New to SPS and recommendations

[Mr.Ghostly]

I currently have a saltwater tank that has been up for roughly 3 months, and in a few months from now when I have adequate enough of money I would like to take a step into having either a SPS only tank or just keep what i currently have and have a SPS dominated tank.

But what asking help with is what kind of equipment do I need to add on to what I currently have along with what I should be dosing. What I currently am running is a 65g saltwater tank with 2 LED strips 1 blue and 1 atinic I also run a protein skimmer with the temp of the tank at 77 degrees. I also have a Mag 9 for my return for flow along with 1 MP10.

Any information you guys can send my way would be greatly appreciated

 

[dlterry85]

depends on what kind of led strips they are. alot of the led strips will not support sps. they are made more or less for supplemental lighting. in order to grow sps, they should be 3 watt cree leds or equivelant. you need to supply more info for help. if you do regular water changes, you should be okay. water quality is very important for sps. as your sps grows more and gets bigger, you may need to supplement calcium and other trace elements. you may want to start with some less expensive corals like birdnest or montipora and see how that grows. hth.

 

[m.hudzinski]

Read a lot of the threads in this forum about people's tanks, and compare the equipment they have to what you have. SPS need better water quality, more light, and more flow than any other corals that are commonly kept.

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

depends on what kind of led strips they are. alot of the led strips will not support sps. they are made more or less for supplemental lighting. in order to grow sps, they should be 3 watt cree leds or equivelant. you need to supply more info for help. if you do regular water changes, you should be okay. water quality is very important for sps. as your sps grows more and gets bigger, you may need to supplement calcium and other trace elements. you may want to start with some less expensive corals like birdnest or montipora and see how that grows. hth.

I already know the lighting isn't enough/not sufficient enough for sps, so I am asking what some of you guys would use for lighting because i was thinking of saving up for a ecotech radion and I'm sure I would only need 1 of those. Also for supplementing are you talking in the forums of setting up dosing pumps and what not? I also do water changes every other week. Also what is a good brand for testing supplies and which ones should I buy?

 

[Chyendra]

For SPS, I would say the most important things to be testing for are Alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, and probably phosphate and nitrate too.
I prefer the Salifert brand testing kit for calcium, magnesium and nitrate. I think the Hanna checkers are great for Alkalinity and low range phosphate.

If I were to pick most imporant monitoring tool for keeping SPS i would pick Alk because I've found that my SPS didn't start to color up and thrive until I had stabilized my Alk levels with dosing two-part or kalk solution.

 

[Soy]

get a automatic dosing pump and use esv b-ionic for ca and alk and does magnesium once a week. no need to add any more supplements if you do weekly waterchange

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

Current List of things to get

JBJ A.T.O. - Automatic Auto Top Off System Water Level Controller

Salifert Calcium Aquarium Test Kit

Salifert Nitrate Aquarium Test Kit

Salifert Magnesium Aquarium Test Kit

Hanna Checker Alkalinity Colorimeter

BRS 2 Part Doser (1.1 mL Per Minute)- is this good enough?

EcoTech Marine Radion XR30w LED Light Fixture (Unless you guys have better recommendations for LED lighting)

Another Ecotech MP10 or just a Mp40

CT-NS-APEX
Neptune Systems APEX
Aqua Controller
Select pH Probe: : Standard Grade

E.S.V. B-Ionic 2-Part Calcium Buffer 2 gal Concentrate (1gal each bottle)

E.S.V. B-Ionic Magnesium 1 Gal



Anything else I am missing?

 

[Chyendra]

That's a great list!
I don't know much about the apex controller, but you probably won't need the JBJ ATO if you have a controller. You will just need some float switches to connect to your controller and a pump of some sort to add RO water. I use my RKL to control ATO.

I hear great things about the B-Ionic system, but many folks on here, including myself use the BRS two-part which is basically Randy's recipe. It's cheaper and seems to work great for everyone. Just another option.

The BRS dosing pumps are great, I just got one myself and I love it! 1.1ml/min is perfect for two part.

You'll get mixed opinions on whether to get another MP10 or an MP40 so I'll leave that up to you.

I can't help you on the lighting, I've always been a metal halide girl myself. Be sure to post pictures of your success with LEDs once you get everything set up.

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

That's a great list!
I don't know much about the apex controller, but you probably won't need the JBJ ATO if you have a controller. You will just need some float switches to connect to your controller and a pump of some sort to add RO water. I use my RKL to control ATO.

I hear great things about the B-Ionic system, but many folks on here, including myself use the BRS two-part which is basically Randy's recipe. It's cheaper and seems to work great for everyone. Just another option.

The BRS dosing pumps are great, I just got one myself and I love it! 1.1ml/min is perfect for two part.

You'll get mixed opinions on whether to get another MP10 or an MP40 so I'll leave that up to you.

I can't help you on the lighting, I've always been a metal halide girl myself. Be sure to post pictures of your success with LEDs once you get everything set up.

For the 2 part that you are talking about is this the one that you are talking about http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store...n/two-part-calcium-and-alkalinity-kit-1.html?

 

[Chyendra]

Yup that's it. I bought the starter kit to begin with. Because I wanted the jugs and pumps but you won't need that.
And you can buy larger quantities as well if you look in the separate Alk and Ca sections.

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

Yup that's it. I bought the starter kit to begin with. Because I wanted the jugs and pumps but you won't need that.
And you can buy larger quantities as well if you look in the separate Alk and Ca sections.

Alrite well thanks but besides dosing calc, and Alk is there anything else i should be dosing for?

Also besides dosing should I be running anything else besides a protein skimmer (runs 24/7)

 

[Chyendra]

Some people use a reactor like the TLF phosban reactor or BRS reactor to run GFO. You could wait and see if water changes will be enough to keep your phosphates down and add a GFO reactor later.

Personally, I use TLF phosban reactor and BRS GFO which runs 24/7

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

Ahh ok so basically you saying running GFO all depends on how my phosphates are while the tank runs and if water changes don't do it consider adding one? Also my Phosphates should be extremely low?

 

[Chyendra]

That's right, GFO absorbs phosphate dissolved in the water. SPS are more sensitive to high phosphate levels than soft corals. Water changes might be enough to take care of it, but I think the majority of people end up using some kind of phosphate binder, GFO being the most popular. I think the general rule of thumb is to have phosphate at <0.03 but some people keep slightly higher levels without problems.

Besides an Alk supplement, calcium, and magnesium, I don't recommend any other dosing.

 

[Mr.Ghostly]

that seems reasonable enough for dosing and what thanks very much