What makes the perfect SPS system?

[EMeyer]

Natural seawater chemistry is an “iffy” thing IMO. If you had a water tower full of natural seawater and constantly pumped it through your tank, it would probably work. But the elements in NSW are so depleted that we generally have to fortify it with additional alk/cal/mg, or in the case of zeovit.... a little bit of everything using little droppers. Zeo tanks are rad.

Dosing maintains the important elements pretty easily at NSW levels, without massive water changes. I see no convincing evidence of benefits at elevated levels and plenty of harm.

 

[Adequate]

I've noticed that the params of NSW, at least in my part of the world, are significantly lower than in coral reef regions, let alone a reef tank setting. Few hard corals exist off the coast, likely due to the Mediterranean climate, though there's still a few pocillopora reefs here and there. Calcium and magnesium are at normal levels, but the specific gravity is around 1.030 and the KH of the water is usually between 5 and 6, I used to try bump up the KH to between 9 and 10 with baking soda, but now I just keep my corals at the levels of NSW. The softies and LPS do just fine, the SPS I'm still monitoring. I figured there was no harm in using NSW with lower levels, since other reefers also use store-bought NSW.

 

[Crustaceon]

Dosing maintains the important elements pretty easily at NSW levels, without massive water changes. I see no convincing evidence of benefits at elevated levels and plenty of harm.

Some food for thought on this:

Elevated Alkalinity and Calcium for Faster Growth? Part 2 - BRStv Investigates

Today on BRStv we're wrapping up the second part of testing the possibility of achieving faster coral growth with elevated levels of Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium. Find out if raising your levels can bring get you closer to a full reef tank and see how we're going to really put this...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[ycnibrc]

A perfect environment for sps is natural sea water. Corals dna has been developed for million of years to thrive in natural sea water. When we introduce corals to our reef tank we change the environment and the corals try to adapt to survive. Just compare to human someday we will go to Mars and live however our dna still prefer Earth. I run zeo because its the closest system that mimic natural sea water and when you do it correctly the result is impressive regarding growth and colors.

 

[stephj03]

Dry hands and at least one piece of critical gear that noobs make fun of you for having bc it's soooo obsolete.

 

[Ryan Avery]

OCD!! Lol

 

[Reef_Obsessed]

Perfect and minimalistic are difficult adjectives to use in this hobby, because it really depends on what SPS you’re keeping or plan on keeping. I’m talking about Reef Acro or Inshore and then the individual requirements of each piece. IMO, making a perfect, minimalistic system requires “sticking” (pun intended) with one type...either Inshore or Reef Acro. In my tank, Inshore does far better than Reef. My lighting is more than likely strong for Inshore, but too weak for Reef, therefore would require supplemental lighting. I think my system is somewhat minimalistic...other than equipment used to keep algae out of the DT, a macroalgae reactor, all I have is a sump with a good protein skimmer, doser for ALK and CAL, 1 gyre pump, an ATO, and manual labor in water changes.

 

[DHill6]

My acro talks to me. Everyday, i spend some time to look and listens to all my acro. Each will tell me how they’re doing and what they need. The colorful one always reaching out long polyps are telling me they’re happy. The brown one complained that its not getting enough light and need a bit more flow because its growing too thin. Few are frustrated because they’re annoyed by little bugs bugging them. Then there are the anorexic one that didnt take their calcium and carbonate so they have brittle bones that break easy. And some are depress and committed suicide over night.
I try my best every day to listen to them all. There’s no such thing as perfect parent(s) but the effort is valuable.

Beautiful tank, colors amazing along with the description, everyone needs a smile every now and again!

 

[Jax15]

I'd be interested to have you add a poll to this thread. "Successful SPS keepers--how many of you started with live rock, or rock that has been in tanks for many years?"

I tend to think the dry start systems are much harder for SPS. I'd bet the majority of successful acro keepers have some very long cycled rock in their tank. Zeo might be a good shortcut to this, haven't tried it myself.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

I think this will answer most of your questions- Warning, its extremely binge-able...

 

[BobbyOtto]

People keep saying natural seawater and stability. That within itself is kinda a contradiction. I think there is a lot more to it then that... high tide and low tide water parameters can have very different water chemistry... I think corals are hardier then we think with certain parameters and that a large portion of mystery deaths do have an exact cause, we just dont understand the cause yet. I think part of the allure to this hobby is the mystery and we do everything within our power and think we do everything right but still randomly lose things and it keeps us coming back. Ultimately there is no 100% correct way to reef, we know if we can be within xwy range we can be successful but it's not guaranteed, everyone needs a method that works best for them

 

[RONBATTLE]

My acro talks to me. Everyday, i spend some time to look and listens to all my acro. Each will tell me how they’re doing and what they need. The colorful one always reaching out long polyps are telling me they’re happy. The brown one complained that its not getting enough light and need a bit more flow because its growing too thin. Few are frustrated because they’re annoyed by little bugs bugging them. Then there are the anorexic one that didnt take their calcium and carbonate so they have brittle bones that break easy. And some are depress and committed suicide over night.
I try my best every day to listen to them all. There’s no such thing as perfect parent(s) but the effort is valuable.

THAT IS TRULY A BEAUTIFUL AQUARIUM YOU HAV THERE...AND I AM JEALOUS...BUT I WOULD HAVE TO HAVE SOME SAND ON THE BOTTOM, BUT MAN, THAT IS REALLLY BEAUTIFUL

 

[Bacon505]

I run a very strong flow in the system but i recently added some sand because i want to keep wrasses. And sands gets dirty and i hate cleaning it lol

 

[Jax15]

THAT IS TRULY A BEAUTIFUL AQUARIUM YOU HAV THERE...AND I AM JEALOUS...BUT I WOULD HAVE TO HAVE SOME SAND ON THE BOTTOM, BUT MAN, THAT IS REALLLY BEAUTIFUL

I first read this as “that’s a truly beautiful aquariumism” you have there.. and that’s true as well I like the image of you choppin it up wit your acros

 

[X-37B]

Had to add this for beginers and seasoned alike.
A daily log book will keep you involved with "your" tank and help you create "your" perfect system imo.
Even with all the tech stuff it is a great long term reference.

 

[Reef_Obsessed]

I'd be interested to have you add a poll to this thread. "Successful SPS keepers--how many of you started with live rock, or rock that has been in tanks for many years?"

I tend to think the dry start systems are much harder for SPS. I'd bet the majority of successful acro keepers have some very long cycled rock in their tank. Zeo might be a good shortcut to this, haven't tried it myself.

I started with Caribsea Life Rock AND dead sand and after nearly 1 1/2 years, am finally starting to see success with Acros. I dealt with all kinds of algae and browning Acros.

 

[Orly20]

What Waters said plus fish poo, I’m learning that fish do a lot of good for SPS

I have a lot of fish in my tank and thought the same, heavy in heavy out, but the nutrient export must be really good. I am thinking of removing some fish to lower the bioload and fish feeding. You can feed corals now by aminos, powdered food etc..... to compensate. I would try to feed the system more then adding more fish, MHO