Sps and light

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Dave1993

Dave1993

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So i have a fluval evo 13.5 with ai prime 16hd can i grow acros in the middle off the tank with lights on 80% i do not have a par meter wondering if any 1 has experience i have the ai prime light at the max distance from the tank
 
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If you do go into sps, I would start off with some cheap frags and see how they do. AI 16hd should be enough to grow sps and acros, but probably dont expect the colors that some coral vendors are getting. You will also need to be testing your alkalinity often and make sure you have adequate/acceptable nutrient levels
 
matt_work27 said:
If you do go into sps, I would start off with some cheap frags and see how they do. AI 16hd should be enough to grow sps and acros, but probably dont expect the colors that some coral vendors are getting. You will also need to be testing your alkalinity often and make sure you have adequate/acceptable nutrient levels
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alk testing is ezpz got hanna takes 2 mins
 
Dave1993 said:
So i have a fluval evo 13.5 with ai prime 16hd can i grow acros in the middle off the tank with lights on 80% i do not have a par meter wondering if any 1 has experience i have the ai prime light at the max distance from the tank
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Like mentioned earlier be careful about acros and nano tanks. very rare to see acros in nano tank that size unless your doing water changes every other day.
 
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Dave1993 said:
i could dose
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It’s a bit of an exaggeration about doing water changes that often if you can manage a skimmer on there. Otherwise, 25%-50% water changes a week will be a must with dosing. . Some critical things you’ll need will be an auto top-off to keep salinity tight, a heating/cooling monitor to keep temps within a degree or two, and a doser with a regiment like All-for-Reef to keep Alk/mag/calc/trace stable. After a few months you probably will need to manage nutrients more with something like Nitraphos Minus if you want to automate the process or AF Pro Bio F. Or limit fish to 1 or 2 to keep nutrients low. There are many successes stories with tanks that small and even smaller. I run AF probiotic method on a 26g with skimmer and three fish.

i highly recommend “Kermit the Frog acropora“ from tidal gardens as a test acro. It’s very hardy and grows like a weed under less than perfect conditions.
 
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Reef Psychology said:
It’s a bit of an exaggeration about doing water changes that often if you can manage a skimmer on there. Otherwise, 25%-50% water changes a week will be a must with dosing. . Some critical things you’ll need will be an auto top-off to keep salinity tight, a heating/cooling monitor to keep temps within a degree or two, and a doser with a regiment like All-for-Reef to keep Alk/mag/calc/trace stable. After a few months you probably will need to manage nutrients more with something like Nitraphos Minus if you want to automate the process or AF Pro Bio F. Or limit fish to 1 or 2 to keep nutrients low. There are many successes stories with tanks that small and even smaller. I run AF probiotic method on a 26g with skimmer and three fish.

i highly recommend “Kermit the Frog acropora“ from tidal gardens as a test acro. It’s very hardy and grows like a weed under less than perfect conditions.
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i have all of that i didn't have a limited budget the only reason why i went with a smaller tank is its easier to look after as i have nowhere to store 50 gallon buckets for water changes
 
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Dave1993 said:
well i can get big colony's that have amazing colours and they are only £120 so i might give 1 a try
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Gotta love the blue hand in the photos lol… you’re gonna be shocked when you buy one and it doesn’t match the picture for colors.. it might be colorful but those are saturated photos.
 
Dave1993 said:
i could dose
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Nitrate and phosphate tend to spike over night in tanks that size..we’re my 100g I have takes like 2 weeks to raise up to a level we’re I need to do something. That’s why I say water changes. If you have room for it then go ahead and do all the skimming and reactor and dosing you want. Will it help yes… will you still need to do water changes at least twice a week or once a week? Yes. And what I mean by water change is like a half gallon of water. I’m not saying it’s not possible and there are definitely tanks out there that have high nitrates and somewhat low phosphates that can keep Acros
 
Sidsreef said:
Nitrate and phosphate tend to spike over night in tanks that size..we’re my 100g I have takes like 2 weeks to raise up to a level we’re I need to do something. That’s why I say water changes. If you have room for it then go ahead and do all the skimming and reactor and dosing you want. Will it help yes… will you still need to do water changes at least twice a week or once a week? Yes. And what I mean by water change is like a half gallon of water. I’m not saying it’s not possible and there are definitely tanks out there that have high nitrates and somewhat low phosphates that can keep Acros
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i do 2 gallon water changes and i have 0 fish i dose nitrate still debating getting a fish not 100% sure my phosphates are kind of high though leech from rock its like 0.1-0.2 tbh i don't really mind if i can't have sps and i'm a lps guy (i love torches) and my torch seems to be thriving atm so i'm happy
 
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You don't necessarily "need" to do water changes "at least twice or once a week" :)

you could go a long time without water changes just look into something like the triton or moonshiners methods, you can manage nutrients in that tank just fine if you pack it wall to wall with those colonies, probably better than a water change without swinging every parameter. Dosing is way easier and eventually cheaper than water changes "twice or once a week" ;)
 
Dave1993 said:
well i can get big colony's that have amazing colours and they are only £120 so i might give 1 a try
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This is a great way to kill a perfectly good coral. Find a local friend in the hobby and get some green slimer or birdsnest from them for free, if you can keep those alive, get the colony.
 
Those are maricultured colonies. That would be the worst thing you could put in any tank SPS wise (not just a small tank like yours). The reason they are so cheap is that shops import them and try to flip them before they lose color and/or die. With a tiny tank like yours, you should start with frags as there is absolutely no way you could come close to simulating the flow that these were grown under in the ocean. They will most likely die within 30 days and I'd bet a lot of money they'd be dead for sure within 6 months if they made it that long. This is why Aquacultured frags are always the way to go. That being said I'd think you would have success starting with frags in that system.
 
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