Trying my hand at sps, what do you think!

[Lionfish hunter]

I just ordered some sps and have questions. Never kept corals and the queen angel might eat them but here we go they were super cheap. I am not new to saltwater, not at all just always been a fish guy. They are going in a 235 gallon aquarium that currently has kalkwasser in autotopoff and all levels of everything are super consistent. If i become successful enough to have the corals grow to the point that kalk isnt enough, ill dose. Small dyno problem because no matter how much food I dump in there the nitrates stay at 1 and phosphate at 0.0. Very high powered light in a very large refugium, but I only run it a few hours a week on the lowest setting to keep the chaeto alive. I honestly have no clue where the nitrates could possibly be going. There is no algae in the tank except for a thin layer of dynos on the sand.

My question is about water changes while they are in the frag tank. And any advice you see relevant. If you post about how I'm stupid for trying sps first and how I am an idiot for putting coral with an angelfish. I don't care. I have heard that acros especially are very finicky on changing water parameters like alk and calcium. When I do a water change in the small frag tank, these levels are going to change instantly. Is this going to be an issue? I can match the salinity and temp but the whole point is to raise the calcium and alk so it will be different.

Also I don't do water changes and I will not be doing water changes in the big tank. Not opposed to ICP testing with triton but it is way too much water and I build my system around no water changes. If this can't work with sps, they will have to go! I am willing to take that risk have nothing to lose!

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I also bought some cheap softies and LPS but they will probably become lunch.

 

[elorablue]

Go for it! Just keep doing what you’re doing and see how things go. If it doesn’t appear to be working then consider changing something at that time.

 

[shakacuz]

i would suggest getting a cheap/hardy sps and while you try your hand at keeping this sps, you try and figure out why your no3/po4 are limited to such amounts.

for success at sps, you need to get those number up for those two.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I bought a birdsnest, 3 Montes, 1 the thing acropora, a couple cyphastria, a couple lepto, and a pavona. Most were 5 to 10 bucks but I figure I have my bases covered for what will work.

 

[dedragon]

I would look in the for sale forum to see if anyone is selling chunks of tort coral or green slimer, super hardy and you can usually get pretty big sizes for 30-60 dollars, I mean like full mini colonies. These are perfect test pieces in a newer tank as angelfish can be aggressive on polyps and larger colonies are usually more stable, good luck reefing

 

[dedragon]

Whoops thought u meant acros, yea other sps corals arent nearly as hard to keep ime

 

[Lionfish hunter]

I would look in the for sale forum to see if anyone is selling chunks of tort coral or green slimer, super hardy and you can usually get pretty big sizes for 30-60 dollars, I mean like full mini colonies. These are perfect test pieces in a newer tank as angelfish can be aggressive on polyps and larger colonies are usually more stable, good luck reefing

The for sale forum on this site or another? I have looked some bit not sure I am going to the right place.

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Whoops thought u meant acros, yea other sps corals arent nearly as hard to keep ime

I would like acros, I did buy 1 frag just to see. Also trying to have reasonable expectations. But acros look the best to me. I did buy a branching cyphastria.

 

[dedragon]

yes the, live stock for sale section. It is a great place to get corals from people with a lot of experience. A lot of acros need high intermittent direct flow so make sure you have some nice water movement as well

 

[Lionfish hunter]

This is the setup, not sure what the par is. They are offbrand lights from Amazon but seem to have decent power.

 

[dedragon]

yea i would also throw in 2-4 powerheads depending on price, for the best lower price for a decent brand IMO would be 2 maxspect jump 4k. You will probably need to add some other smaller pumps to the back glass near the overflow for extra flow and detritus pick up as well

 

[dedragon]

those look like viparspectra or something so they should be fine, par is hard to guess with them though, they put out a lot

 

[Lionfish hunter]

yea i would also throw in 2-4 powerheads depending on price, for the best lower price for a decent brand IMO would be 2 maxspect jump 4k. You will probably need to add some other smaller pumps to the back glass near the overflow for extra flow and detritus pick up as well

I am thinking about 1 4k ice cap gyro pump. Not sure I can handle more cords than that!

 

[Lionfish hunter]

Return pump is rated at 3k so I am probably getting 1k out of that.