monti v acro

[m3rcury]

i'm new to reef keeping (tank up for about 5 months or so). i have bought some small monti frags to try my hand at hard corals. i have one digi that about 4 inches from the surface of the water directly under my 250w MH 14k. with my tank parameters, it is growing suprisingly fast. i'm pleasantly suprised.

my question is will i be able to grow acro under the same conditions? does success with monti suggest i will have success with acro? or, are montis just really hardy while acros are much more delicate?

i know a lot of this depends on the specific kind of monti/acro, but i guess i'm talking in general.

i'm not in any rush to add acro, i'm just really excited about the success of this monti and how much it is beginning to branch out.

 

[icliao]

Monti is easier than acropora.

 

[dvanacker]

If your monti is really doing that well give acro a try....

 

[reefgeek84]

So much more is attributed to keeping SPS, calcium, alk, water clarity...if everything is stable and correct, then yes you should have no problem keep acro.

 

[DitchPlains2]

lol

lol

Everyone says "stable" like its a common thing, not so my friend. Often you have to account for the total loss of calcium daily and lk in your tank, which will change with coral growth, and with new sps additions. If you have a calc reactor and a kalk topoff you should be fine, blah blah, but not everybody can afford such items. If you don't have a dosing pump and the proper mixture of kalk n alk already setup, keeping acros is possible but not easy. I do it, but my daily miantence is nuts. Besides top offs, then replenishing daily loss of calc and alk. Its not an easy task albeit there are easier ways but for me right now, with limited space and a 55g its a good option.

cheers
David

 

[reefgeek84]

Re: lol

Re: lol

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7667852#post7667852 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DitchPlains2
Everyone says "stable" like its a common thing, not so my friend. Often you have to account for the total loss of calcium daily and lk in your tank, which will change with coral growth, and with new sps additions. If you have a calc reactor and a kalk topoff you should be fine, blah blah, but not everybody can afford such items. If you don't have a dosing pump and the proper mixture of kalk n alk already setup, keeping acros is possible but not easy. I do it, but my daily miantence is nuts. Besides top offs, then replenishing daily loss of calc and alk. Its not an easy task albeit there are easier ways but for me right now, with limited space and a 55g its a good option.

cheers
David

Actually, what you said goes to my point of stability. Yes you have maitence this is with any aspect of a tank...even if you do not have SPS, you still have to keep your salinty stable...it is not nearly as important as it is to keep SPS. However, if you have to replace what ever the tank uses i.e. calcium, and keep it at a stable level...Thus keeping your tank stable.

 

[oddballs]

if you do partial water changes often you shouldnt have problems raising acros just take it slow and find a acro frag that is captive raised (been in aquariums for a year at least) and it should be fine when your tank is really starting to grow sps in large amounts then you can worry about calcium etc etc.just do frequent partial water changes and your sps will be happy!!

 

[DitchPlains2]

reefgeek84

reefgeek84

Actually, what you said goes to my point of stability.

Yea I'm agreeing with you, but what I am saying is it's not as easily said then done, often it requires knowing how much calc and alk your tank uses along with recalculating that after new additions and growth, so ultimately to have a truly stable tank you need either a dosing pump, dosing kalk & alk, or a setup of co2 calc reactor and kalk water top off reactor. Without these it might be like oddballs said having to do constant water changes, and although I love my corals, I do a 10% water change every two weeks, but they use much more in calc and alk then that.

Cheers
David

 

[m3rcury]

thanks for the input folks.

at the moment, i have an ATO system that keeps my salinity stable. i have been tracking my Ca and AK usage for the past 1.5 months and add Ca and AK buffer about twice a week. currently, the Ca and AK usage is pretty low, so my Ca stays within the 420 to 430 range and my AK stays between 3.2 and 3.45. i'm working to get the AK more stable.

i do a 10 gallon water change every 2 weeks (it is a 40 breeder). my nitrates are a bit higher than i would like (.25), but close to acceptable i think.

whenever i do get an acro, it will be a frag (as someone suggested). i got the monti frags because i wanted inexpensive starters since i'm so new to this. i've just heard so many people say that SPS are really hard to keep, but i am having a lot of positive results from my monti. so, i figured that people must be talking about acros.

-david