Thinking about an SPS dominant tank in the basement

[pdiehm]

I have a 29 gallon biocube upstairs, that is going to be mostly lps and softies, with some sps. It's really my wife's baby, but I do the upkeep. That tank is a bit challenging as it's smaller, but all the parameters are pretty much in check, particularly for the lps/softies. Nitrates are under 10, PO4 is under 0.03, though I had a small spike to 0.04, Salinity is at 35ppt, with 25 lbs of marco rocks, tropic eden reef flakes, an aquamaxx hob-1, and an intank media rack with floss, purigen and chemi-pure elite.

Downstairs though, that's my baby. 120 gallon with 75lbs of Pukani rocks, bean overflow, aquamaxx EM200 skimmer, maxspect gyre at 60% short pulses. I have a photon 48 LED sitting about 15" over the water surface. Thinking about getting a 2nd one and alternating the pulses.

Anyhows, the parameters are real good. 0 nitrates, 0 phosphates. I'm topping off with 1.026 water to bring my salinity up from 1.021 to 1.026. With this tank being in the basement, I have plenty of room for a dosing container and such, if and when it would get to that point.

So I'm thinking about really making this an sps tank, but I'm not quite sure where to start, or which sps corals to get. I have been advised to stay away from acropora as they are a bit more strict in terms of water fluctuations.

 

[Bpb]

Do you have any nuisance algae? If not, and you truely have zero nitrate and zero phosphate that will make sps corals incredibly difficult. Water that gets too sterile will starve and bleach them in a hurry. If you really want to go sps dominant I'd consider purchasing a high end calcium reactor and necessary components just so you're ready if things go well. Start with stuff like montipora, birdsnests, and stylophora. That'll be to test the waters. If your colors are good and growth is good, then I'd start removing those gradually and replace with acropora. Be advised...the world of sps, acropora specifically, has a lot more pests that can be a lot harder to deal with than soft corals and Lps. A quarantine tank will be very helpful and stock up on dipping supplies. Bayer works well to knock off flat worms and interceptor works well for red bugs. I only say this because I have unfortunately lost a ton of acros recently to pests and I have no quarantine.

In general though, montipora seem to be the easiest of sps corals. Often times being easier to keep than a lot of Lps corals are

 

[pdiehm]

I don't have any algae at all. I can say that my NO3 and PO4 are 0 because the chaetomorpha that I have in the sump is turning brown and dying.

Having said that, I only have a pair of clowns in the tank, so my bioload is extremely small for a tank that size.

As for a QT for corals, it's not something I can due to a few reasons. 1) I don't have any lights on my QT tank for my fish, and 2) I don't have all that much more room for yet another tank

For the ones I have, I dipped in Revive after acclimating to temperature and put them in the tank. I was amazed at the critters that came off the zoanthids.

 

[adambom]

You can't really go wrong if you just try out a few small frags of sps corals that you like. Survival may not be great in a new tank, but at least you'll get an idea of what works in your tank and what doesn't. I wouldn't necessarily shy away from acros. I just wouldn't go out and spend $1000 on a whole bunch of colonies that may or may not make it. In a year's time your tank will likely have stabilized to the point that you'll be ready to go all in on acros (or whatever you've decided) if you want to try it. In the meantime, you can focus on dialing in on stability and controlling nutrients.

As for the 0 PO4/NO3, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Without running GFO your phosphates will steadily creep up. Phosphate and nitrate concentrations are very low in the ocean's reefs so the corals don't need much. IME you only start to get into trouble (STN, RTN) when you aggressively strip phosphates from the water using GFO and maintain a high alkalinity at the same time. Personally, I use GFO, but I've always used less than the recommended amount and I keep my alkalinity in the lower end of the range (6-8 dKH). Certainly not the only way, but it seems to work for me.

Good luck.