easiest sps?

acbaro

New member
which would be the easiest and most hardiest of the bunch? Right now I have an LPS Dominate tank but i figure if I put a frag in front of the blast from my pump and I keep up with my WC's I should be good with maybe 1 or 2 hardy SPS without having to dose anything and keep things stable. Am I right? someone please assist me!
 
What kind of lighting do you have. You do not have to put the sps right in front of the powerhead or pump. More importantly is to put the sps frags high in the tank. Sps prefer an age tank with low parameters. Try a frag of a montipora digitata or an encrusting montipora. Good luck.
 
Less demanding sps corals, imo, would be montipora, pocillipora, birdsnest. You really shouldn't put it right in front of the blast of a powerhead, but position it where it would get random flow. Also, depending on your lights, mount it up high. Regardless of which sps you might put in, water parameters should remain relatively stable for the coral to thrive. You may get by for awhile with water changes,depending on how often you do water changes, but eventually you may need to dose alk and ca and occasionally mg to keep the levels up and stable.
 
i appreciate the responses. Right now I just have t5's, Ill definitely look up some of the ones that you guys have mentioned and get a better idea of them. I just don't want to have to add more equipment and dose a bunch of stuff in a 29 gallon tank. maybe in my dream tank i cn worry about that! =)
 
I'm no expert on SPS, but my 10-month-old tank has gone through hell and back several times, as I've made every mistake in the book.

I once let alkalinity go way up to 1.032 for over a week, another time my alkalinity plummeted to below 5 dKH (did a number on my zoas). I've been fighting phosphates the entire time, with times it's been too high to measure on my Hanna checker (hence, over 2.0). I'd been doing good if I got it below 0.40 (though very recently it's been half that and sloooowly coming down).

Through it all, I have had a pocillopora frag that has lived through it all, but not grown much, and monti caps that have grown a bit, but not much. Same with some encrusting monti that has just recently started to show some growth. I also lost two other monti cap frags and some acropora frag that never stood a chance.

So terrible conditions for SPS, I know. Here's the thing -- I've had three different kinds of birdsnests that haven't just survived these disasters, but have THRIVED. I mean, they're growing like crazy.

So if my on-the-job reef training hasn't killed them off or at best stunted their growth, I'm not sure what would.
 
Montipora digitata
Montipora capricornis

Acropora yongei (Green Slimer)
Acropora valida (Tricolor)

Hydnophora excessa

These are all easy SPS, easily grown and less light demanding than a lot of other SPS corals.

Depending on your T5 lighting, type of fixture and number of bulbs, your lighting may not be of concern at all.

The "secret of the success" of T5HO lighting is in 3 categories.

1. ICR (Individual Contoured Reflectors) as apposed to a parabolic reflector of less quality T5 fixtures.

2. Advanced Electronic Ballast

3. Quality and quantity of bulbs.

Along with many other members, I have a predominately SPS tank, lit solely by T5HO.
 
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