Anyone here give up on keeping SPS?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6437972#post6437972 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 10" Red Devil

Just want to say thank-you folks and I hope I dont come off argumentative. Im just a little frustrated and down right now after spending so much time and money and basically making this my life for a year.
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And I was just about to come down on you for your attitude and there you go and apologize. Kudos to you!! :thumbsup: I respect that.

As far as the light goes, Jerel is also running VHO actinics for 12 hours a day. I know at one time he was thinking about going vho only. I don't think you can discount photoperiod by just blasting light for a couple hours a day.

I feel your pain, as my tank is four years old and still not where I want it. All anyone can do is tell you what worked for us. Some of my corals are still pale, but I've seen improvement in colors from adding more fish/feeding more, and including some 20k in my lighting scheme.
(a single 175 xm in middle of tank)

As far as stability, it sounds like you've been providing a healthy stable environment for a long time now. It might be a good time to experiment more. Just don't change a whole bunch of things at once, like I do.

Dan
 
A 20 g tank IS a shallow tank, as mentioned above, and 250 w on that relatively small tank could be "cooking" your corals! It's easy enough to find out--raise the light higher above water level or possibly try a less intense light for awhile. LOL ....Barry
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6438526#post6438526 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by barrysalt
A 20 g tank IS a shallow tank, as mentioned above, and 250 w on that relatively small tank could be "cooking" your corals! It's easy enough to find out--raise the light higher above water level or possibly try a less intense light for awhile. LOL ....Barry
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Yeah I originially started out with a 150, but I felt pressured to get a 250 and stupidly thought it would improve growth and coloration. Boy was I wrong. I guess I will try raising it up a little higher and step back up the photo period.

What do you all thing I should bring the photo period back up to?

I think I would do something like an hour more for 2 days then on the 3rd day step it up an hour and keep doing this till I have it at the correct photoperiod.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6438016#post6438016 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jasper24
10" Red Devil. May want to check again. Hydnopora is SPS.
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Could be I cant find where I read it, might be borneman book or shimeks new invertibrate book, but I thought it said hydnophora was actually an LPS.
 
Usually, MH are set about 9" from water. If your current klieg light is there or lower, just get it up much higher for a week or so, see the reaction, and you can lower it a bit every few days if you feel you must. I had some corals bleach out with my 250 w, but I have a 65g tank, which is 24" high--I learned from that.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6436051#post6436051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by eboonaman
My sps would not color up either, I was told to do three things and now my green acros are bright green and my purple acros are turning from brown to purple.
1st) was to stop feeding them sps need low neutrient water
2) even through my phos. and silica reading were undetectable I started using phos-ban
3) switched from 6 65watt pc two 2 150 watt Mh.

hth
chuck
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#1 is wrong--probably the biggest myth is reefing is that sps don't need to be fed. In nature, they only get about 90% of their energy from photosynthesis; who knows how little they get in our artificially lighted tanks. The main reason, IMO, is that people think that low nutrient means no food. There is plenty of food in nutrient poor reef water, just low nitrates and phosphates (the nutrients). It's not easy to feed sps in our tanks without raising nutrient levels, but you can do it with some effort. A DSB or a refugium should lead to live zooplankton, which won't raise nutrient levels (feeding frozen zooplankton will, however) and will provide appropriate nutrition to the sps. Dosing phytoplankton (again, live, not dead) will lead to increased populations of zooplankton.
 
10" ... given how much Eric hates the terms LPS/SPS, would have to be Ron.

Because, in the end, stony corals are stony corals. Veron doesn't split out `sps' ...


I too wonder about:
overlighting ... don't forget that Bomber also ran VHO daylights + actinics for a full photoperiod. IMO, you might have too much light but also too short [due to intensity]

stability/nutrients. Smaller tanks are tough that way ... my 58 IMO is mighty small for the stability which IME leads to great looking Acropora. Beyond having nutrient poor water ... the nicest colored tanks IMO often are fairly well fed. The smaller the tank IMO ... the harder this is.
Some [lunchbucket] have had remarkable success with Acropora in a small tank. But - I think it's harder than these wizards make it look.

How old is the tank?
How long have you been growing these corals, in the same position?
How is growth?
 
So we have established that it is probably too much light so how far should I raise the light up to? 24"? Thinking that this is the depth of a 58rr. How about photoperiod? What do you recommend I up it to?

Thanks.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6438808#post6438808 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
10" ... given how much Eric hates the terms LPS/SPS, would have to be Ron.

Because, in the end, stony corals are stony corals. Veron doesn't split out `sps' ...


I too wonder about:
overlighting ... don't forget that Bomber also ran VHO daylights + actinics for a full photoperiod. IMO, you might have too much light but also too short [due to intensity]

stability/nutrients. Smaller tanks are tough that way ... my 58 IMO is mighty small for the stability which IME leads to great looking Acropora. Beyond having nutrient poor water ... the nicest colored tanks IMO often are fairly well fed. The smaller the tank IMO ... the harder this is.
Some [lunchbucket] have had remarkable success with Acropora in a small tank. But - I think it's harder than these wizards make it look.

How old is the tank?
How long have you been growing these corals, in the same position?
How is growth?
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You hit the nail on the head! I was thinking about Lunchbuckets 20 high I think it was totally amazing color.

Also check out this: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2004/aquarium.htm

I have a 20long because it is all I can afford right now. It is just much more affordable to have a smaller tank. Maybe your right though and it is just not doable in such a small tank. Maybe I just need to face facts and just do much hardier lps/softies.

What do you think I should do with my photoperiod? Think I should try to trade someone for a 150DE pendant? Or just raise it up? Its at 16" right now.

Thanks for your input.
 
Finneganswake - please point me to a real coral book that ID's stuff by LPS/SPS.

Veron doesn't.

I'd also love a complete list of what is/isn't SPS.
Far too many stony corals span the line ... nevermind it's a biologically meaningless category.

Sorry Red Devil :)
 
Sometimes all a tank needs is time.
In my older tank I could keep SPS until the tank was at the one year mark.

In my current setup SPS's are amazingly colorful and growing at a healthy rate. The biggest impact on coral color and growth for me has been the big Deltec skimmer I am using.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6439480#post6439480 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by deansreef
what about running a few t5's instead of the MH
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Well partially because I have at this point no more money to put into this and why would I go with T5s? I mean why not just downgrade to a 150 if I am going to change lighting? I guess I dont understand the advantage of going to T5s. Also I do not have a hood.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6438808#post6438808 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
How old is the tank?
How long have you been growing these corals, in the same position?
How is growth?
Click to expand...
SunnyX had a great point IMO about maturity + age.

I know personally my Acropora never really performed until the tank got around 1 year old ... and despite changes + re-aquascapes - at about 2 it rounded a corner where it's easier to get good results IMO.

I find a fair # of my corals just really don't `perform' for 3-6 months ... and some take 6-12 to really color + take off. JB NY had a good thread a few months ago about this - corals that for him we brown sticks for 1 year + ... and now are total gems.

Often it takes a while for corals to acclimate fully - to really be tuned to the tank IMO.
Some take off on day one - some seem to take forever.

How long have you had these corals?
How much have they grown?
 
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