Here's my take/history
2004 - 2006 -
Tank: 80 gallons
Flow: TONS of flow from 3 large power heads (don't remember the brands)
Rock: 100% live Fiji rock from Dr fosters
Lighting: MH lighting & VHO lighting.
Details: tons of sps. No casualties at all. No browning. All started with frags and grew to mini colonies. Shut the tank down after I moved far away.
2006 - 2008 -
Tank: 10 gallon zoa only tank
Tank #2: 40 gallon sps dominant tank.
Flow: one power head in my 40 gallon tank but was a hurricane.
Rock - 100% live Fiji rock from Dr fosters
Lighting: MH & T5's.
Details: 1 mili stn'd, No browning out from the rest. Frags all grew very well. Shut the tank down again... Long story but ruined my life from drugs, then JESUS rescued me!! Btw I had no idea how i kept my tanks alive while I was high on some white powder for couple years .... Sheesh... I was still disciplined in my water changes/maintenance despite the drugs.
2015 - 2019 -
Tank: 25 gallon IM lagoon.
Flow: tunze turnbell wave maker. Flow wasn't so great in my opinion.
Rock: mostly dry rock mixed with a bit of live rock from lfs.
Lighting: Kessil 160 tuna blue.
Details: Every sps would perish... Even a green slimer would brown out and perish. Except montiporas and stylos. Shut tank down after I had my first crash. Long story... Ugh. I got discouraged and quit the hobby.
2022 - (4 months old)
Tank: 10 gallon
Flow: hygger wave maker - it's like a hurricane in there.
Rock: 100% Aussie live rock from unique corals.
Lighting: kessil 160 tuna blue. Finally fixed! Bought it used..
Details: no fish. 1 rock flower anemone. 1 sunset month, 1 forest fire digi. 1 alveopora. 1 zoa frag. 1 crocea. Several nice green zoa's hitched on from Aussie rock. Tank is pretty bare even tho I listed off some stuff. It really does look bare despite corals I listed. Lots and lots of amphipods and copipods. Digi and monti is growing and looking great. Gonna get some more sps soon. So we'll see what success lies ahead. Not gonna put in any more sps until the 1 year mark.
***** To sum it up. HERE'S WHAT WAS LEARNED.
I agree with what others have said on this thread. Anytime I had good success with sps... I had:
1. Good flow, crazy flow.
2. Lighting that blinds you.
3. Maintenance like water change etc was always on point. Weekly or bi weekly.
4. ****All live rock! I noticed when I used mostly dry rock.. sps other than the easy ones never survived. I even allowed my tank to "mature" 1 year before I put in any sps. I don't know how others use dry rock and are successful with sps. That's a mystery to me..
Anywho, I may eat my words with my theory but I will try the harder sps again in my nano.. and I hope once my tank is ready that it'll grow well like they did in my other tanks.
God bless everyone! Hope that helps.
OP, it is weird that ur tank looks great and ur tests come out good too...but can't grow sps as well as you want.. very weird. But we hear about those instances all the time right?
Good luck!
