Sps low flow experiment

[Oohkris123]

I want to try an experiment with a sps coral in low - medium flow, before i go buy a sps I want to know what are the possibilities of a sps thriving in a low flow environment. What are or will be the pros and cons. my tank is doing great all corals have good colors and thriving. My tank is a spec 5 with a USA orbit marine light, 600 rio pump, and stock filtration just switched the carbon for purigen.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Will you be doing this in your display tank? Is your tank already a low flow system? I can't imagine that suddenly changing something that vital would be good, but if you'll just be adding a frag of SPS to your current system I'm excited to see how it goes! Don't forget pictures. Lots of pictures. Good luck!

 

[Oohkris123]

i will be adding it to my main tank, just want to say that its less than 5g. Water chemistry is excellent, light can be adjusted to a higher or lower percent. And most of my corals are adjusted to a low flow environment.

 

[Oohkris123]

I'm think of gluing it on the black back wall of the tank

 

[favites]

Looks like a neat little tank! I would suggest trying montipora-- either 'capricornus' which will give you some nice plating shape to your aquascape or a 'digitata' which has more finger like projections. A hardy species, fairly tolerant of flow/lighting conditions, and a perfect for sps first sps for your setup.

 

[Oohkris123]

I have a monti...in the second pic you can see the blenny in right underneath it but I want to try a sps that's more of a stag. I went to the lfs to buy a nice green sps (don't know the name) but got distracted by some cool looking zoas...

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Some sps will do low flow. Most acropora wont. The skin is too thin and they cant breath to uptake c02 for photosynthesis nor calcium/alk to build bone.
I have some branching montis that do ok in lower pretty laminar flow. IE accidental frags growing on the sand bed. Ill give some, cmon over.

 

[Oohkris123]

Yeah? If you're close enough I'll defiantly go pick some up!... my lfs also has a frogskin sps for 10$ that's about 2" and I've been wondering if that would be a good starter for me.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

San Diego!
They're supposed to a pretty hardy Acro. Id still suggest looking for the highest flow ya have. Id avoid montis and chalices as man they are a calcium sucker! Theyll just keep growing till theyre out of calcium and turn to mush.

Are you Auto dosing a cal/alk yet?

 

[Oohkris123]

I dose alk to my ato and calcium every 7-21 days depending if gets lower than 400 I just add in a few drops to get it back to normal. I sometimes visit a friend in Camp Pendleton. When I get a chance to visit I'll let you know [emoji106]

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I dose alk to my ato and calcium every 7-21 days depending if gets lower than 400 I just add in a few drops to get it back to normal. I sometimes visit a friend in Camp Pendleton. When I get a chance to visit I'll let you know [emoji106]

Once you switch to an auto doser ar add Saturated kalkwasser to the ato you'll see significant differences. And fi your going to Pendleton, Reefers Garage is Right there!

 

[Oohkris123]

Gotcha...I went to reefers garage a few months ago I felt like it was a bit more pricey from what I'm used too. I want to switch to a magnetic ato I think it's a bit more reliable