Easy to keep SPS (I have trouble with Acropora) I have success with Montipora and Bir

[that Fish Guy]

So I love SPS.

My favorite are Acropora but I usually do not have much luck with this type of Coral (Either Dies, Looses Color, or does not Grow).

I have great success with Montipora and Seriatopora (Bird's Nest) though.

I am wondering how hard the other types of SPS are to keep (Stylophora, Pocillopora, etc)?

How would you rank SPS in terms of which are easiest to keep (Like a 1 through 5 List with 1 being the easiest)?

Feel free to list any type of SPS that I have not listed here on your list too.

 

[ddavies564]

So I love SPS.

My favorite are Acropora but I usually do not have much luck with this type of Coral (Either Dies, Looses Color, or does not Grow).

I have great success with Montipora and Seriatopora (Bird's Nest) though.

I am wondering how hard the other types of SPS are to keep (Stylophora, Pocillopora, etc)?

How would you rank SPS in terms of which are easiest to keep (Like a 1 through 5 List with 1 being the easiest)?

Feel free to list any type of SPS that I have not listed here on your list too.

I would say look into good aqua cultured pieces when buying dps,this will greatly improve your success. I would look for somebody selling beefy frags of a nice green slimmer that would be an easy one. Another piece would be a montipora setosa frag they are pretty hardy, grow fast and kinda look like and acro same with digitata and spongode.
Leptoseris is sps too, all my experience with lepto makes me feel that it's pretty easy to care for not much light needed. Stylos and pocillopra easier then acros but water still has to be pretty spot on. Might be easiest to work on you parameters that way you can keep all the corals you wish.

 

[jamesbaur13]

Pocillopora is easy, but be warned... this stuff spawns pretty regularly in the aquarium. You'll have colonies popping up in random places. Because of this it will take some extra work to control.

 

[that Fish Guy]

Pocillopora is easy, but be warned... this stuff spawns pretty regularly in the aquarium. You'll have colonies popping up in random places. Because of this it will take some extra work to control.

That is cool as long as the Spawn does not harm the other Corals?

Is that something that I have to worry about with Pocillopora?

 

[GroktheCube]

In my tank, I seem to have more trouble keeping Euphyllia happy than most SPS. I've found Montis, Stylos, and Seriatoporas to be extremely hardy, and very forgiving. I have a Hydnophora that seems pretty bulletproof as well. All of have tolerated screwups of varying severity. The only one that I've ever had trouble with was a M. mollis that got knocked onto a Galaxea by a marauding hermit. I thought it was a gonner, down to a handful of polyps, but it's bouncing back OK now, encrusted about 2/3rds of its old skeleton.

That said, all of my corals are aquacultured, which I think helps.

 

[terrypercula]

Birds nest and montiporas are definitely easy to keep for me. I'm doing okay with across too. The first one I got browned at first but colored back up and is growing slowly.

 

[Millticket]

Stylos are pretty forgiving and one of my favorite. I and kind of in the same boat as you, testing the sps waters. So far i've managed to keep my stylo, monti digi, monti undata, merula, and birdsnest. I've just recently added a poci and a porites because i heard they were pretty forgiving as well.

 

[that Fish Guy]

Please give me a list of what you guys feel is easiest to keep in order of easiest to hardest.

For instance like this:

1. Montipora (Easiest SPS)
2. Seriatopora
3. Pavona
4. Pocillopora
5. Stylophora
6. Acropora (Hardest SPS to Keep)

etc.

This is just something I made up to show you kind of what I am looking for.

A list.

Once I master one I will move on to the next hardest on the list.

I just made that up to show you not to say that is what I think its totally true but to give everyone an example.

What is your personal list?

I am not an SPS expert so I am sure that I left some species off so please add any other species you can think of to the list.

That is all the SPS I know only.

I hope that helps.

 

[vaporlockv2]

I agree I bought a purple catspaw stylo as my first sps and that thing not only lived it survived my mistakes and kept on growing. It's pretty and grows fast. I would say stylophoras are about as hardy as montis and birdsnest.