Wanting to start my SPS journey

[Joiningsession]

First off, apologies if this is the wrong place.

I am asking for general guidance, thoughts, experience, etc.. as stepping to SPS has been a scary subject for me. I have read over a few of the stickies but want to hear your thoughts.

I have had multiple “nano” tanks over the years ranging from 10-40g and has always been predominantly zoas, shrooms, LPS, stuff like that.

I will be purchasing a standard 75g with sump soon and am wanting to do this the correct way from the start as I am hoping to do mostly an SPS dominate tank. Not rare acros or anything like that but what most would be considered “beginner SPS”

I am looking for any and all advice on equipment, best practices, success and failure tips, etc..

Best article for understanding dosing?

What’s your top advice?

Your best purchase?

I would love auto testing if budget will allow as the life can be busy with young 3 kids. If manually testing, should it be a daily thing? Weekly?

As you can see, my thoughts are all over the place but wanting to do this successfully.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Frosty Latte]

Pick a light style that outputs 300+ par, and then bite the bullet and spend the money.

 

[Labridaedicted]

Ah, the beginning Acro primer. Let's see what I can do here.

The number one rule for success with Acropora is *STABILITY*. The more hardy varieties can actually tolerate a pretty wide range of values as long as they're steady. For this, I reccomend a few bits of gear/techniques:

-Auto top off (maintains steady salinity)
-multiple or atleast daily dosing of alk/calcium (maintains steady alk, which is one of the most critical things for Acros)(to this point, a calcium reactor is even better)
-high indirect flow
-regular testing (alk I would say, atleast, daily)
-relatively mature tank
-quality lighting, you're gonna want 300+ par at parts of the tank if you want to keep all acros without being limited by light.

I would say those are the most basic biggies. I dose using the reef moonshiner method, so my dosing regimen is kinda crazy comparatively, so I won't give that full breakdown, but I swear by the results I get from it.

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

I have a few suggestions…

Thread ' A Compilation of My Tips For SPS Coral Care!'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/▶️-a-compilation-of-my-tips-for-sps-coral-care.1032642/

 

[ryanjohn1]

Stability stability and more stability. Decent light. Testing. And lime water.

 

[danreef55]

As a general rule of thumb.... you shouldnt add acropora until you are getting coralline algae growth.
Flow is as important as lighting.

 

[exnisstech]

Treat every frag like buying a lottery ticket. If you can't afford to throw the money in the trash and still pay all of your bills then you can afford the frag .
There will be losses, many which will be baffling. Wake up in the morning to a white dead stick while everything else is perfectly fine and it's ussualy the nicest piece that dies first. Just some of my experiences but I've only been growing acros less than a year. Montipora are supposed to be hardy. I am able grow moti cap like weeds but struggle with branching monti. I have no idea why. Less expensive sps that have done well for me are green slimer, garf bonsai, and myagi tort along with the monti caps mentioned.

 

[Joiningsession]

I have a few suggestions…

Thread ' A Compilation of My Tips For SPS Coral Care!'
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/-a-compilation-of-my-tips-for-sps-coral-care.1032642/

Gonna take a day off to study these thanks!

A lot of great points and thoughts so far.

I am aware so far to go ahead and spend up for lights and a skimmer. I have an xr15 pro g6 on my 40 right now but not happy with it standalone, may try something different. Skimmer will plan on being oversized since tank will probably be fish heavy.

 

[KrisReef]

I'm not sure what you mean by 75 gallon standard, but if that is a 4 foot fish tank then you may want to research reef tanks, open tops for light exposure, shallow water depth, and with a nice foot print to spread the coral frags around in.

There is no right way, but there are better ways, you should pick and follow someone you trust to help find the road to success. That's all I got, good luck!

 

[Reefer Matt Verified Media Partner]

Gonna take a day off to study these thanks!

A lot of great points and thoughts so far.

I am aware so far to go ahead and spend up for lights and a skimmer. I have an xr15 pro g6 on my 40 right now but not happy with it standalone, may try something different. Skimmer will plan on being oversized since tank will probably be fish heavy.

You don’t have to buy it all at once. It took me five years to get here. I started with black box lights. Step one is a mature tank of around 8 months to a year if you are new to sps. You can always get some starter coral to look at while the tank is maturing also. I suggest taking your time, and learn how to test and keep water parameters stable in the meantime.

 

[Joiningsession]

You don’t have to buy it all at once. It took me five years to get here. I started with black box lights. Step one is a mature tank of around 8 months to a year if you are new to sps. You can always get some starter coral to look at while the tank is maturing also. I suggest taking your time, and learn how to test and keep water parameters stable in the meantime.

Thanks, and yes I have a lot of chalices, euphyllia, zoas etc to transfer over to keep me happy till I start seeing some coraline at least

I do think learning how to test and maintain will be my biggest learning curve as that’s something I’ve never really done religiously.

 

[scottbapilot]

Gonna take a day off to study these thanks!

A lot of great points and thoughts so far.

I am aware so far to go ahead and spend up for lights and a skimmer. I have an xr15 pro g6 on my 40 right now but not happy with it standalone, may try something different. Skimmer will plan on being oversized since tank will probably be fish heavy.

What don't you like about the light?

 

[Joiningsession]

What don't you like about the light?

I’ll rephrase my comment a bit, not that I don’t like it but think I may prefer the g5. The g6 has awesome spread but at the expense of packing par. I think it’s my “I want to try something different” personality

 

[dadnjesse]

Gonna take a day off to study these thanks!

A lot of great points and thoughts so far.

I am aware so far to go ahead and spend up for lights and a skimmer. I have an xr15 pro g6 on my 40 right now but not happy with it standalone, may try something different. Skimmer will plan on being oversized since tank will probably be fish heavy.

There is nothing wrong with that light but one alone just isn't enough not even for a 40 Gallon. I have 5 XR30's on my 125 Gallon.

 

[danreef55]

Hi Dadnj,
I am planning a set up. Lighting is obviously a major consideration.
Have you ever used a PAR meter on the tank to take readings?
thanks for any input

 

[Pistondog]

First off, apologies if this is the wrong place.

I am asking for general guidance, thoughts, experience, etc.. as stepping to SPS has been a scary subject for me. I have read over a few of the stickies but want to hear your thoughts.

I have had multiple “nano” tanks over the years ranging from 10-40g and has always been predominantly zoas, shrooms, LPS, stuff like that.

I will be purchasing a standard 75g with sump soon and am wanting to do this the correct way from the start as I am hoping to do mostly an SPS dominate tank. Not rare acros or anything like that but what most would be considered “beginner SPS”

I am looking for any and all advice on equipment, best practices, success and failure tips, etc..

Best article for understanding dosing?

What’s your top advice?

Your best purchase?

I would love auto testing if budget will allow as the life can be busy with young 3 kids. If manually testing, should it be a daily thing? Weekly?

As you can see, my thoughts are all over the place but wanting to do this successfully.

Thanks in advance.

Use an ato. A std 75g is a fine tank. Plan for a sump with refugium, skimmer. Lots of dosing options, i started with esv bionic for simplicity.
Youll have to test (alk, calcium) every other day or so until stable, then weekly or less. The hanna checkers are easy and give a number. Try to find some live rock.

 

[legacy2mj]

First, don’t be afraid of SPS. It’s a wonderful journey to embark on.
I run a SPS system, primarily acros, and I laughed when you said “not rare acros or anything”….. yea, we will see.
As far as advice my list goes like this.
1) if you can, go bigger then 75 gal.. the bigger the better.
2) don’t go cheap with lights, bite the bullet and invest in a proven light set up. I would suggest a hybrid, as in, get your main focal lights with a good par output, I have a pair of Kessil AP9X and they are power houses, very potent. Orphek is excellent as well. Then supplement those lights with some strip lights. Reef Brites, blades, T5s, MH, whatever you prefer.
3) water chemistry and stability could easily be #1, it’s everything. Perfect the basics, keep stable parameters. Also, don’t think there is anything out there you can dose that will fix or excuse you of poor water. Alk, cal, mag…. The basics.
4) the more mature your tank, the better and easier.
5) encrusting montis, cyphastrea, green slimer, bonsai, birds nest…. Few examples of good pieces to start with to see where things stand, they are SPS coral, but more forgiving and hearty then the rest. If you’re killing these, there is an apparent issue with either your tank, or you.
Last… #6) get used to testing, find test kits you like and give you accurate numbers. Cross check them with whatever you can to verify accuracy. And send in a ICP every now to get a good detailed report of what’s going on in there.

SPS is the best, acros are the shizzzz!!! You’re about to dip a toe into the most wonderful pond ever.

 

[danreef55]

They say that the first step is to recognize you have a problem.
My name is Dan, and I have an acropora problem. I have searched for group help meetings to no avail
It started back in 1978 when I decided to try and keep these gems. I am happy to report that I was successful.
I was fatality bitten by the acro bug! SO BE WARNED.
Over the course of time I ended up with numerous tanks running in my basement. Fragging corals for my own enjoyment which led to sell them. THEN.... I established a wholesale facility in 2000 which we operated for 7 years. Acro colonies were abundantly available and yes they were pricey at the time. In todays market each of them would have been worth substantial sums. I had the distinct pleasure of taking specimens into my custody to my total enjoyment. Life happened and I have been out of the hobby for 10 years. In the planning phase and wont be able to pull the trigger until the wife and I make some life decisions. I am using this board and other resources to get current and thank everyone for their guidance.
best wishes
Dan

 

[Hans-Werner]

Avoid very low phosphate concentrations, try to keep it around 0.1 ppm PO4.

Avoid any phosphate adsorbers. Rather use other methods for limiting phosphate concentration like efficient feeding, food high in lipids/energy, dosing trace elements and organic carbon dosing.

 

[dadnjesse]

Hi Dadnj,
I am planning a set up. Lighting is obviously a major consideration.
Have you ever used a PAR meter on the tank to take readings?
thanks for any input

Yes I own the Apogee MQ510 and seeing how expensive it was and that I'm retired I find myself testing more than nessesary. Any way at 70% intensity I have around 480 on the top of my rocks which are only around 8 to 10 inches high in my 24 inch high tank and not much less at the bottom. What I find with 5 XR30's there isn't any shading or lower Par points, it's even around the whole tank.