My first SPS, any advice for a noob

Pennywise the Clown

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At the weekend I bought my first ever sps, a green birdsnest for the princely sum of £8.50 ($10).
I've mounted it high on the rock work under my Hydras and it is getting good flow.
My parameters are
Alk 8.3
Calcium 410
Mag 1290
Nitrates 10
Phosphates 0.1

It seems happy at the moment but polyp extension is not as much as in the shop.

I want this coral to succeed badly, and if it does there will be more sps to follow.
Any advice for an sps noob?
20190424_172917.jpeg
 
Everything looks in order for now. I bumped up the flow in my tank and my stylo has more polyp extension. If you can bump up the flow a little. It might like it more.
 
Two things I believe about SPS:

1. corals always look better before you bring them home.

2. The more I stress over a coral and hope that it will thrive the more likely it will fail in my tank.

The first issue makes easy sense. When a Reefer goes to the shop and purchases a frag it is because the frag looks perfect in the store tank. It has adjusted to the light and current it has and the polyps are fluffy and the coral is glowing. When you move it to your tank it is wondering; “Who in the heck moved me again?”

Wait awhile and the coral will perk up in your tank after it adjusts again. (Moving coral is a stressful event for an animal that is supposed to be stationary on a reef!)

The second issue is a repeated observation that has no correlation in science but I affirm is true. The more I am attached or invested in a coral or fish the more likely that fish or coral will decline or die in my tank while other animals thrive alongside of my favorite.

The only way to enjoy all my fish and coral is to not fret or get too attached to any of them and simply be happy and enjoy all of them.

Whenever anyone asks me: “What is your favorite fish or coral?” I always answer that I like them all and do not let myself focus upon any one coral in the tank. I just do routine water keeping and let myself enjoy the blessing of a captive reef.

So, op, I think that you did well with your first coral selection. Wait a few weeks or even a month until the coral has readjusted to its new location. It looks fine now and if your parameters are stable it will start growing into its new spot and you will be affirmed in your first investment.
 
Yep, everything Kris said. Resist the temptation to mess with the tank and/or coral. Leave it alone, concentrate on your tank maintenance schedule and keep your water chemistry stable.

Also, to avoid early heartbreak on your SPS journey, don't buy acroporas. Especially expensive, named acroporas. Start with seriatopora (your green birdsnest - there are other colors available), montipora, especially montipora capricornis and montipora digitata, pocillopora, pavona and hydnophora.

If you do well with these, you consider an inexpensive acropora. I'd strongly suggest a frag that your local shop has that's inexpensive without a goofy name. You might've already realized that there's a correlation between the creativity of the name of an acropora and the price. Sometimes shockingly so. That doesn't mean there's a particular correlation with the expense versus the difficulty of keeping it - most of the price is driven by the collector's impulse; the newer it is to the hobby and the fewer the number of people that have it, the higher the price. Having said that, there's a definite correlation between the disappointment of a failure and the harder it was to come by and the higher the price.

But almost any good shop will have a number of frags of acropora that are priced inexpensively and still look really nice. These are the ones that you want, because there's a very good bet that particular acropora strain grows really well in captivity in both the dealer's tanks and the hobbyists that frequent the shop (i.e., the hobbyists are trading it in).

If you succeed with some easy to keep acroporas, you're ready for something more challenging. In my case, I refuse to purchase acropora with names (other than the scientific ones!), so I choose wild acropora colonies. These can be significantly more challenging than established aquacultured strains. Others are into the collector's thing, which is in some ways easier because the named strains are proven to grow in captivity. Either way, welcome to the deep end of the pool. ;)
 
That is exactly what I did. I have a Stylo, was doing real well. Peppermint shrimp ate about 7\8 of the frag. After a few month, and the peppermint shrimp gone. It has 100% recovered. So I decided to get an acro to see if I could do it. Funny thing was. I went to a frag swap. Jason Fox was there. I picked up one of his frags for $40. So far, so good.
 
You picked a great starter coral. As it is, I love stylophora, seriatopora, and pocillopora. Very forgiving, easy to keep, grows fast, and has some cool shapes. You won’t typically find weird and dramatic colors in the pocillopora family but that’s ok with me. I have a colony of the coral you have. It got big fast so I broke some of and glued the frags around the tank. Now I have tons of it!
 
I agree with Dkeller . If it lives for a month or two get something else like a montipora cap they can be very beautiful. Check out the montipora show off sticky thread .
I started with a no name acropora from a LFS and it’s still going ( last November ) . Then comes harder stuff . From what I commonly see here failure usually comes from one or two things 1 letting the alkalinity get to high , or up down up down . 2 completely removing nutrients from the water also equals failure. You don’t need much but not zero. A unscientific way to know you have enough is , if’s there algae growing then your good.
Good luck
 

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