Evan West
Well-Known Member
Me 2 years ago: SPS is stupid and lame
Me 1 1/2 years ago: Okay maybe ill try it.....just a little
Me 1 year ago: Okay I got my first SPS this will be easy.
Me 9 months ago: OH GOD ITS DIEING BUT I LOVE IT AND NEED MORE
Me 6 months ago: Okay I got this things are getting better!
Me today: Okay cool I think I got this I need more!
Here is what that looked like for my poor bird nest colony, this is an in order progression from the day I got it through my learning curve to today:
Bringing home the mini colony
A few months later
Rock bottom (its in the middle)
Growing somehow but still not good
Things are starting to look up
Today
#comebackkid
Still not perfect but im proud to have revived this birds nest and now have several other SPS that are colored up and growing! So what was the issue and what did I learn?
In hopes of passing it along to others I have learned several things.
First SPS need light and a lot of it! I have 2 Kessil a360we on a 20g tank and over the coarse of the recovery slowly raised them from 20% to 45% intensity. Its important to do this slowly tho to give other corals time to adjust.
Next is that the more stable your alk is the better. My LPS where fine with a swing from 9dkh down to 7dkh and then back up when I did a WC.....Not the SPS tho, dont pick a range pick a point and use kalk or 2 part to keep it there!!! For that matter do this with all your parameters and your coral will thank you!
Last, with all the talk of low nutrient tanks its easy to fall into starving SPS. THEY NEED NITRATE AND PHOSPHATE! This was almost the single biggest differance to my SPS coral. I went from undetectable nitrate and phosphate to 5ppm nitrate and .02 phosphate and my SPS love it.
Hope that some find this helpful and interesting.
The SPS addiction is real now
Me 1 1/2 years ago: Okay maybe ill try it.....just a little
Me 1 year ago: Okay I got my first SPS this will be easy.
Me 9 months ago: OH GOD ITS DIEING BUT I LOVE IT AND NEED MORE
Me 6 months ago: Okay I got this things are getting better!
Me today: Okay cool I think I got this I need more!
Here is what that looked like for my poor bird nest colony, this is an in order progression from the day I got it through my learning curve to today:
Bringing home the mini colony
A few months later
Rock bottom (its in the middle)
Growing somehow but still not good
Things are starting to look up
Today
#comebackkid
Still not perfect but im proud to have revived this birds nest and now have several other SPS that are colored up and growing! So what was the issue and what did I learn?
In hopes of passing it along to others I have learned several things.
First SPS need light and a lot of it! I have 2 Kessil a360we on a 20g tank and over the coarse of the recovery slowly raised them from 20% to 45% intensity. Its important to do this slowly tho to give other corals time to adjust.
Next is that the more stable your alk is the better. My LPS where fine with a swing from 9dkh down to 7dkh and then back up when I did a WC.....Not the SPS tho, dont pick a range pick a point and use kalk or 2 part to keep it there!!! For that matter do this with all your parameters and your coral will thank you!
Last, with all the talk of low nutrient tanks its easy to fall into starving SPS. THEY NEED NITRATE AND PHOSPHATE! This was almost the single biggest differance to my SPS coral. I went from undetectable nitrate and phosphate to 5ppm nitrate and .02 phosphate and my SPS love it.
Hope that some find this helpful and interesting.
The SPS addiction is real now
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