Tips and advice for SPS

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

if all lps in the tank, whats the par? or what setting do you have your lights on? Which kind of monti are you trying? some monti's have high par requirements. I don't think the sps will happy at the same par level as hammers

 

[TopShelfAquatics Verified Sponsor]

Nice video! I definitely recommend everyone take the time to watch this through whether you are a beginner or an expert! I even learned something new and my family has owned an aquarium store for 37 years!!

Really appreciate that! We have a thread rolling with it as well if anyone wants to check that out as well! Here to try and bring new information all the time! Not a day goes by in reefing where you can't pick up something new!

Top Shelf Aquatic's Top Ten Beginner SPS!

In this video Blaine has a one on one with Kevin in the TSA Farm to learn what we at Top Shelf Aquatics think are the top ten BEST SPS for new aquarists or anyone looking for easier SPS species to care for! From montis to acros, we try to cover the basic info you need to know for what’s best...

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[Isiah1820]

if all lps in the tank, whats the par? or what setting do you have your lights on? Which kind of monti are you trying? some monti's have high par requirements. I don't think the sps will happy at the same par level as hammers

Saxby preset. Don’t have a par meter. The green and orange kind don’t remember the name. And I actually have beachbum Monti that’s doing better than those. And I try and put my sps frags high.

 

[Isiah1820]

What test kits are you guys using?

 

[Isiah1820]

Test done today.

 

[ptrusk]

Is that a bi color blenny in your pic? I have one that loves montipora. Does not bother anything else, just destroys montipora.

 

[Black Dog Reefing]

That is impressive tank with that salt. I personally could not grow anything when I started with that particular salt. Congratulations.

Like others mentioned my suggestion is to use salt that has Alk in the 8 dKh. From my experience I find 7.5 dKh works well with SPS and low NO3 and PO4 values.
SPS are sensitive to Alk swings so I dose small amounts multiple times a day.
Something to consider is the use of Tropic Marin All For Reef. This product releases Alk gradually so it doesn’t create a spike and it can be dosed once a day by hand. It also includes trace elements so it makes the reef keeping of SPS easier at the start.

Good luck,

I recently switched from the redsea program to the all for reef (granted I also switched my doser) and have seen much more stability. For smaller reefs, I love all the elements being dosed at once. I used the redsea elements to set what I wanted as a baseline and then made the switch and parameters have held stable since (took about a weeks worth of toying with the amount of dosing of all for reef). I 100% second this suggestion.

 

[Isiah1820]

Is that a bi color blenny in your pic? I have one that loves montipora. Does not bother anything else, just destroys montipora.

Mine doesn’t bother any coral. The most he will do is graze near a coral.

 

[Isiah1820]

I recently switched from the redsea program to the all for reef (granted I also switched my doser) and have seen much more stability. For smaller reefs, I love all the elements being dosed at once. I used the redsea elements to set what I wanted as a baseline and then made the switch and parameters have held stable since (took about a weeks worth of toying with the amount of dosing of all for reef). I 100% second this suggestion.

I do have the powder all in one abc+ skeletal elements. And the liquid.

 

[Pod_01]

I do have the powder all in one abc+ skeletal elements. And the liquid.

I was referring to this:

By Tropic Marin….

 

[Isiah1820]

Update on my numbers for the ones that were helping and giving advice.

 

[matt_work27]

nitrate and phosphate ratio looks good, probably don't want to go any higher tho.

 

[Someshmuk]

Your parameters are all fine for keeping SPS although chasing parameters for a moment of "almost perfect" parameters will not yield you the results you want.

Bottom line, if you can keep your water stable then you can keep SPS. More specifically, not causing rapid changes in either ph or temp. Rapid would be +/- 0.2 ph in under 30 minutes or 1f in 5. Acceptable max ranges for ph and temp are 7.8-8.5 and 76-83f respectively. This usually requires some kind of continuous monitoring solutions like the apex with a ph module and a temp probe.

I'd guess that your sps survivability success is associated with 1 or more of the below issues.
1. Rate at which you acclimate coral to your system (drip acclimation for x minutes)
2. Rate at which parameters change (ph, temp)
3. Age of tank (1+years to settle down your system and equalize bioload/bacteria)
4. Lighting used and lighting schedule (leds or otherwise)
5. Overall water turnover (gpm of water pump vs volume of tank)
6. Level of water flow within the tank (powerheads etc.)
7. Type of filtration and correction methods used in tank. (filter socks, protein skimmer)
8. Quality of water used for ATO and frequency and volume of your WC (0ppm RODI)
9. Properly validated parameter testing kits (kit says 35ppt salinity, its actually 35ppt salinity)
10. Pest management and pest sterilization

If you're suspicious of your test kits, see if you can verify that your testing regiment is both accurate and conistent. A good way to check is to see if you get the same result twice on the same sample of water.

 

[bakbay]

Your Alk is swinging (9, 10.3, 8.4, 9.3) and will likely make SPS dizzy and die! ha Either you figure out the % water change needed to maintain Alk or might I suggest something? Stop changing your water. Given that you just have LPS and softies, they don't consume much Alk, unless coralline algae started to take off.

I like the idea of dosing vs changing water to keep up with demand, which should be very low right now. When your rocks are all purple and your arm is tired from scraping coralline algae, then you should seriously consider All for Reef, 2-part dosing, kalk, or CaRx. Personally, I don't like changing water -- I find it tedious and unnecessary. My main SPS-dominant tank will be 3 years old in 2 months and it hasn't seen a single WC. My previous tank went for almost 7 years without a WC as well, until I did an upgrade.

Bottom line: for SPS, stability is key -- whatever numbers you pick, just keep them stable and stop tinkering with water parameters! Good luck.