Why is most advice based on keeping SPS tanks?

[rtparty]

Because if you can learn and understand how to care for SPS, you can easily keep softies and LPS.

 

[J1a]

My aquarium is sps dominated mixed reef. However, if I were to start a softie tank now, I would probably run it mostly the same like my current set up.

While it is true that some corals tolerates a wider range of water parameters, it certainly doesn't hurt to provide stable and optimum conditions.

Providing suitable light and flow, balancing nutrient and export, supplement consumed elements, these skills are useful across the board.

 

[Hermie]

Social media and Youtube specifically is designed to "pigeon hole" you down an interest and feed you what you want, effectively creating an echo chamber. So if you are searching youtube for SPS, "SPS related videos" are going to start showing up in your recommended feed, your side bar, etc. It's going to be the first thing you see when you load "youtube.com" literally.

I think that's a big part of it. Youtube is showing you what it thinks you want to see.

 

[frizzayyyyreef]

Why is a lot of the advice given in this hobby focused on keeping difficult corals like SPS? I find that whenever I'm browsing for advice on YouTube, R2R, etc., I always find advice that is focused on keeping finicky SPS corals.

This is one of many examples but just to pick one, parameters. We all know that SPS are very picky about their parameters and stability. But it's quite the opposite for most softies and some LPS. But we're always told to keep our tanks at these parameters and to keep them super super stable or things are going to die. While this is true for SPS tanks, it's not quite the same for tanks with low-demand corals. This is one of many examples.

I keep mainly LPS and Softies. Whenever I was first starting out, I always received advice that was more geared to keeping SPS-dominated tanks, which is not my tank style. I later realized this and now I realize that I spent way too much time, mental energy, money, etc. on things that I don't need to keep my tank healthy and thriving. There are thousands of tanks with low-demand corals that are successful and don't follow hardly any of the advice given for SPS tanks. Now, I'm not saying that if I keep my tank suited for SPS, and keep LPS and Softies, that it's bad. I just find it is a waste of (what I said above) for me and isn't necessary. I always see people giving new reefers advice on how to keep SPS tanks when their goal may not necessarily be focused on keeping difficult corals.

I want to see how many of you keep SPS in your tanks, so I included a poll. I want to see around what percent of the reefers this SPS-focused advice actually applies to. Do you agree with what I said above? Have you realized this before?

I keep all lps here sps imo is not that nice I like the swaying of the lps and the movement….sps=high flow n real strong lighting ,clean water . I feel lps is the opposite lol….wish I could keep both but I’d rather go lps save way more money on wc equipment