A few questions for SPS keepers with big SPS forests

OneReef

OneReef

Reef Guru
A few questions for those of you with big, full, forest like SPS tank with good colors.


1) Do you let your SPS grow in naturally together and let them die off if they touch and one can't handle it, or do you move the coral? I see tanks on here with SPS all intertwined.
2) Do you keep any hermit crabs?
3) Do you have a BB, SSB or DSB? If shallow, do you vacuum it regularly/replace sand regularly?
4) Do you have a refugium with macro algae?
5) Do you have any zoa/palys?

Last question, kinda open ended.
6) Do you think zoas/plays put off any toxins/chemicals that retard growth of SPS in any way, even a little bit?

Thanks for taking the time to answer ALL 6 of the questions, it will help me in my journey now that I am going all SPS, and want to have the big forest of SPS in my tank. :0)
 
1. I let my colonies grow naturally most of the time. I like tables and sometime you have to flip them around to get a nice even shape. As they grow, they will start shading others and you'll have to move them out of the way. I like looking down at my coral so I made it a rule not to have any rock higher than 1/2 the height of the tank. My fish love me for that since they have a lot more room. I have a light mover so large colonies are even in color. IME, 12" wide is when you start to get problems with colonies from shading and reduced flow. That said, I've kept tables as big as 18". When your colonies get to certain size, you need to think about growing another one to replace the one that you are chopping down.

2. I have lots of hermit crab. We go the the Carribean once a year and I carry back a few hundred blue-legged hermits in a water bottle without any water. Drop them in the tank and whatever survives...Keep my tank clean that way.

3. My deep sand bed is approaching 10 years old and I don't mess with it. I have tons of worms and they come out with the lights waving tiny little feathers.

4. I have a 75 g refugium and pull out about a volleyball size bunch of cheatomorph about every 2 weeks. I use 1/2 of my refugium as a frag tank.

5. I have nuisant green palys that I can't kill and has taken over a medium rock that I can't remove. I have a big colony of giant paly (pizza polyps) that is just beautiful.

6. I get good growth from my SPS and is not aware of any negative effects from the palys..
 
1) Do you let your SPS grow in naturally together and let them die off if they touch and one can't handle it, or do you move the coral? I do both. It depends on how attached to the piece I am and how the interaction goes. Sometimes one will devastate the other, sometimes one will just sting the end of the branch that grew too close and "cap" over the other, sometimes one will just hold the other back without growing into it. As they get really intertwined I have been just letting it go.

2) Do you keep any hermit crabs? Yes

3) Do you have a BB, SSB or DSB? If shallow, do you vacuum it regularly/replace sand regularly? SSB, no vacuuming. Just what is stirred up by cerith snails.

4) Do you have a refugium with macro algae? I have a refugium, it has turned into a frag tank, just a small ball of cheato.

5) Do you have any zoa/palys? Lots of them

Last question, kinda open ended.
6) Do you think zoas/plays put off any toxins/chemicals that retard growth of SPS in any way, even a little bit?
I don't think zoas/palys put any toxins whatsoever into the tank. They will, and have in my tank, crowd the base of the acros and try to work their way up as the base dies off from the shading. Some acros will stop the zoas and actually encrust over the zoas as well.


Lots of action in this photo. The slimer is capping the blue milli, which is capping the Pink Jade (look for the little green dot at the end of one of the milli branches). Slimer is also putting the hurt on the digi in the upper left.. The pink Pocci is holding its own against the Sarmentosa, Blue Milli and the Blue Stag.

IMGP7408.jpg



Sarmentosa capping the green slimer.

IMGP7410.jpg


Tricolor growing over the Blue Stag.

IMGP7403.jpg
 
1.- yea i let all my acros fight it out, they start fusing togheter, it looks pretty cool
2.- yes i do have some hermits without any problems
3.- i have a shallow sand bed, about 2-3 inches, my vortechs blow on it all the time so i have to move it so it looks flat and straight again, i have never had any problems by moving my sand
4.- i do have a refugium with chaeto and another macro algae but they dont grow, i do have an algae scrubber which works great
5.- i do have a lot of zoas and palys
6.- all i can say it doesnt affect since i have big colonies, take a look

004-7.jpg


Sana
 
Sanababit...that's insane!!! Awesome job. I love seeing sps guys with less specimens and much more mature colonies. It looks extremely natural.
 
Alex T. said:
Sanababit...that's insane!!! Awesome job. I love seeing sps guys with less specimens and much more mature colonies. It looks extremely natural.
Click to expand...

I agree large corals are nice, but I bet he has over 30 different acros in that tank. I wouldn't say that's only a few ;)
 
Do you guys think letting the corals grow into eachother inhibits or slows the growth of the corals (overall, not just in that immediaate area)? Some of my sps corals that have grown into eachother seem to have stopped/slowed growing overall. I think that the coral spends energy to fighting the encroaching coral and has less energy to grow?
 
Alex T. said:
Sanababit...that's insane!!! Awesome job. I love seeing sps guys with less specimens and much more mature colonies. It looks extremely natural.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much Alex

29reef said:
I agree large corals are nice, but I bet he has over 30 different acros in that tank. I wouldn't say that's only a few ;)
Click to expand...

i really cant remember how many corals i have in there, i have lost a lot too, they just suddenly died, this far into the hobby i just dont investigate anymore, i never find out for sure what killed it, jejejeje

stryker said:
Do you guys think letting the corals grow into eachother inhibits or slows the growth of the corals (overall, not just in that immediaate area)? Some of my sps corals that have grown into eachother seem to have stopped/slowed growing overall. I think that the coral spends energy to fighting the encroaching coral and has less energy to grow?
Click to expand...

Well for a tank that is a little more than 3 years old i would say no, they keep growing, i have fragged the hell out of them too, IME if a coral stops growing then snip the tips off of it, it will start again

Sana
 
lol sanababit, "i have lost a lot too, they just suddenly died, this far into the hobby i just dont investigate anymore" I love it. I feel the same way but I know my screw up at this early stage of the game
 
OneReef said:
A few questions for those of you with big, full, forest like SPS tank with good colors.


1) Do you let your SPS grow in naturally together and let them die off if they touch and one can't handle it, or do you move the coral? I see tanks on here with SPS all intertwined.

Let them grow and only trim when absolutely neccessary.

2) Do you keep any hermit crabs?

No, kept knocking stuff over.

3) Do you have a BB, SSB or DSB? If shallow, do you vacuum it regularly/replace sand regularly?

SSB NEVER TOUCH IT

4) Do you have a refugium with macro algae?

Yes but small

5) Do you have any zoa/palys?

Yes. Never a problem. GSP on the other hand is a big problem especially the ones with the long polyps. They sting the crap out of acros and in some cases poison the colony so bad it takes months for the acro to recover if at all

Last question, kinda open ended.
6) Do you think zoas/plays put off any toxins/chemicals that retard growth of SPS in any way, even a little bit?

See above

Thanks for taking the time to answer ALL 6 of the questions, it will help me in my journey now that I am going all SPS, and want to have the big forest of SPS in my tank. :0)
Click to expand...

No problem......
 
simply love the harmony

simply love the harmony

sanababit said:
1.- yea i let all my acros fight it out, they start fusing togheter, it looks pretty cool
2.- yes i do have some hermits without any problems
3.- i have a shallow sand bed, about 2-3 inches, my vortechs blow on it all the time so i have to move it so it looks flat and straight again, i have never had any problems by moving my sand
4.- i do have a refugium with chaeto and another macro algae but they dont grow, i do have an algae scrubber which works great
5.- i do have a lot of zoas and palys
6.- all i can say it doesnt affect since i have big colonies, take a look

004-7.jpg


Sana
Click to expand...

love your jungle man it is awesome can you post a lights blasting pic?
 
1) Do you let your SPS grow in naturally together and let them die off if they touch and one can't handle it, or do you move the coral? I see tanks on here with SPS all intertwined.I let them grow together for the most part. I trim back if the dead pieces after the battle.
2) Do you keep any hermit crabs? Use mostly snails
3) Do you have a BB, SSB or DSB? If shallow, do you vacuum it regularly/replace sand regularly? SSB and let nassarius snails stir it
4) Do you have a refugium with macro algae? no, just a sump. I run a probiotic system and macro doesn't really grow for me.
5) Do you have any zoa/palys? yes, but not all of them thrive in my tank..some do well, others can't tolerate the light/flow/low nutrients

Last question, kinda open ended.
6) Do you think zoas/plays put off any toxins/chemicals that retard growth of SPS in any way, even a little bit? IMO, no. But I would think running carbon would take care of the problem.
DSC_0230.jpg
 
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