Sps pristine water needed???

[Ucantwin]

I am new at trying to grow sps coral. Everything I have read says they need "pristine" water. I always took that as 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate, but when I read about tanks that run Gfo and keep their nitrates at 0, they say their coral colors are brown or washed out. Once they started added nitrate their corals starting getting amazing color.

So, should I be aiming for this "pristine" water or be trying to have low nitrates?

 

[Hentz]

Aim for close to pristine!

The problem with people running with "pristine" water is a lot of the times the corals aren't being fed, hence why they're dull colored.

Look at ZEOvit, what I use. Its built to run a ULNS which usually would cause crap color in corals. Though while ZEOvit does just that, it also supplements food. Just enough to feed the corals and give them vibrant colors without causing nutrients to spike.

So I think the key success is to keep your water clean while feeding your corals, aside from stable parameters, proper lighting, and flow.

Having some nitrate is good IMO when it comes to coloring acros. I've seen a few people who run ULNS but dose a tad bit of nitrates to color up their acros.

 

[moatdaddy]

+1. Clean water with minimal nutrients. Balance of parameters matters.

 

[Member No. 1]

I am new at trying to grow sps coral. Everything I have read says they need "pristine" water. I always took that as 0 phosphate and 0 nitrate, but when I read about tanks that run Gfo and keep their nitrates at 0, they say their coral colors are brown or washed out. Once they started added nitrate their corals starting getting amazing color.

So, should I be aiming for this "pristine" water or be trying to have low nitrates?

By pristine water, my take is Ca 425-475 Alk 8-9 dKh Mg 1300-1400 Salinity 1.026-1.027, NO3 <5 mg/L PO4 <.02 ppm. But the most important key is to keep these as stable as possible.

 

[rovster]

Stable is better than pristine. As long as it's not toilet water they'll be fine. Most of the best SPS tanks run a high import high export model. Stripping the water of nutrients and feeding sparsely will not yield positive results.

 

[scar79]

I think the notion of the "pristine water" requirement comes from a time when achieving said water parameters was actually a challenge. Nowadays, with biopellets, oversized skimmers, high&random internal flow, it is fairly simple (although not inexpensive) to get there. The new challenge is achieving those target parameters and maintaining them.