SPS frag survival percentage

[kennedpa]

I can't believe I forgot @WWC

I will say that, I now run my Alk lower 8-9 for more likely compatibility to other systems. That could be an issue pending what yours is.

I saw someone mention acclimation. Use office gator clips to put the bags on the inside rail of your tank and add small amount of water to them to acclimate if needed. They stay warm and get a little light too. That's what I do FWIW

 

[kennedpa]

Order corals from Adam@Battlecorals. If they die, it's your tank.

I don't acclimate frags except a float for 15min to bring temps up. My success rate with adams corals is 100% and my tank is only a year old. I think the "new tank" excuse is far too overblown. Many people have success with sps in tanks that are only a couple months old.

Are your frags actually getting 350par? Or is that the level you see directly under your radion? Cause my experience has always been that people have frag racks on the ends/corners/back of their tanks and paticularly when running leds those places have WAY less par. With a tank running nitrates at 5 or more you'll need to make sure everything is getting sufficient lighting and 350par for a lot of sps's is barely going to cut it let alone if it's less than that cause your frag rack is on the end of your tank.

You @Battlecorals didn't turn blue

 

[Ashish Patel]

I hate my tank right now.. Its 11 weeks old and all i want is some coral coverage - Its been a week since i added SPS frags and I feel like its been months and their just not growing! lol

 

[bif24701]

SPS frags can be difficult but if you keep your system stable and do the water changes and keep up with husbandry there is no reason you should expect them to die. I've had mariculture acro pieces STN but they are probably the most difficult and certainly no guarantee because they have never been adapted to an aquarium.

The reason system age is used so often has more to do with the care taker than the system. Beginners need to learn how to care for the new system and work out the bugs or keep chnageing/upgrading equipment/livestock so stability is hard with constant changes. Veterans set up system, cycle add QT'd livestock and make few changes. They also know exactly how to care for the system and what to do when things happen. Vets have patience so when things seems off they don't rush to find a quick fix. Changes in chemistry and fussing with your LEDs every week to find the "best setting" are major problems. Good systems should be set and forget. Just do your cleaning and water changes. That's why maturity is so over played. It's true but not true. After a system is cycled there really no reason not to add corals except the reason above.

 

[kennedpa]

SPS frags can be difficult but if you keep your system stable and do the water changes and keep up with husbandry there is no reason you should expect them to die. I've had mariculture acro pieces STN but they are probably the most difficult and certainly no guarantee because they have never been adapted to an aquarium.

The reason system age is used so often has more to do with the care taker than the system. Beginners need to learn how to care for the new system and work out the bugs or keep chnageing/upgrading equipment/livestock so stability is hard with constant changes. Veterans set up system, cycle add QT'd livestock and make few changes. They also know exactly how to care for the system and what to do when things happen. Vets have patience so when things seems off they don't rush to find a quick fix. Changes in chemistry and fussing with your LEDs every week to find the "best setting" are major problems. Good systems should be set and forget. Just do your cleaning and water changes. That's why maturity is so over played. It's true but not true. After a system is cycled there really no reason not to add corals except the reason above.

Well said my friend!! Best advise ever....if only we all stopped learning the hard way.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Source of corals (as with fish) is the key... i've added all corals from the hobbyist and the corals immediately had polyp extension, even after dipping and glueing. I added 5 corals from a vendor and while the sps frags seemed to be fine the 2 maricultured ( 1 arrived dead, and 1 is fine but polyp extension is so so).

I think it comes down to knowing when your tank is ready and knowing where the hell to buy hardy species from.

 

[5280Reefer]

IMO most of what everyone is saying is on point, survival rate of frags is based on the sellers investment of time into the frag. Frags changing color is based off water chemistry, lighting and flow. Tank age could have a part to play in it but if you monitor your parameters you should be fine, in my previous tank some of the corals i ordered online took months to color back up. That is why i now prefer to get frags locally from trusted vendors, even though i trust then i still dip everything. My current tank is only 4 months old and is loaded with sps, even though i got all these frags and colonies locally some changed in color just because of different water chemistry/lighting/flow. In my old setup when a frag lost color and after a few weeks stayed the same i would move it to a different spot and see what happened, 90% of the time that did the trick and it started to color up.

 

[sil40sx]

Looks like you already have plenty of light and flow, but what is your daily Alk swing? I noticed you said P04 is 0-.5? Is that mean sometimes its 0.00, and other times its 0.5? - because that is a lot.

In my experience, I wasnt able to keep any SPS whatever I do, until I figure out my daily Alk and Calcium consumption. They needed to be consistently replenished, either by dosing, calcium reactor, kalkwasser, etc...

As others already mentioned, stability is the key.