Your favorite additives for SPS

wdavid · Jul 27, 2018

Definitely seeing a lot more of just feed your fish well and take good care of your tank

Definitely seem's like a solid plan.

How about additives that seemed like total flops to users? Would love to hear all of your experiences along with things that worked or didn't do anything.

tiggs · Jul 27, 2018

My go to combo for SPS is Reef Roids target fed once a week, Reef Roids LIGHTLY broadcast fed once a week (about 15 minutes before my weekly water change), as much fish poop as they can eat, and quality lighting

CherBear811 · Jul 27, 2018

hatfielj said:
In the wild corals eat a lot. Check out the presentation that Jake Adams posted on Reefbuilders yesterday. The coral farmer from Indonesia talks about how often the water there is turbid with various types of food (algal blooms, etc). So, I think feeding can play a role in our tanks. The problem is no one knows what the ideal is, if any. FWIW, I try to feed reef roids at least once a week as a broadcast. I also think scraping the tank walls helps. And of course, feeding the fish heavily so they poop a lot and produce plenty of nitrates and phosphates is important.

I agree completely about feeding habits in the wild. I feed as much as I can and still keep nutrients from blowing up and causing browning.

Jeremy Luke said:
I just posted something regarding this. I have fed aminos, coral food etc while keeping PO4 at .03-.05 ppm (Hanna ULR). The SPS color and PE hasn't been great. I recently was out of town for a week and set up an auto feeder to dump a mixture of pellets and flake in the water twice a day. When I returned my sand bed was very colorful and the glass was filthy. When I peered through the filth the SPS color and PE was dramatically improved. Alk consumption had spiked. I had no idea I could see such a quick, positive reaction in my SPS. For my tank it seems dirtier water in general is better. The pellets are that Neptune stuff coated in coral food, perhaps that's magic? I can deal with the extra cleaning duty if this is the result.

Also I agree with this. I have always had dirtier tanks and great color. The threshold for nitrate seems really high before you start to see browning; Im talking 40ish. On the other hand, my last system, a 75 gal mixed reef with massive tidal current flow and 3 x 250 w MH + VHO actinic, was extremely dirty - red on the api scale no matter what I did or how many water changes, had chaeto (though knowing what I know now, nowhere near intense enough light on it) and skimmer... It stayed high. But nothing in it suffered.... Fish thrived, nems probably couldve been healthier now that I think about it but they didn't die, LPS grew, softies grew, and sps grew like crazy with amazing colors. That system defied what just about anyone will tell you about sps. lol

My current tank still runs dirty but within much lower ranges.... nitrates 7-20 ( I try not to let it get that high but occasionally it creeps up that high) and phosphates .03 to .5 at the highest - but I did start to see colors fading a bit when that happened. Averaging nitrates 10-12 and po4 .04 seems to be the sweet spot in my tank where everything is really happy with great color and PE.

As for what I use..... kalk and BRS pharma calcium when I don't want to raise my pH anymore; Randy's 2-part for alk as needed (I use one recipe when pH needs a boost and the other when it's where I want it); and I've tried several mg supplements all with good results (Brightwell Mg Hydrate, Randy's recipe, and B-ionic). I also use red sea colors if it's more than a week or so since my last wc. For "food" I mix roids and BRS reef chili, reef nutrition eggs, and phyto and do a somewhat target sweeping feed. I have aminos but since my nutrients are always a bit high I see no need to use them.

ZAB · Jul 27, 2018

Phols..sponge power..coral vitelizer..coral snow..have had great results. Bulk reef sells the 4 in a set...can use without using full zeovit system.

sullyman · Jul 27, 2018

Golden pearls from brine shrimp direct, SPS love these mixed with your fish food.

vetteguy53081 · Jul 27, 2018

Aquaforest Reef Builder, acropower, amino acids, Iodine, strontium, potassium and Reef roids

Rory · Jul 30, 2018

My set up is a mixed reef and I have multiple Gonipora so I HAVE to feed my tank. I use Reef Roids twice a week and target feed. I am in there anyway so I feed all the corals. I was overfeeding it and started spiking my nitrates and phosphates so I have cut back drastically with how much I use. was at 0s on both for so long I wasn't testing, then things started looking a lot more brown and found that both had crept up - NO3 - 30 PO4 - .84... over the last month, I have them down do about NO3 - 5 and PO4 - .2. I didn't want to shock the system by bringing them down too fast... so started using NOPOX at lower dosing and small water changes.

Mattrg02 · Jul 30, 2018

Back when I was successful with sps, I fed my fish all of the time. I never tested nitrates or phosphate. I had a lot of algea and couldn’t see through my glass. My sps were the healthiest I’d ever seen. They would have an rtn event that would stop and then reverse course. Encrusting montipora would cover the rocks and acroporas claimed them top. Colors were vibrant. I didn’t skim, no fuge, and a water change once a month.

2Wheelsonly · Jul 31, 2018

jda said:
I feed the fish. I also feed the corals with high quality Metal Halide.

There have been times where I thought that I saw a difference in supplementing or feeding the corals, but then when I stopped, nothing changed. I have come to the conclusion that my mind was just out of whack and probably looking for some positive. Others swear by feedings.

I agree with this...the ONLY supplement I use that gives noticeable effects is coral vitalizer and that's only an increase in PE. It's the only thing iv'e kept up with; oyster feast...roids...everything else under the sun just seems to have no effect. Leaving the tank alone gives me the best results, even when I don't clean it for weeks and it starts to look like hell with coralline all over the front glass is when my corals look the best.

AdamNC · Jul 31, 2018

Red Sea Reef Energy daily
Red Sea Coral Colors daily
Polyp Lab Polyp Booster twice weekly
Polyp Lab Reef Roids twice weekly
BW NeoNitro daily
BW NeoPhos daily