SPS, LPS, AND GENERAL AID

[Aaron Davis]

So I've posted a couple times on this site so far and have received huge amounts of quality help. In my research on this site, I've found that there are A LOT of things that I can learn on here. I've determined though, that I'm getting a little overwhelmed with so much information; which I'm sure people say often when they're first starting out. So I'm trying to get some clarification. What does SPS and LPS mean exactly? From what I can tell, it's simply a term for the difference between hard and soft corals? And I was wondering about salt mix. I keep hearing that Red Sea makes the gold standard for salt mixes. My tank currently uses Kent. I'm looking at switching to the Red Sea salt and I'm confused with the differences between their "Red Sea Salt" and their "Coral Pro Salt"? I have a 55 gal tank. My tank currently has a clown, flame angel, and wrasse. I some inverts and quite a few crabs including an arrow. I have 3 rose tip anemones, pom pom xenias, and some kind of flowering anemone thing that has green rounded tips. Have no idea what it is. Anywho. I want to add corals somewhat soon so am curious which of those salts I should get. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron

 

[EthanDouglas]

SPS and LPS stand for Small Polyp Stony coral and Large Polyp Stony coral. They're just a general term for reefers to distinguish between various corals. I believe (I could be wrong) SPS are usually more difficult to keep and require more stable tank parameters whereas some LPS can tolerate more "dirty" water and are better to start with. I'm not entirely sure on differences between various salts, so someone else will have to chime in on that. Good luck and I hope you get some more answers. I highly recommend the BRS 52 weeks of reefing series on YouTube for lots of good information on saltwater tanks.

 

[Aaron Davis]

SPS and LPS stand for Small Polyp Stony coral and Large Polyp Stony coral. They're just a general term for reefers to distinguish between various corals. I believe (I could be wrong) SPS are usually more difficult to keep and require more stable tank parameters whereas some LPS can tolerate more "dirty" water and are better to start with. I'm not entirely sure on differences between various salts, so someone else will have to chime in on that. Good luck and I hope you get some more answers. I highly recommend the BRS 52 weeks of reefing series on YouTube for lots of good information on saltwater tanks.

That's funny you mentioned the BRS Youtube series. I'm literally watching some of those now! LOL Thanks for the reply!

 

[ahiggins]

Coral pro salt is for high uptake tanks (ie lots of large colony sps and lps-things that need calcium to build skeleton)
Regular Red Sea is amazing and it's what I use. I have 2 lps colonies and about 20 lps and sps frags.

 

[ebushrow]

I would say that the gold standard for salt is Instant Ocean and Instant Ocean Reef Crystals....not Red Sea ....there are so many salts available that it can be overwhelming....cost of proper maintenance is also a very important factor....if you are on a budget, RC is 50.00 for 200 gallon mix....RS is 100.00 for 160 gallon mix....if you can do the 50.00 and always have consistent water changes or the 100.00 would mean less consistency due to cost, then RC is the way to go.... if you have your tank parameters exactly right and one salt mixes to your desired component mix, then go for it....I would guess that probably 50% of people use Reef crystals or Instant Ocean and the other 50% use the rest of the available salt mixes. Each salt mix has its specific benefit depending on what you are looking for, but go with what you can get consistently and keep your levels stabile will often give you more easy and less headaches. I see salts a lot like cell phones....to make calls a flip phone will do the job....the more you spend, the fancier the phone gets....still makes calls though and saves you in an emergency.

 

[Erik R]

I would say that the gold standard for salt is Instant Ocean and Instant Ocean Reef Crystals....not Red Sea ....there are so many salts available that it can be overwhelming....cost of proper maintenance is also a very important factor....if you are on a budget, RC is 50.00 for 200 gallon mix....RS is 100.00 for 160 gallon mix....if you can do the 50.00 and always have consistent water changes or the 100.00 would mean less consistency due to cost, then RC is the way to go.... if you have your tank parameters exactly right and one salt mixes to your desired component mix, then go for it....I would guess that probably 50% of people use Reef crystals or Instant Ocean and the other 50% use the rest of the available salt mixes. Each salt mix has its specific benefit depending on what you are looking for, but go with what you can get consistently and keep your levels stabile will often give you more easy and less headaches. I see salts a lot like cell phones....to make calls a flip phone will do the job....the more you spend, the fancier the phone gets....still makes calls though and saves you in an emergency.

I never heard of a salt mix catching fire... LOL just kidding.

I am however curious about your comments on Red Sea. Yeah, its expensive, but through the posts, many people say is really good stuff. I agree that whatever you pick, stick with it.

 

[Waters]

Any salt can be used to have a successful tank...the brand really doesn't matter. Each brand mixes up at different levels (Ca, Alk, Mg, etc.). You need to use whichever salt most closely matches the numbers you want to keep. I used to use Reef Crystals but switched to Red Sea Blue because it mixes up with a much lower ALK.

 

[fabutahoun]

I Used The Three Kinds Of Salt, kent is a good salt with elevated calcium levels, it can be from to 470 - 500 ppm, and Started 2 sps tanks with kent salt and both of Them I didn't need to dose calcium at all for the fist 2-3 months, of course I am making weekly water changes. the only disadvantage is that it needs a day to mix and there will be a brown residue all over the mixing container

Then Switched to Red Sea Pro, Very Good Salt and it mix very will and better than the kent it can be ready in less than 30 minutes, Its problem was the huge difference in alkalinity, so I needed to keep an eye on KH levels so that i don't raise the KH too high as my tank KH is around 8-8.5. also I had to reduce the Soda Ash dosing. some of the advantages was better growth and colors

Then I switched to The Noraml Red Sea salt, And I love it, all good results I had with Red sea pro salt without the hight KH.