Crabs McJones
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Most any tank can handle soft and Lps corals, but in my opinion sps corals require a mature tank as they dont really respond well to nutrient swings that young or new tanks often experience. And tthe maturate rate for tanks very, but anywhere from 8 months to a year seems to be the average. And again this is just my opinion, I'm sure someone will chime in saying you can add sps right away, and that may be the case, but with the cost of some of these sps corals I dont like risking it
I hope this helps
I added a montipora undata right after my tank cycled it has doubled in size over the 2 month since I added it. Since it is doing so well I have added other sps including acros that are all doing great.
If you feel your nutrients are under control (I started my tank with a huge refugium running cheato and Xenia so my nutrients have been low since day one) then you can add some hardy sps like montipora or seriatopora "birdnest"
If you feel your nutrients are under control (I started my tank with a huge refugium running cheato and Xenia so my nutrients have been low since day one) then you can add some hardy sps like montipora or seriatopora "birdnest"
If you have never had a SPS tank before it's best to wait 8-12 months as @crabs_mcjones said. They really do far better in a mature tank unless you know ecactly what your doing with them and can keep you parameters rock solid stable.
I agree, I was able to start right away with them but I have been keeping reef tanks since the early 90's
SPS's are much easier to keep than they were back then but you still need to learn how to keep you parameters stable.
My post above was just to state you can start right away with SPS but that doesn't mean you should if you are new to reef keeping. Just for context I test daily and my my system is fully automated and it was designed with one goal and that was to keep SPS.
Happy reefing and good luck there are lots of cool lps and softies out there that will look great while your tank matures
Len
Vaughn17
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It's not the tank that needs to mature, it's us reef keepers. Assuming one is a new reef keeper and is diligent in learning about this hobby, 8 to 12 months should ensure a greater change of success with sps.
Crabs McJones
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Nutrient control is a big part of it. In a young tanks life your nitrates, phosphates, and other levels are going to fluctuate as you have algae blooms and die off from those blooms, also your bacteria has had a chance to well establish itself.
Most of those help your cycle which converts ammonia to nitrite then nitrate. You need to make sure you can control nitrates and phosphates which need to be low but not 0 for sps.
There are filter feeds, sponges, bacteria all your parameters will level out and all your new tank stuff should be behind you (algae out breaks etc) For the most part anyway.
A good indicator that your tank is matureing is coralline algae, once that is growing pretty much out of control your tank is stable. lol
I think it really depends on the persons knowledge and also how the tank was started and seeded. If you start with some live rock from an established reef it could potentially speed things up. I didn't believe that whole mature tank stuff initially but, for me at least, it seems to hold true. I tried some basic sps frags over the first 6 months and they all seemed to die no matter how hard I tried to keep the params stable. Now my tank is approx. 11 months old and my coraline really took off as well as all the other critters. Now that they are thriving my acros grow great as well as stylos, montis and basically any other thing I decide to put in there. The best bet way to find out if you are ready is to get a cheep frag and put it in there. You will find out pretty quickly if your system is ready or not. If it doesn't do good focus on what does do good wait a while and try again.
Depends on the hobbyist. For newer hobbyist I prefer to see significant coralline algae growth before they dive into sps. I also encourage hobbyist to use test pieces like Stylo before trying to keep more expensive sps. Those new to sps should stay away from maricultured colonies until they get some old school aquacultured sps under their belt. This tank started with dry rock in Oct 2017, sps added in Nov 2017. Once months growth of a Hawkins Enchinata in a two month old tank started with dry rock, you can see coralline starting in the second image. (unfortunately I lost this tank in a fire)
