What's next?

[Jl330]

I have finally reached a point where I'm decently comfortable with keeping some sps. I have the following in my tank living.

Yellow colored thin branch birds nest
Red and purple plating monti
Green medusa monti
Green and purple digi

I'm still not sure I'm ready for acros but I want the branchy look you get from then. Any suggestions for other things to try or should I attempt any easier acros if there are any?

 

[Surfzone]

Stylophora are a nice hardy sps. They are related to birds nest and they grow decently quick. But if you want to try out an acro a green skimmer is one that I would suggest to start with.

Here is a pic of my purple style from June and the 2nd I took yesterday

 

[jda]

There are easier acropora. Stags are easier than bushy and tabling types.

How big of a tank? What is your equipment list (mostly flow and lighting). What are your basic parameters?

 

[Jl330]

There are easier acropora. Stags are easier than bushy and tabling types.

How big of a tank? What is your equipment list (mostly flow and lighting). What are your basic parameters?

Mag 1600
Cal 400
Alk 7.6-7.8
Nitrate 15-25ish
Phos 1

Working on bringing down my nitrate slowly.

 

[Surfzone]

PO4 at 1 or 0.1?

 

[Jl330]

PO4 at 1 or 0.1?

1. Working on bringing that down too. Cheato and vodka dosing. It may be lower, I haveno algae in my display.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Vodka will not do much to lower po4, carbon dosing is highly effective at removing no3. I recommend either large water changes or Phosphate Rx to reduce po4, just dont lower it too fast.

 

[Jl330]

Vodka will not do much to lower po4, carbon dosing is highly effective at removing no3. I recommend either large water changes or Phosphate Rx to reduce po4, just dont lower it too fast.

I may start running gfo. Just not sure what the best method of introduction is.

 

[BoomCorals]

I may start running gfo. Just not sure what the best method of introduction is.

I would get chaeto, or an algae turf scrubber. Far easier and will not over strip your water of nutrients. Also I might recommend my Cliffs Acro as a great hardy branching acro. It’s nearly bullet proof. Just ask @pdiehm

 

[Jl330]

I would get chaeto, or an algae turf scrubber. Far easier and will not over strip your water of nutrients. Also I might recommend my Cliffs Acro as a great hardy branching acro. It’s nearly bullet proof. Just ask @pdiehm

That would look great in my tank. I'm just cheap and won't pay shipping.

 

[Velcro]

I'd vote PC rainbow as a relatively Hardy and fast growing first acro.

 

[pdiehm]

I would get chaeto, or an algae turf scrubber. Far easier and will not over strip your water of nutrients. Also I might recommend my Cliffs Acro as a great hardy branching acro. It’s nearly bullet proof. Just ask @pdiehm

So, yeah...the cliff's acro. there is a common misconception, and it may be very well placed with certain corals, that Acropora aren't veyr hardy or tolerable.

I can say without a doubt, the cliff's is hardy and durable. Let me tell you my story.

I got a package of corals from boom, great corals by the way...all the corals were doing well, except for the green slimer. For some reason the green slimer is a coral that everyone says...easiest sps ever. Not for me.

So everything was doing great, growing, but I had this nuisance brown slimy algae on my rocks. My test parameters were pretty solid and stable. 4ppm NO3, 0.01-0.03 PO4. But this algae continued to just keep growing. I tried NoPox...no help. I tried, Bacter-M. No help. I called Bulk Reef Supply, and they recommended Dr. Tim's Waste Away. Reading up on it, I'm like, ok, seems like it will help, can't hurt right?

First dose was 2ml, half a dose. No real harm. 2 weeks passed by, and I did a water change, and added a full dose per BRS instructions (4ml). The next morning, my encrusting Nauti was showing white spots, and I saw my sunset Montipora flaking skin, and my Stylophora was showing signs of tissue loss. I immediately did a 60g change. Didn't help and all those corals died.

The lone survivor was the Cliff's acro. I had it on the frag plug from Boom, and during cleaning broke it off. Thinking, what the heck, I'll leave the plug in the tank. Within a week, the coral had grown over the broken off part, and has a very bright green skin. This was....March or so. Since then, I've added an algae scrubber, and taken my GFO/Carbon off line. I changed my lights from a Reefbreeder 48 to an ATI T5..the other day, I noticed 5 vertical buds about 1/8" to 1/4" bursting from the middle of the plug, with polyps out (actually the polyps are out on both the plug and the coral frag attached to a rock almost 24/7).

Long story short, I nuked my tank, and basically the only thing that survived was the Cliffs Acro. Hardy isn't the word, that coral, within reason may be indestructible.

 

[declanisadog]

Bonsai is another extremely hardy acro. I set a tank a new tank up about a month ago, and put a piece of it in after three weeks as a test coral. It was a shaded little nub with no polyp extension that I cut from my colony. After two nights i was seeing little green specs in the evening. A week later, and it is already starting to encrust.

 

[Jl330]

The cliffs and bonsai are actually two of my favorites. Now to find them.

 

[Aaron-A2]

I began my tank keeping various LPS (Euphylia, trumpet, plate coral, etc).

After 4-5 months I jumped into easy to keep SPS (pocillopora, stylophora, monti cap). At that point I began using kalkwasser to supplement my coral needs and get used to a dosing regime.

After about 6 months, I decided to purchase a GHL doser and take my first steps into acropora. I began with a no-name highlighter acro, had success, and proceeded to add probably a less-than-responsible amount of sticks to my tank. As of today (10 months into the tank), I'm sitting on around 20 different acropora.

As long as your focus is on stability (consistent dosing, ATO, etc), you should be able to keep acros without a problem. Lighting, pests, and trace/amino's are all important, but stability is king. Good luck on your choices!

 

[Tennsquire]

Tri-color Valida is another acro that I have found to be very hardy.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Cliffs, bonsai and Purple stylo- hardy and good additions.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I may start running gfo. Just not sure what the best method of introduction is.

Slowly in a reactor is best. Phosphate Rx is much lower in cost and is more effective than gfo. Not saying gfo is not effective because many people have stripped all po4 fro their water too fast with it.

 

[MARK M. DAVIS]

Stability is key. You know already.. phosphate and nitrate too high . Nitrate less that 5 necessary. Wouldn’t add sps until you get nitrates down or they’ll just brown out and look bad. Otherwise, when you start populating go with montis, lower light and flow. Millipora get major polyp extension without trying. Birds nest, stylo, digitatas are hardy, encrusting and plating montis looks good but, can outgrow a tank pretty fast.

 

[srad750c]

Red Planet seems to very sturdy and it very nice looking, my colony started out as a two branched small colony. It’s over 12” now. One side grows a lot faster than the other. I’m thinking it’s cause that’s the side I always get my frags from. Anybody out there have any ideas.

Last H2O test
Ph 8.2
Kh - 9.1
Ca - 450 ppm
Mg - 1360 ppm
NO3 - 1.0 ppm
PO4 - 0.114 ppm