How long did it take you?

[jt_redmist]

Hi,
I'm just curious how long it took you guys before you were able to successfully keep SPS? Not the easy stuff, but more advanced SPS. With success I mean able have the coral thrive in your tank. Good PE, vivid colors, good growth etc.

JT

 

[jt_redmist]

Wow!! 60 people looked at this and no one feels comfortable answering this?

 

[twon8]

i didn't try till two years into reefkeeping, and then only monti's for a while, but now i have 25+ acro. sp. and they all seem to be doing well. i have had an occasional frag rtn on me (2 acros), one wild and one got blasted by a fallen maxijet. if you have a stable system as long as the sps is healthy to begin with you should succeed. in my experience frags from other tanks do so much better. search your local club threads and buy corals from people breaking down tanks, selling frags out of their own tank, etc... i have great pe on all my acros during the day, though i attribute that to tunze streams.

 

[Wiskey]

I am intrested in hearing more opinions here, but don't consider myself good enough to answer this question,.... YET

Whiskey

 

[jt_redmist]

I also am not qualified to answer either, but wanted to get a feel of how long it took those that have what it takes. C'mon people, don't be shy

JT

 

[ClownReef®]

It took me a year to give away all my softies and jump into SPS.. Over all, ive lost like 5 colonies in almost 3 years..

 

[poknsnok]

Ive never lost a frag/colony in the 6 months Ive gone heavily SPS.. I can safely say it is because of my husbandry. 10-20% min weekly water changes and full gambit of tests weekly. I have to say that knowledge and experience is without a doubt important but diligent husbandry is the key

 

[gflat65]

I started reef keeping 10 years ago. Back then, it wasn't extremely common to keep sps-LPS and softies were 98% of what was available. It wasn't until about four years ago (six years into it) that I started with sps. Most of that had to do with availability of livestock and information. My tanks were all mature by then, so I didn't feel nervous about keeping anything at that point. Had to change a few husbandry techniques (a little more required for sps than lps and softies), but jumped in head first.

 

[dots]

After about a year, of figuring everything out ie: basic husbandry, thoery, chemistry. I tried two colonies about 4 or 5 months ago and they both RTN'd in about two weeks. After that, I tightened up my parameters to what they need to be and concentrated on a schedule to keep everything in place. I read a lot of forums here. I got a few montis (cap, digi) about two months ago, now I have them, an acro, birdsnest, and milli. So far so good, very please with my success so far. To see such growth in a day is amazing!!

Its kinda funny, I was thinking the other day, that I used to have trouble with anenome, clams, xenia and other "hard/sensitive" stuff. Now, the ones in my tank are basically ignored because they seem "easy" compared to the sensitive SPS now. I can see myself chucking them all for more real estate for the SPS soon!!!

I have found that the challenge of this newer part of the hobby very addicting. Even though there are some tried and true methods, there is still alot of unexplored ways that capitvates me.

For instance: what can I get away with using 150W DE MH's on a 75 gal, 4 inches from the water.

 

[Amphiprion]

I never even bothered with sps until about four years ago. I simply decided to try a piece, it did very well (still does) and I have never had any problems.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Re: How long did it take you?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7002125#post7002125 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jt_redmist
Not the easy stuff, but more advanced SPS. With success I mean able have the coral thrive in your tank. Good PE, vivid colors, good growth etc.

I guess I'm uncertain what you mean by `hard stuff'.

I added my first Acropora almost 3 years ago, and have lost only a few corals in the meantime [beyond what the monti nudis ate or I mis-glued and lost to the rockwork].

Then again, I've stayed away from wild colonies until recently, as there's so much nice captive propagated stuff and wild colonies IMO are more a crap-shoot.

But I'd say it took a couple months in-tank, and I've had luck with most stony corals I've tried.

 

[jt_redmist]

Re: Re: How long did it take you?

Re: Re: How long did it take you?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7012705#post7012705 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MiddletonMark
I guess I'm uncertain what you mean by `hard stuff'.

Yeh, I see what you mean. 'hard stuff' could be subjective. Speaking for myself as a newbie to sps, I find it easy to keep digis and caps. All so called "beginner" sps. I have since purchased a purple monster and california tort. I assume these are supposed to be harder to keep as far as sps goes. Now the digis and caps are doing great, however the pm and tort are not coloring up. They are not browning out, stn or dying. They just don't have the rich dark color like they do at the store. Anyways, just thought I would chime in what I think is hard to keep sps.

JT