Wiskeyrebel
New member
Anyone growing Sps in a 12gal? I'd like to know if Sps will grow as good in a 12 as in a large reef tank
12 gal sps
- Thread starter Wiskeyrebel
- Start date
I think they *could* grow every bit as good in a 12 gallon as any size tank.
Trouble comes with stability with that little of water volume, and while I am not one who thinks you need to or even should keep your temp exactly the same all of the time, I do think you need to be consistent with what you do do with it.
It is real easy to do huwe temop swings in a tiny tank without the proper controls in place that can be kind of pricy in relevance for that little bit of water
Trouble comes with stability with that little of water volume, and while I am not one who thinks you need to or even should keep your temp exactly the same all of the time, I do think you need to be consistent with what you do do with it.
It is real easy to do huwe temop swings in a tiny tank without the proper controls in place that can be kind of pricy in relevance for that little bit of water
I had a 8 gallon bio cube for a while with MH over it. It was hard to keep most hard corals happy, but I did have success with some birds nest corals and purple cap. You will have to be on top of your water parameters and keep them stable especially water evaporation try to set up a top system.
allsps40
New member
Agreed it can and has been done. There is a guy on here with a 3 gallon vase with mostly sps in it and it looks great. He does have it plumbed to his large reef tank though. You will need to keep it stable as was said, this can be a harder with nano tanks. I have a 6 gallon nano cube with upgraded lighting and I cant keep even easy sps in there. Sps thrive in larger tank but I have a sump, fuge, large skimmer, media reactor, better lighting and ato running it. I feel the best way to have a great looking nano is to have a large sump for it and a skimmer. On a 12 gallon I would do a 30-40 gallon sump this will greatly help with stability and water quality.
MechEng99
aka Reef'd Up
I've been running a 10g SPS-dominant tank for about 2.5 years now (has ~5g sump). It's functioned as a main display to QT...back to main coral tank...and back to QT several times. Sadly, it's the most stable tank I have. LOL. SPS do well in it, but nitrates & phosphates bump up quickly since I also keep LPS and NPS corals in it.
Lighting - 1 x 150W MH
Skimmer - Tunze 9002
Flow - 1 x Koralia 1 + return pump
GFO & Carbon - run in a cheapo HOB filter
Heater: One of those nicer titanium ones with the controllers
ATO
Weekly water changes with SeaChem Salt
Dosing 10ml each daily of Alk, Ca, & Mag
Lighting - 1 x 150W MH
Skimmer - Tunze 9002
Flow - 1 x Koralia 1 + return pump
GFO & Carbon - run in a cheapo HOB filter
Heater: One of those nicer titanium ones with the controllers
ATO
Weekly water changes with SeaChem Salt
Dosing 10ml each daily of Alk, Ca, & Mag
It's possible, I have a 12g mr aqua running for about 6 months. I have 20 or so sps frags in it and have only lost 3. One when i overdosed aminos and had a semi crash while away for a weekend and two when I recently moved. Weekly water changes are needed and growth is really slow but they can survive and I got really great color out of my pink sand dollar. Also I didn't have a heater in it for about 5 of those months. Not saying this is a good way to keep sps but it's possible with a wide variety in my experience. You do run into the issues of any small change is potential disaster tho.
I have know someone who kept some acros in a 1g fish bowl last summer as an experiment. 50 percent wc every day, sometimes twice, with no circulation on a roof top in direct sun. They grew over an inch but I assume were not happy.
I would recommend a skimmer/hob filter, no fish or only a goby and some kind of flow and a heater, walmart has a 50w about 6". For corals I have seen the purple with green polyp (gar bonsi, valid tricolor types) maintain color and growth as well as red planet and pink sand dollar in my experience.
I have know someone who kept some acros in a 1g fish bowl last summer as an experiment. 50 percent wc every day, sometimes twice, with no circulation on a roof top in direct sun. They grew over an inch but I assume were not happy.
I would recommend a skimmer/hob filter, no fish or only a goby and some kind of flow and a heater, walmart has a 50w about 6". For corals I have seen the purple with green polyp (gar bonsi, valid tricolor types) maintain color and growth as well as red planet and pink sand dollar in my experience.
