So what advice and what do you use, SPS dominate

[codydemmel4]

So I am setting up my 180 gallon, it is done cycling and I just added some fish. Powder Blue Tang, Yellow Tang, 1 green chromis and 2 clownfish. I will be adding some athias and probably some sort of bristletooth tang down the line. I want my tank to SPS dominated, obviously I am not ready yet and I am waiting for the tank to be established probably for at least another 6 weeks before I add any SPS.

The main question I have is what is the main advice you can give someone who is starting from the beginning? Also what all do you guys use to take out all the fish shi* from the tank, so how do you keep your phosphates and nitrates low. Right now I have a reef ocotopus skimmer rated for 250 gallons, refuge with cheato and also have a GFO going. I am wondering what else the main SPS reefs use. I will be dosing KH and Calc with my bubble magus dosing pump, I have a tunze ato. Obviously I am not dosing anything yet as I have no corals. Again the main questions I have are: What is a couple things of advice you can give to someone starting from scratch again and what equipment do you guys use to keep the tank clean.


My Tank Equipment: 180 DT with corner overflows, 40 gallon sump with middle refuge. Lights are a 60" 8 bulb ATI sunpower supplement with 2 blue reefbrites. I have a reef octopus sro xp2000 skimmer, have a gfo with only around 1 cup of GFO in it now. my return pump is a mag 18 that is wide open. I have 2 rw-20s (one in each back corner of the tank pointing towards the middle glass) and a gyre 150 on the middle on my back wall pointing up and to the center.


Thanks everyone and I am excited for the journey!

 

[bif24701]

Good start.

First, testing:
Make sure you have quality testing kits for the following, NOT OPTIONAL.

Calcium (I advise against Hanna, hard to use)
Alkalinity
Magnesium
Nitrate
Phosphate
Also study! Know by heart why these are important and their relationship to each other, the coral, and the zooxanthellae. BRS TV has a good video series on YouTube to help get you started.

Second controller. Neptune APEX is great, that's what I have. This helps maintain a stable environment for long term success and stability in water chemistry. Stability is maybe the most important part of it.
With this install an automatic top off (ATO) system. Also have safeties built in to alert you of problems and shut off equipment is something wrong is detected.

Research Nitrate and phosphate control and Purchase a quality RO/DI unit for top off water and water changes.


And I'm sure others can add to this, to help get you started.


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-(Now-Reality)

 

[codydemmel4]

Good start.

First, testing:
Make sure you have quality testing kits for the following, NOT OPTIONAL.

Calcium (I advise against Hanna, hard to use)
Alkalinity
Magnesium
Nitrate
Phosphate
Also study! Know by heart why these are important and their relationship to each other, the coral, and the zooxanthellae. BRS TV has a good video series on YouTube to help get you started.

Second controller. Neptune APEX is great, that's what I have. This helps maintain a stable environment for long term success and stability in water chemistry. Stability is maybe the most important part of it.
With this install an automatic top off (ATO) system. Also have safeties built in to alert you of problems and shut off equipment is something wrong is detected.

Research Nitrate and phosphate control and Purchase a quality RO/DI unit for top off water and water changes.


And I'm sure others can add to this, to help get you started.


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-(Now-Reality)

Thanks a lot Aaron. I have a hanna for phosphates but for the other tests I am just using salifert, I saw a lot of people suggesting Red Sea.

For the ATO: I have a Tunze ATO
For the RO/DI: I have a spectrapure 90 gpd



I have never used a controller and I was wondering how they are so needed and looked after, looks like I need to do more research on them.

 

[bif24701]

A controller is like a power bar, timer, monitor, wave maker, doser, alarm, battery back up and more all wrapped up into one. A controller is the difference between a 2 year successful system and a 10 year system. At some point something will fail how quickly you can react to if is key. With APEX and alarms you can be notified while at work or vacation if there is something wrong. This allows you to react before something dies. There is also a lot more. It is not necessary but extremely useful!

Red Sea Pro testers are great! I have several. Salifert testers are also good. You don't need duplicates. If you are unsure of accuracy have a LFS or friend test your water.

I would look to get a controller. Very useful.

That's a good ATO and RO/DI

Sounds like you need more studying than equipment, lol


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-(Now-Reality)

 

[codydemmel4]

A controller is like a power bar, timer, monitor, wave maker, doser, alarm, battery back up and more all wrapped up into one. A controller is the difference between a 2 year successful system and a 10 year system. At some point something will fail how quickly you can react to if is key. With APEX and alarms you can be notified while at work or vacation if there is something wrong. This allows you to react before something dies. There is also a lot more. It is not necessary but extremely useful!

Red Sea Pro testers are great! I have several. Salifert testers are also good. You don't need duplicates. If you are unsure of accuracy have a LFS or friend test your water.

I would look to get a controller. Very useful.

That's a good ATO and RO/DI

Sounds like you need more studying than equipment, lol


Aaron

180 Gallon Dream (Now Reality)
http://www.panhandlereefers.com/forums/index.php?/topic/14405-180-Gallon-Dream-(Now-Reality)

haha I definitely do have more studying to do but I wanted to see how my equipment looked and if it was a good start. I have done a lot of research and I had a SPS tank before but it was not full of acros and etc which I want to have now.

I would still appreciate any opinions and suggestions on someone starting new on what to do from the start and what they find most important.

It seems what I see that is most important is steady levels in the water, a little nutrients don't strip it completely and also lighting which I have covered.

 

[mic209]

Pest free corals, alkalinity stability and good quality RO/DI water are the 3 things I pay most attention too on my 99% Acropora system. I would recommend a dual DI setup to get all the impurities out of your tap water and a calcium reactor for Alkalinity and Calcium. In the past I've used dosing pumps with 2 part but I just switched to a calcium reactor 7 months ago and I love it. I find the calcium reactor a lot easier to dial in and use and you don't get the annoying calcium build up in the sump that 2 part gives you.

After those three, I would say lighting and flow would be next on the important list. Either good LED fixtures, T5 or metal halide. As for flow I like the strong laminar flow the maxspect gyre gives, seems as close to natural ocean flow you can get in an aquarium. If you go with powerheads, indirect random flow is what you want.

Lastly, keep phosphate and nitrate low, not zero but low. Last time I checked phosphate it was at .09 and my corals still look a little pale. I do nothing special to keep those in check, no GFO, Bio pellets or carbon dosing, just a good skimmer and a small water change every couple weeks or so. Also, another big thing with SPS, if you're not getting the results you want, making drastic changes to get the results you want can sometimes make things worse.





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[codydemmel4]

Pest free corals, alkalinity stability and good quality RO/DI water are the 3 things I pay most attention too on my 99% Acropora system. I would recommend a dual DI setup to get all the impurities out of your tap water and a calcium reactor for Alkalinity and Calcium. In the past I've used dosing pumps with 2 part but I just switched to a calcium reactor 7 months ago and I love it. I find the calcium reactor a lot easier to dial in and use and you don't get the annoying calcium build up in the sump that 2 part gives you.

After those three, I would say lighting and flow would be next on the important list. Either good LED fixtures, T5 or metal halide. As for flow I like the strong laminar flow the maxspect gyre gives, seems as close to natural ocean flow you can get in an aquarium. If you go with powerheads, indirect random flow is what you want.

Lastly, keep phosphate and nitrate low, not zero but low. Last time I checked phosphate it was at .09 and my corals still look a little pale. I do nothing special to keep those in check, no GFO, Bio pellets or carbon dosing, just a good skimmer and a small water change every couple weeks or so. Also, another big thing with SPS, if you're not getting the results you want, making drastic changes to get the results you want can sometimes make things worse.





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I greatly appreciate this insight, I thought you only need a calcium reactor if you have a ton of SPS.

Also does the calcium reactor keep both KH and Calc in place?

 

[Coralmassa]

Depending on how packed your tank becomes, many people choose calcium reactors over a liquid dosing setup due to the longevity of the media. I took care of a 150 with mostly lps and we were doing about 70 mls of alkalinity and about 35-50 mls of calcium every day. this meant we had to add liquid to the reservouirs every week. With a calcium reactor, once dialed in, it can last months until the co2 or media runs out. And yes, it does dose alkalinity as well, but some still need to supplement liquid alkalinity as well depending on uptake. I personally use a doser bc my tank is only 70 gallons. One thing every reefer eventually deals with are sps related parasites, so if you are planning on stocking up it would pay to have an inexpensive qt system to be absolutely sure there are no red bugs flatworms, or spiders. 10 or 20 gal tank with a heater, aquaclear filter, small powerhead, and a couple t5 tubes would be fine.

 

[xanthurum]

Stability is key. Keeps things stable and you will be fine. Coral QT is a must, flow, flow, flow and more flow. As for Nitrate and Phosphate control I do regular water changes and I have a display fuge.

Sounds like you know what you are doing so get to work

 

[codydemmel4]

Thanks a lot everyone.

One question I do have with the lights. What color combo do you guys use or would use for an 8 bulb

 

[jdm1114]

I would start the fixture 8-10" above the water surface and run the following:

BP
BP
CP
BP
PP
CP
BP
BP

Not right or wrong just my opinion/ preference.

 

[russ13]

I think stability is the most important thing in an SPS tank.


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