New SPS Guy - Need Advice

[zoomen]

Hi everyone - I've had my tank up and running for a year and a half now slowly getting everything in place and stable to really start building out a great tank like many of the ones I've seen people on this forum posting.

Here's the deal though - I know nothing about SPS selection, light requirements, where to buy, etc. Is there a sticky or article out there somewhere for newbs that want to do SPS right?

I've taken my time establishing my tank and have tried not to be quick or rush into decisions that I'll later regret and I'd like to take the same approach with SPS. My goal (and tell me if I'm being naive here) is to only put items in that I will not ever want to pull out. I've been to liveaquaria and other similar sites, but am totally confused to which coral are the ones I want versus shouldn't get. I'm dizzy with the number of options out there - most of which look amazing - but I have no idea what is good, bad, or crazy. What is a good coral that is something I'll never regret or try to kill later? Where should I get it? How do I know what kind of light needs it has? How do I know what kind of flow it needs? Do I have some kind of fish that will eat it? What water chemistry parameters are right for it?? How do I feed it? I'm an idiot when it comes to SPS - but I want to learn!

I know there's a ton of questions and I'm not looking for people to answer me - just point me in the right direction (but I would never turn down an answer or opinion!).

Here's what I have for my tank:
300 Gallon Deep Dimension + 75gl sump + 29gl inline Seahorse Tank
250lbs of Live Rock
4 Ecotech Radions & 2 Ecoxotic 50w Cannons
4 MP40's
Vertex Alpha 250 Cone Skimmer
KH, CA, MG Dosers
Apex Controller with WXM

Livestock:
2 Achilles Tangs
2 Purple Tangs
2 Yellow Tanks
1 Black Tang
1 pair Bellus Angels
1 Pair Barbonius Anthias
1 Pencil Wrasse
1 Candy Cane Hog
1 Lyretail Anthias

Coral:
Blue Sponge
Frogspawn
Toadstool Leather
Acans
Zoo's
Elegance

 

[brob22]

check out battle corals for sps frags

 

[Allmost]

Hello,
I dont know of any SPS guides.

but start reading here on the SPS subforums, and you will get a hang of it.

basically, SPS corals are more light demanding than other types.
and they need high flow.
and also, they need low N and P.

now as you described, each species requires a bit different things, some SPS like acros need ALOT of light, where monti caps can do fine in lower light ...

first thing is first, get your water tested, post the no3 and po4, try to lower them to zero.

then CA, KH, MG, bring them to nsw levels, and maintain.

I would start with one frag of SPS. and see how it does. and add more on that.

 

[reeferman1128]

I would start off with one of any birdsnest corals. very easy and grow fast. if you get them to color up you are on the right track. If your frogspawn and elegance are growing and colorful then you can make the next step up. Make sure to keep you nitrated and phosphates in check

 

[zoomen]

check out battle corals for sps frags

Brob22 - that's my problem - I see sites like battle corals - and I love them all. They all look great, but there's gotta be rules or guidelines to a noob on what to get or not get. Here's a perfect example - when I first started - I got a frilly mushroom and green star polyps. Easy to care for and hard to kill - perfect for a new guy. Well - it wasn't till later that I realized that these things grow like weeds and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to kill/remove them because they were taking up valuable real estate that I hoped to grow SPS in. I did the same with a malenerus wrasse - which attacked everything that I put in the tank after him. That's the point when I made a decision to be very careful of what I would ever put in that tank (partly because a 300 gallon tank isn't the easiest to tank to move stuff/capture stuff in without going swimming).

...they need low N and P.

now as you described, each species requires a bit different things, some SPS like acros need ALOT of light, where monti caps can do fine in lower light ...

first thing is first, get your water tested, post the no3 and po4, try to lower them to zero.

then CA, KH, MG, bring them to nsw levels, and maintain.

Thanks Allmost - I know SPS are very specific to water chemistry and testing seems to be critical. I'm testing all my values with Elos test kits now. Should I invest in some Hannah Colormetrics test equipment for precise measurements of my chemistry?

Additionally - I currently do a 100gallon water change every 4 to 5 weeks. I know I'm doing more than the recommended 20% water change, but given my fish load and the sensitivity of some of the fish (Achilles & Black Tangs) - I'm trying to be extra careful. Should I do smaller changes more frequently?

As far as my values - My KH is 9, CA is 520, MG is 1350 and quite honestly - I've never tested my PO3 or Nitrates (I guess that's my first step).

Finally - I've just plugged in the Radions and my Cannons are en route - should I buy a Par meter to take measurements of the various places within the tank?

 

[Allmost]

I would stop dosing calcium and let it drop to 420 ppm. And keep it there. The rest seem fine. Elos is a good kit, I use it too.

Weekly water change helps stabilize everything better so I'd say go for maybe 25 gallons weekly WC. ( to remove excess organics or elements. Or replenish lost ones)

A Hanna low range po4 checker would come in handy, and any nitrate kit, I use salifert.

Regarding lighting, I have no experience with led, so hopefully some one will chime In about that. I assume you have good flow already for the anchilles tang

I would also run carbon, GAC , since you have soft coras as well ( to prevent chemical wars)

I too have a seahorse tank connected to my reef, converting it to a shallow frag tank soon(hopefully this weekend)... What temp do you run the system at ?
Seahorses make lowering the po4 much harder ... You might want to look into changing that or adding a fuge, or star carbon dosing, depending on the po4 levels and amount of algae growing In the system.

Lastly, don't forget pics later on haha

Hth,

 

[brob22]

Brob22 - that's my problem - I see sites like battle corals - and I love them all. They all look great, but there's gotta be rules or guidelines to a noob on what to get or not get. Here's a perfect example - when I first started - I got a frilly mushroom and green star polyps. Easy to care for and hard to kill - perfect for a new guy. Well - it wasn't till later that I realized that these things grow like weeds and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to kill/remove them because they were taking up valuable real estate that I hoped to grow SPS in. I did the same with a malenerus wrasse - which attacked everything that I put in the tank after him. That's the point when I made a decision to be very careful of what I would ever put in that tank (partly because a 300 gallon tank isn't the easiest to tank to move stuff/capture stuff in without going swimming).




Thanks Allmost - I know SPS are very specific to water chemistry and testing seems to be critical. I'm testing all my values with Elos test kits now. Should I invest in some Hannah Colormetrics test equipment for precise measurements of my chemistry?

Additionally - I currently do a 100gallon water change every 4 to 5 weeks. I know I'm doing more than the recommended 20% water change, but given my fish load and the sensitivity of some of the fish (Achilles & Black Tangs) - I'm trying to be extra careful. Should I do smaller changes more frequently?

As far as my values - My KH is 9, CA is 520, MG is 1350 and quite honestly - I've never tested my PO3 or Nitrates (I guess that's my first step).

Finally - I've just plugged in the Radions and my Cannons are en route - should I buy a Par meter to take measurements of the various places within the tank?

gotchya
most sps corals wont becom nusants. some grow alot faster than other, but they can be fragged pretty easily. the things u need to watch out for are the corals that spreaad on the rocks, like zoos exenia, mushrooms

the other thing is to leave space between coral frags so they have room to grow instead of growing into each other.

 

[zoomen]

I would also run carbon, GAC , since you have soft coras as well ( to prevent chemical wars)

Ok...so I need to run carbon to soak up toxins, NP Biopellet stuff to lower Nitrates and Phosphates - anything else?

I too have a seahorse tank connected to my reef, converting it to a shallow frag tank soon(hopefully this weekend)... What temp do you run the system at ?
Seahorses make lowering the po4 much harder ... You might want to look into changing that or adding a fuge, or star carbon dosing, depending on the po4 levels and amount of algae growing In the system.

Wow - it shows how unequipped I must be to handle seahorses. I'm assuming by your question that Seahorses require some amount of PO4 and and a different temperature? I run my tank at 78. I guess I must be ok because i've had those seahorses for about 8 months without any problems.

 

[zoomen]

gotchya
most sps corals wont becom nusants. some grow alot faster than other, but they can be fragged pretty easily. the things u need to watch out for are the corals that spreaad on the rocks, like zoos exenia, mushrooms.

Another question - Given the low PO4 that SPS require - which corals will suffer in my tank (now's the time to find them a good home)?

Blue Sponge
Frogspawn
Toadstool Leather
Acans
Zoo's
Elegance
(forgot to add these earlier
a couple of small plates
Brain
a duncan
chalices.

 

[Allmost]

Another question - Given the low PO4 that SPS require - which corals will suffer in my tank (now's the time to find them a good home)?

Blue Sponge
Frogspawn
Toadstool Leather
Acans
Zoo's
Elegance
(forgot to add these earlier
a couple of small plates
Brain
a duncan
chalices.

they would all thrive. but te softies liket he leather might stop to grow, as you lower nutritions.

pellets are not the only way, there are many options out there, see which one fits you better

 

[zoomen]

pellets are not the only way, there are many options out there, see which one fits you better

Well I guess i need to figure it out fairly quickly because I finally tested my PO4 and it's registering a crazy 0.35ppm using the Red Sea Pro PO4.

Ok - I've been overfeeding the tank in order to keep the tangs fat and happy - so I acknowledge my lapse of judgement in this. Now I just need to figure out how to remedy this.

So of the options out there - I know of fuges, Carbon dosing, pellets and GFO. I'll explain one other thing - I'm extremely lazy - ok not really, I just work a crazy number of hours a week and travel for work quite a bit. A fuge seems like the most natural way and hands-free way of reducing the phosphates, but my understanding is that the fuge method won't reduce/maintain the PO4 consistently where I need it to be.

Should I do a fuge + something else? If so, what's something that I can run with minimal daily intervention for those days/weeks when I'm away? There are a few things that I can have my girlfriend do, but I don't want to be dependent on her having to do anything too involved.

 

[Allmost]

ok start with this :
probiotics-demystified

it explains all sorts of carbon dosing, from those pellets would be the simplest.

fuge theoratically should take care of all nutritions left, but only if its almost as large as the main tank !

you could use combination of all .. small fuge and GFO ... or pellets and GFO.

Zeovit or like wont be good if you are going out of town alot.

fuge and GFO would win my vote in ure case, you can start dosing some vinegar down the road to color up ure SPS more.

 

[zoomen]

Excellent - Thanks so much! I'll read up this weekend and report back. I appreciate your help!