With sps it’s a myriad of many unknowns, it like playing battleships..
you can be so close but yet so far.. !
you might hit a brief moment of success and then the whole strategy can be cross wired and you drift off course until its your turn for it to come back around again..
The most basic things that everyone latches onto are the nsw parameters..ive seen tanks look great in both high po4 and no3 as well as low range..
This doesn’t warrant success for anyone by following it.(.only those demonstrating it..) never chase other tanks..!
Lighting, you can own the most expensive lights and still have livestock perish, but like I’m finding at present the spectrum can be wrong/right or the intensity could be skewed. Theirs too many variables so it’s pick a setting and work on …. Slowly…!
Flow, I’ve always tried to accommodate a mixed reef; I’ve kept sps in low flow from 4 mp40’s and never had big issues.. the polyps we’re always out, and I’ve even kept them long term like that..but, I could never say, that’s the happiest they have, or .. could have looked, for instance.
By this stage I have covered 3 variables: which, if we look at the combinations of what could have been right/ wrong, any could spell success/ failure for some of the easier ones.
…add a few more combinations to the mix which is length of photo periods, nutrients, stability, types of flow and turn over, water-changes..additives and potions..etc
You’ll hopefully agree…now things become more like trying to win a lottery.. a lot of changes can take place shifting one to the better but another one worse; each time we change something we have no idea if it’s for the good or bad.
As we all know nothing great happens fastin a reef tank, so its where I will try and round up the conclusion of my thoughts:-
1) We need to get the tank to a stage of maturity and eliminate the issues we get from new water..
2) The tank needs to be stable and settled, so we can tweak the dosages to understand our longterm chemistry (consumption)
3) I think once your at a stage whereby sps are living for a while and not dying each week, then your at a stage where the gradual adjustments, 1 at a time can take place.
4) I find, by spending time watching my coral and scrutinising detailed things like polyps extension/movement, transition in colour (whether good or bad), all goes great lengths to tell us what’s happening.
5) Experiments need to take place to increase our knowledge, pick something ( like your lottery numbers) and hope for the best..
I’d certainly have an objective in mind of what outcomes your expecting to see for the changes you make.
6) don’t make any other changes for a good few weeks..until it goes better or worse…but if your seeing negative things early, go back to the previous setting and resort to sitting tight for a while. ..
7) stability is my last one, I’ve seen situations where all my efforts go to the wall, if I’ve done something erratic to make a quick change..my dkh tells me if my corals are happy and growing..
-if the DKH starts to increase I know I’m doing something which it’s halting their growth..
-if it’s stable we’re all good…
-but if consumption goes up, and DKH levels go down… I then recall my last move ((eg) light spectrum change) and I see this as a positive sign that my corals are up taking more carbonate to accelerate their growth spurt..
Ps..sorry for the long post, but sps behaviour can’t be summarised in a few lines
I bet there is loads I’ve not even touched on..happy reefing..!
