SPS Placement

[Scubajoe1]

So this topic is quite the vague topic because when many people are asked about coral placement for SPS I often see..."oh I keep my coral about 2/3 of the way down in the tank" or it likes moderate or hight light....well at least comment for the second one I can assume moderate to high is probably in the range of 250-500 par. I don't like the first comment because 2/3 of the way down on my tank may be 300 par while someone else tank it can be 75 par.

I was curious how most people handle this and if they get a new coral do you typically start low and move it up gradually and see where the sweet spot is? How do you determine when it's happy? Poly extension and good color?

Most of my SPS are pretty happy but one blue tenuous (sp?) lightened up a but and the tips did not become white yet but they did turn a little brown and just stopped growing at the tips. Some algae is now on the tips giving it a darkish color but the rest of it looks a bit light in color from when I got it. I am thinking that this was approaching burning of the tips so I just moved it down last night. and switched up location of a couple others that did not seem to be growing. Not sure if they need high or low light so I fragged into two and am trying both to see what happens.

I also have a bonsai that looks happy at the base but similar experience with the tips....I moved this one down as well.

Should I trim the tips off as well?

I am using radions pro gen 3 and T5s and I think one drawback of many LEDs if the spotlight effect you get. I am purchasing the other lenses than will give me a 120 degree spread on these light which should make it more even in terms of par across the tank. Currently I can measure the par 6" under the water and one spot may be 450 while 6 inches over and at the same depth it can be 250 par.

I will also be measuring par at the different locations of all of my SPS and the tank in general and recording that along with a picture of the coral to see what happens over a few months.

So if anyone would like to chime in on the questions sprinkled throughout I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Please refrain from the side debate of LEDs, T5s and metal halides if you can.

thanks

Joe

btw parameters are all good and stable. nitrates about 1 ppm, phosphates 0.06, Ca 450, alkalinity 9.5, salinity 1.025, Mg 1300,

 

[markalot]

I'm not sure the tip problem is light related, but it could be. One challenge with SPS is that there's not a single simple answer for some of the problems. Dead tips can be Alk burn, too much flow, someone nipping at them, or something else. Most of my tip loss has been due to Alk spiking, in my case because PO4 spiked and I didn't monitor Alk close enough as growth and usage slowed.

As far as PAR and light cycles, Big E suggested I read this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature Good stuff!

Try and keep PAR at or below 400 for all the acros. In my limited experience I've added some acros that do well in bright light immediately and others that need acclimation. It all depends on the conditions they were growing under when you got them.

In my opinion anyway. Keeping SPS is, unfortunately, not an exact science yet.

In my personal experience health has greatly improved in all my acros since reducing my light cycle and raising the lights so 400 is the max PAR for any acro.

 

[Scubajoe1]

Thanks for the article. Interesting reading. I do understand that Alk swings will kill SPS but I probably measure it every two days....sometimes twice a day just to see how much gets used up in a day since I am dosing BRS soda ash. I used to have it lower when I was running biopellets about Alk of 7-7.5 but since I removed them I have gradually increased it to about 9.5 over the course of a couple months. I have some pics of the whole coral and then a close up. Will try and make a collage and see if I can get that posted.

 

[markalot]

Thanks for the article. Interesting reading. I do understand that Alk swings will kill SPS but I probably measure it every two days....sometimes twice a day just to see how much gets used up in a day since I am dosing BRS soda ash. I used to have it lower when I was running biopellets about Alk of 7-7.5 but since I removed them I have gradually increased it to about 9.5 over the course of a couple months. I have some pics of the whole coral and then a close up. Will try and make a collage and see if I can get that posted.

9.5 KH is too high if you are running lower nutrients (low PO4 and NO3) and many people claim it will lead to burnt tips. Any reason you want to run Alk that high? Keep in mind there's no way of knowing if Alk is the actual issue here, just something to consider.

 

[Scubajoe1]

Low nutrient vs. ULNS

Low nutrient vs. ULNS

Most people I have talked to tend to run around 8-9.5. I may eventually drop to about 8.5 or so. I do not have an ultra low nutrient system where I cannot detect either phosphates or nitrates. I had that when I was running so and biopellets and GFO and a low alkalinity of 7 and I was starving the corals. Now I have about 0.06-0.08 ppm phosphates and around 1-2 ppm nitrates.