. Because all the chasing numbers never made my reef tank stable, is was all over the place and the corals was never able to adapt. I always used the same methods from day one, way back to 1996. As technology changes, so did the equipment I used. But the methods still are still the same.
My order of Importance...
1. Water (w/ IO or RC)
2. Flow
3. Lighting
4. Calc Reactor
5. Refugium w/miracle mud

And when I started to just sit back and let the reef tank do its thing, things started to take off and I stopped testing...only tested dkh maybe once a month. Also note, I don't use filter socks, and rarely use gfo or carbon. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Also Water changes once every month or 2. I'm not here to tell you not to test, if you have a system great, keep doing it. I'm here to tell you how I do it, and quite frankly it's as simple as you can get. My 2 cents....

Unreal coral!!

 

[las]

Keeping it simple, less variables to pinpoint when something does goes wrong. I have been keeping sps successfully for quite sometime, growing 1" frags to massive colonies in a few short years. I always tell folks is that keeping water is the secret and not concentrate in keeping corals specifically, pick a set of parameters and sticking with it long term and sps will adapt and become resilient. I don't really test much like I should, but have been doing this for quite sometime and you develop a sense that I can't really explain, so more often than not...I just test with my eyes. The corals tells me, if something is going sideways. I use to manually test alot, but all it did was drain my pockets and my reef tank never improved. Because all the chasing numbers never made my reef tank stable, is was all over the place and the corals was never able to adapt. I always used the same methods from day one, way back to 1996. As technology changes, so did the equipment I used. But the methods still are still the same.
My order of Importance...
1. Water (w/ IO or RC)
2. Flow
3. Lighting
4. Calc Reactor
5. Refugium w/miracle mud

And when I started to just sit back and let the reef tank do its thing, things started to take off and I stopped testing...only tested dkh maybe once a month. Also note, I don't use filter socks, and rarely use gfo or carbon. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Also Water changes once every month or 2. I'm not here to tell you not to test, if you have a system great, keep doing it. I'm here to tell you how I do it, and quite frankly it's as simple as you can get. My 2 cents....

Are you using a skimmer on your system?

 

[kenjung]

For over a year I couldn't keep any Acros, I would add an acro within a week or two RTN and died off. Obviously it got expensive fast, I slow down adding new acros and ICP tested my system and implement a air tube from Windows to my skimmer to keep PH high between 8.05 to 8.20+. The result was my PH never dip below 8.++ and DKH stay constant at 8.4 to 8.6 an I don't understand it yet, no matter how many acro I added and no matter growth I never have to adjust my Calcium reactor, maybe cause by high PH. In the past 6 months, I added 30+ acros frags all them are growing fast and PH hasn't budge and DKH hasn't budge. I spent $$ for these frags from TSA and others.

There are some old sign my tank was on the up swing, like all the rocks are cover with Coralline Algae.

The ICP test show me that my tank consume Mag, Potassium and Iodine. So I dose these 3 and calcium reactor take care of DKH and maintain high PH. That was it for my success.

I recently was on vacation for 2 weeks, came back acros are all thriving, tank is crazy stable now.

 

[Alexpark911]

Aquarium size: 256g display (72"x33"x24"), 40g frag tank (40"x30"x9"), 75g sum = 360g+ total water volume

Parameter levels:
Ca - 450ppm (Hanna)
Alk - 8.0 (Salifert)
pH - 8.1-8.3 (Apex)
Mg - 1380 (Salifert)
NO3 - .5 - 1ppm (Salifert)
PO4 - 0 (Salifert)
Salinity - 1.025 (Refractometer)

Lighting: Sfiligoi XR6 (3 250W 20K Radiums) + 8 39w T5's (all ATI actinic).
I change Radiums every 8 months - T5's once a year

Schedule:
Sunrise - 10AM - 11:30 - All 8 T5's ramp from 0-100% (then off at 11:30)
11:15 - 12:15 - Halides ramp from 0 - 100%
12:15 - 8:15 - Halides running 100% (T5's off)
8:15PM - 9:15 - Halides ramp down from 100% to 0%
9:00PM - 10:30 - T5's ramp down from 100% - 0%

Water Changes: 30g change every 2 weeks (Tropic Marin BioActiv)

Controller: Apex

Dosing:
2 part from BRS via LiterMeterIII
Mag - TechM (Kent's) - find this helps keep bryopsis at bay)
Zeo Sponge Power - 2 drops per day
ZeoBak - 10 drops per week
Pohl's Xtra - 2ml per day
Lugol's - 3 drops per day
BRS biopellets - 1 cup (just started this 8 weeks ago - starting VERY slow - so far, so good)
BioPellet Reactor - Reef Octopus from BRS

Skimmer: Royal Vertex Alpha Cone 300

Food: Rod's Food, Various types of algae for tangs, OysterFeast (3 times per week), PE Mysis

Misc: Sump contains a few pieces of liverock, skimmer, heater, and powerhead - VERY simple.

I think that's everything about my system. Here are some older pics. Current tank has been setup for just under a year now. It has grown in quite a bit (need to take some updated pics). Link to the AdvancedAquarist tank article is below in my signature (LOTS of pics and more info there). Hope this helps : )

if you are using all those products… don’t you bottom out nutrition? All those Zeo products to reduce nutrition

 

[CBonito]

Keeping it simple, less variables to pinpoint when something does goes wrong. I have been keeping sps successfully for quite sometime, growing 1" frags to massive colonies in a few short years. I always tell folks is that keeping water is the secret and not concentrate in keeping corals specifically, pick a set of parameters and sticking with it long term and sps will adapt and become resilient. I don't really test much like I should, but have been doing this for quite sometime and you develop a sense that I can't really explain, so more often than not...I just test with my eyes. The corals tells me, if something is going sideways. I use to manually test alot, but all it did was drain my pockets and my reef tank never improved. Because all the chasing numbers never made my reef tank stable, is was all over the place and the corals was never able to adapt. I always used the same methods from day one, way back to 1996. As technology changes, so did the equipment I used. But the methods still are still the same.
My order of Importance...
1. Water (w/ IO or RC)
2. Flow
3. Lighting
4. Calc Reactor
5. Refugium w/miracle mud

And when I started to just sit back and let the reef tank do its thing, things started to take off and I stopped testing...only tested dkh maybe once a month. Also note, I don't use filter socks, and rarely use gfo or carbon. Maybe 2-3 times a year. Also Water changes once every month or 2. I'm not here to tell you not to test, if you have a system great, keep doing it. I'm here to tell you how I do it, and quite frankly it's as simple as you can get. My 2 cents....

The most successful period for me in reefing was indeed when I had a miracle mud refugium and only dosed kalk in my 90 gallon tank. I had a puny skimmer that didn't do much and did small and infrequent water changes. I also had some large colonies.

I doubt it's the mud itself, but rather the fact that the refugium was constantly producing food. I had a lot of biodiversity in that tank. A lot of yellow sponges on the undersides of rocks and little tube worms etc...

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

I just found an awesome deal for stupidly cheap acro frags, can I glean some experience with keeping them long term? I’m not keeping calcium, alk, and mag stable yet as I’m currently figuring out my dosing requirements, but the nitrogenous wastes are under control as well as the lighting. I never was interested in acros, but the cheap price(5 CAD per frag!) is very much appealing and I’d think they’d make a good food source for chaetodon butterflies and orange - spotted filefish.

 

[Dburr1014]

I just found an awesome deal for stupidly cheap acro frags, can I glean some experience with keeping them long term? I’m not keeping calcium, alk, and mag stable yet as I’m currently figuring out my dosing requirements, but the nitrogenous wastes are under control as well as the lighting. I never was interested in acros, but the cheap price(5 CAD per frag!) is very much appealing and I’d think they’d make a good food source for chaetodon butterflies and orange - spotted filefish.

Let me understand this post.
You bought coral to feed fish AND you want them to stay alive also. Right?

That won't work unless the coral are in a refuge. Then you snip pieces off for feeding.

 

[Alpha_and_Gec]

Let me understand this post.
You bought coral to feed fish AND you want them to stay alive also. Right?

That won't work unless the coral are in a refuge. Then you snip pieces off for feeding.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the plan. I’m just not sure how good the parameters need to be for acros since I’ve got spare lights that can work in the sump.

 

[jda]

Corallivores like those butterflies can wipe those out in hours... not a good food source and more like a complete slaughter. They might not eat them at all, however... just hard to know.

 

[CMarty McFly]

My current tank has been up for about two years. I’ve had several tanks in the past and I’ve never been able to keep any SPS until now.

It really is a mixed reef system. I have plenty of softies , LPS and quite a few SPS.

Redsea 425 XL
Redsea skimmer
Filter socks and chemipure blue
Two radion XR 15s blue , gen 6 running at AB + template, 85 percent intensity

10/25/2023 parameters
Alkalinity 7.4
Calcium 440
Magnesium 1320
Nitrate 0.00
Phosphate 0.02
Salinity 1.025
Temperature 77.8

I have a 4 way doser , dosing alk, ca , mag and I dose acropower at night for nutrients since , as you can see , this is an ULNS. I have six fish and going to add another soon. I feel like growth really started to take off when I was dosing acropower.

Water changes every other week. Including sand siphoning. Chaeto in the refugium

I feed reef Frenzy 3-4 times a week. Dry food as well , mysis , and also dose AB + coral supplement.

SPS I have include Pink Floyd acro, ORA pearlberry, Hawkins echinata, rainbow and plating monti, beach bum montipora , Bali green slimer acro in addition to some birds nest and stylophora that I started out with. These all started as tiny frags. On top of the LPS and softies. Mixed reef system?

Added the hammer coral pic to show they are happy despite an ULNS.

can anyone help ID this monti ^^^???

 

[sjfishguy]

I have been keeping acros for almost 20 years. Here is what I have found:

1) LEDs are an awful lighting source for acros. T5s or halides will make your life so my easier. I tried various LEDs, nothing but problems. Went back to T5s

2) Run your alk at 8. Alk more than 8 is of no benefit and can only lead to Acro problema

3) dip EVERY frag in bayer dip. Unless it can’t handle it like a turkari or echinata, don’t trust anyone, no matter what their tank looks like

4) stability: don’t go chasing numbers.

5) high ph- open your windows, use kalk, or get a co2 scrubber. Makes a big difference. Keep it above 8.2

As others have said, leave all the fancy additives out. Most are snake oil

 

[ronnie]

I have been keeping acros for almost 20 years. Here is what I have found:

1) LEDs are an awful lighting source for acros. T5s or halides will make your life so my easier. I tried various LEDs, nothing but problems. Went back to T5s

2) Run your alk at 8. Alk more than 8 is of no benefit and can only lead to Acro problema

3) dip EVERY frag in bayer dip. Unless it can’t handle it like a turkari or echinata, don’t trust anyone, no matter what their tank looks like

4) stability: don’t go chasing numbers.

5) high ph- open your windows, use kalk, or get a co2 scrubber. Makes a big difference. Keep it above 8.2

As others have said, leave all the fancy additives out. Most are snake oil

I used to run T5’s 8-9 years ago. Coming back I picked up a Radion XR15 Pro for my 40G cube. I added 4 T5’s a few months ago because I didn’t like the color. I’m considering moving to T5 primary or possibly even MH if I could find a reefbrite fixture for a reasonable price.

I have 10-15 frags and am just not impressed.

 

[Dburr1014]

I have been keeping acros for almost 20 years. Here is what I have found:

1) LEDs are an awful lighting source for acros. T5s or halides will make your life so my easier. I tried various LEDs, nothing but problems. Went back to T5s

2) Run your alk at 8. Alk more than 8 is of no benefit and can only lead to Acro problema

3) dip EVERY frag in bayer dip. Unless it can’t handle it like a turkari or echinata, don’t trust anyone, no matter what their tank looks like

4) stability: don’t go chasing numbers.

5) high ph- open your windows, use kalk, or get a co2 scrubber. Makes a big difference. Keep it above 8.2

As others have said, leave all the fancy additives out. Most are snake oil

Well, 2 out of 5 ain't bad.

LED work.
I use Revive.
I wish my pH would be 8.2, mostly stays 7.8 ~ 8.

Still grow acro/sps.

Many ways to run a tank. This is my 30 experience talking.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

Oof the more I read the more confused I feel. My tanks only 3 months old and just lost my first attempt at keeping an acro. Only stony corals were 3 lps and the acro.. my alk 9.1 mag 1275 and ca 375. Those numbers did drop a bit in the 2 weeks after I added the sps. Before my alk was 9.3 ca was 415 and I actually had not tested mag myself until today but it is a tad on the lower side.

53g tank, radion xr15 with 3 small wavemakers. Acro was placed and left alone at the highest point in the rockwork in a high flow area. It looked the same as when I first got it up until today when it just melted away..

Been doing 4g water change once a week and nitrate is 10 phos 0.05 ammonia 0. I guess my question is is a 3 month old tank just too young to support sps? If I started dosing would i be able to keep healthy sps? And I could use some specific advice on exactly what to dose as I was hoping to just use all for reef but dunno if it's adequate for sps.

Thanks for any help guys

Your dkh (Alk) seems a bit high, but i'll let others chime in on that. I would want to see dkh somewhere around 8.4-8.6dkh.

No, 3 months isn't too young for SPS, but others will have a different opinion... I have 6 SPS frags that are thriving, and my tank just turned 54 days old. Just need to make sure everything is stable... Only stuff I dose is Tropic Marins All-For-Reef (daily) and sometimes TM's Carbo-Calcium and EVS Mag if my levels are off after a large sized water change.

 

[Tavero]

Your dkh (Alk) seems a bit high, but i'll let others chime in on that. I would want to see dkh somewhere around 8.4-8.6dkh.

No, 3 months isn't too young for SPS, but others will have a different opinion... I have 6 SPS frags that are thriving, and my tank just turned 54 days old. Just need to make sure everything is stable... Only stuff I dose is Tropic Marins All-For-Reef (daily) and sometimes TM's Carbo-Calcium and EVS Mag if my levels are off after a large sized water change.

That member asked two years ago. I doubt he still needs help

 

[Sdoutreefer]

That member asked two years ago. I doubt he still needs help

Right on.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I love this thread is still rocking!