SPS Emergency Nursery Care

[DawgDiggity]

Aight, got some thoughts for a new program. There are a lot of newbies just like me who buy things on impulse. Including expensive, hard to keep SPS. For example just this past weekend I found this good sized hydnophora coral for $25. The first 3-4 days an SPS does great in my tank then inevitably digresses to a bleach white bone piece to be thrown into my GSP graveyard. I change a few things, then try again with the same results.

In this particular case I have the right lighting (maybe too bright), but extremely high nitrates (canister and no sump, fuge) and temp swings (old rental window unit). Not ideal conditions for SPS.

So my thought is this. Is there a veteran willing to nurse this hydnophora in their display, frag,..? tank until I get my parameters up to par and stable. Purchasing the right equipment, make adjustments could take 8 weeks, to a year, to just letting go completely of keeping SPS in my current setup??

I'll leave it to some varsity players to define a fair tradeoff for caring/nursing corals, but as a JV reefer I hate watching these beautiful corals (hydnophora, cali-tri, blue tort, bird's nest, scrolls, milli) take a dive when their is nothing within my limited system that I can do.

Reasoning behind a program like this is that I, in particular, can be a slow learner coupled with the fact that I have to touch the stove to know it is hot. I will make adjustments and keep trying. Giving these corals away to be nursed is a way of keeping these great corals in the club.

 

[crumbletop]

I can't care for it, but I can offer some tips.

Alkalinity is pretty important, as is pH. It is my guess that your alk level is what is making the corals bleach -- although I don't know what your actual alk is. You want your pH between about 7.9 and about 8.4. You want your alk around 2.5 - 3.5 meq/l. You mention high nitrates, so phosphates may also be high. Phosphates also freak sps out, so that may also be the reason for the bleaching.

Also, when you acclimate your corals, how do you do it? I drip acclimate mine using a piece of airline tubing. I temp acclimate first by floating the bag, then I drip acclimate, then I dip it, and then transfer to the tank. The whole process gets the new coral "used" to your pH, alk, ca, etc, and takes me about 45 minutes.

 

[fallinapart]

Dawg, you are welcome to park them in my frag tank for a while, but then I don't guarantee corals either. I haven't lost any recently, but just wanted to offer the frag tank if you need it. I'm in Murfreesboro if no one in Nashville is able to do that for you.

Norman

 

[DawgDiggity]

Thanks Norman. I sent a PM to Mikey, who offered to take the milli off of my hands. Thanks for the feedback Jack. I am extremely close to having a completely new setup built. Hopefully with a larger volume of water there will be a greater opportunity for the natural nitrogen cycle to take place. I would hate to try and create as close to a natural system as possible and for the addition of refined chemicals to always be the answer a problem of balance.

That is why I want to have a sample of some major biotopes connected as one unit.

But the purpose of this thread is really about newbies to this whole process of making continuous mistakes in learning a personal style. You don't have to be afraid of making mistakes. If something isn't working in my aquarium today I can trade a difficult coral piece to a veteran for some zoas, or rics.... that are just as beautiful, unavailable at a Local Fish Store.

This hobby is expensive enough without killing a $60 coral, or 5,6 $20 corals just because I'm learning my tank is not in balance like my test kits say. It doesn't have to be a mistake when I give back to the reef community to be placed in an established system for care.

 

[DawgDiggity]

I may be projecting a little bit. I am still in the process of getting to know people. This hobby with all the equipment, plumbing, lighting, reefsafe and non reefsafe fish, corals tha need low light, SPS that need high light and specific water parameters is intimidating.

I work in residential construction and tap into water mains, sewer main for some of our projects. I can run new supply and waste lines through an entire house, plumb and trim all fixtures. Even after hours of researching tanks builds in the Large Reef Forum, I still don't have a good read on plumbing standards for a tank. It is very easy to be exclusive once you've learned a few things.


this is just a longwinded roundabout way of not knowing how to ask MTRC for help. Its probably just me

 

[platax88]

Dawg, i just recently (~1 year) started keeping sps corals after way long time in the hobby and i am having great success.

As crumbletop stated, Alk, Nitrates(up for debate) and Phosphates are the biggies to watch for, but also a rock-solid parameters are a must (like temperature) Here are some tips of how i have met these requirements.

<b>1. Up the flow.</b> As much as you can! this can be done cheaply by some maxi-jets 1200 and THESE MODS from Sea-Flo.

<b>2. Use kalkwasser.</b> Once your Alk and calcium levels are properly balanced, the kalk will maintain them. I only check alk and calcium params once a week now and they have been rock solid with the use of a kalk reactor. You can drip it but i have found that the kalk reactor fed by my ATO is godsent. I fill it once a month with Mrs. Wages and forget about it! You can find them in the selling forum or make yourself one out of PVC pretty cheap.

<b>3. Get yourself a phosban reactor and run Phosban.</b> This will ensure that you have no phosphates and still be able to feed your tank properly.

<b>4. Run carbon.</b> This is another one with mixed opinions, but i am a believer I run it 24/7 in yet another phosban reactor. This will keep your water clear allowing more light to penetrate and remove any chemicals released by other corals. I believe that carbon has allowed me to keep a mixed reef.

I understand that you don't run a sump so i would suggest you ditch the canister and instead daisy chain two phosban reactors which will hang on the back. Just feed them with a small maxi-jet, you just need around 30 gph. Also drop a pair of maxi-mods in there.

Why are you having temp swings? Heaters should be able to keep it warm enough and if you are having troubles with the heat just get yourself some fans to blow right on the water. I run 3 x 250 MH and manage heat effectively with just fans keeping my house at ~78 degrees.

What kind of N03 readings are you getting? The new school of thought now says that 10 - 15 ppm on nitrates are actually good for sps.

To be honest, i think you need to invest a little more on the equipment before buying another piece of coral. I know its hard to do, but trust me and learn from my mistakes.

Can you give us more info on your system?

 

[crumbletop]

For the plumbing it would probably be best to stand in front of a tank and talk it through. I've plumbed a bunch of tanks and it is kind of hard to describe well. There are lots of little considerations, but all in all it is still relatively simple. I hear you on the learning curve. There are so many factors to consider and you do learn a lot from trial and error. When I first plumbed my tank I think I redid things several times. For my tank I basically wanted the fewest bends in the return line so I put my return section right under the bulkheads (I have a tank with a single overflow). I then routed the drain to the far side of the tank. I use 3/4" stuff on my return, and I think 1 1/4" on my drain. I have several ball valves and unions in there to make adjustments easy. Unions are a must

Don't use a check valve. This is my opinion -- but I don't think they are necessary if you plumb things right. I have my return pump outlet in the tank just about an inch or so under the water, and have designed the sump baffles, etc, such that any backflow through the return line in the event of a power outage will be fully contained by the sump. Some people drill small siphon break holes in the return line close to the surface of the aquarium that accomplishes the same thing.

Anyway, I'm sure that doesn't really help much. It really does help to talk through a setup when standing in front of a tank. At least I'm kind of spatial/visual so that is what helps me.

 

[crumbletop]

oh -- and all of this is just friendly advice I for sure have made lots of mistakes along the way, so folks shouldn't feel bad about that. We are all here to help out

 

[waynesworld]

One thing I think everyone that is going to set up a tank should do is a tour of tanks and see how 10-20 other people do it and then start planning. You should either go slow and plan or budget 3x the money. I went the later the first couple of times now I am learning to be patient.