What is this SPS?

Dana Jackson · Mar 6, 2017

A friend gave me this SPS. Im new to them and have no idea what this is or how to care for it. Her tank is bombing, I probably have better water quality in my toilet than she has in her tank..lol.. Seriously, its bad. Im trying to save this dude. Any help?

jbow50 · Mar 6, 2017

Some type of birdsnest

Flippers4pups · Mar 6, 2017

Yes, it's in bad shape. Maybe Stylophora or green birds nest. I would suggest placing it low near the sand bed for a week to allow it to acclimate to your lights, then raise it up in a week and then raise it again after that. Keep your alkalinity around 8- 9 dkh, calcium 350-400 and mag around 1350-1400.

Flippers4pups · Mar 6, 2017

If your keeping LPS, this SPS will be fine with some TLC. They are the easiest to keep.

Welcome to the world of sps. (It's very addictive!)

Macdaddynick1 · Mar 6, 2017

Pocilipora

Jakepen · Mar 6, 2017

Incredibly simple to keep. Doesn't look to bad, it will come back strong.

Jakepen · Mar 6, 2017

ORA birds nest

Dana Jackson · Mar 6, 2017

Thanks! I hope it does better. Poor guy... Yes, Im keeping LPS with great success. My water paparameters are always really good. Sometimes my Nitrates run a little high ( around 10ppm) when Im due a water change. .. Im running Sea gel for phosphate removal. And have started dosing calcium. Everything stays pretty stable, much to my surprise, in a first time nano. My friend cant seem to keep her SG stable, much less anything else, bless her heart. She has some Monty cap ill probably acquire as well. Free is good, I guess.

Preme · Mar 6, 2017

Yea looks to be a green bitdsnest!

Flippers4pups · Mar 6, 2017

I run no3 between 5-10ppm all the time and my SPS and LPS love it and you always want a little/trace po4.

Stability is key in keeping SPS and as long as you test for alkalinity once a week and keep it 8-9 dkh, they will do fine. Just don't adjust more than 1 dkh a day to keep at 8-9.

I use this calculator for dosing: http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html

saltyhog · Mar 6, 2017

Be interested to see what it looks like when it recovers. It sure looks a lot like a neon green pocillipora I had. If it proves to be that I'd recommend removing it and killing it with fire! LOL. I ended up with small colonies of that thing from one end of a 6' tank to the other.Very difficult to get rid of.

Flippers4pups · Mar 6, 2017

saltyhog said:
Be interested to see what it looks like when it recovers. It sure looks a lot like a neon green pocillipora I had. If it proves to be that I'd recommend removing it and killing it with fire! LOL. I ended up with small colonies of that thing from one end of a 6' tank to the other.Very difficult to get rid of.

Lol, the one I may regret at some point is my green hydnophora. Its growing very fast in my system and I've given it the whole top of one of my rock columns to keep it from killing anything around it. Beautiful but deadly. Lol

Salty1962 · Mar 6, 2017

Green Birds Nest.

nanodoc · Mar 7, 2017

looks like pocillopora to me. I have it everywhere, giving frags to my LFS to keep it from shading other corals. Easy to grow coral, has a green color in lower position, and yellow up higher.

Dana Jackson · Mar 7, 2017

nanodoc said:
looks like pocillopora to me. I have it everywhere, giving frags to my LFS to keep it from shading other corals. Easy to grow coral, has a green color in lower position, and yellow up higher.

Pocillopora has ends that are more blunt and rounded. My coral has sharper pointy ends. Im thinking birds nest.

Dana Jackson · Mar 7, 2017

I don't know. .. Looking at it now, they are only pointy because its so small right now... Could be Pocillopora. ..

Donovan Joannes · Mar 7, 2017

It is a seriatopora gutatus.... i think

Dana Jackson · Mar 7, 2017

Donovan Joannes said:
It is a seriatopora gutatus.... i think

Close, but in reverse... Mine has green skin and brown polyps... The pictures I saw online look like brown/ orange skin and green polyps... But very similar in structure...

Donovan Joannes · Mar 7, 2017

Dana Jackson said:
Close, but in reverse... Mine has green skin and brown polyps... The pictures I saw online look like brown/ orange skin and green polyps... But very similar in structure...

Just put the word "reverse" on it's name and call it the day

Sdiesel77 · Mar 8, 2017

Indeed Seriatopora Guttatus. I have the same one in my tank which is looking quite similar to yours since last month (loosing flesh), I suspect due to a sudden KH increase