Whats the secret to sps

[alfcanes01]

HELLO All,
I need to know whats the secret to sps corals,i ve been in this hobby for about five years now and i what to start with some sps corals.i know having good water prmts & lighting is a must but theres is got to be more to it. i ve started with a brown monti for 3 weeks now but cant tell yet if it will live. i have a 75gal reef,wet dry and wave point lighting 216 total watts. any advance wld help!

 

[joncver]

Patience.

 

[planedoc]

If you are running 4 T5 bulbs you will have a hard time keeping them alive and they definitely won't thrive. I have a 75 with 2 ATI blue plus 1 purple plus and 1 ge 5500k day light. I can keep them alive in the top of the tank but they don't grow like they do in my other tank under leds.

 

[bskiba]

the cleanest water , best flow, strong lighting.

what it takes to keep sps is a well running system that doesn't store nutrients. you could use the waste water from most sps tanks to do water changes in a non sps tank.

That is the secret.

for your setup take a picture of your sump and we'll start from there. but there are a lot of ways to skin a cat.

with a 75 gallon tank
-you'd want about 3-4000 gallons per hour in random flow
-lighting will need to be 6 t-5 bulbs or more, halide's, or led's
-filtration a skimmer rated for 120 gallons or more. Gfo, carbon. many other ways but these are the easiest.

 

[alfcanes01]

199565[/ATTACH]Thanks 2 all,for the replys thought i share some pic's

 

[slapshot]

Stability!!

 

[bigbuckdown]

Stability is key.For me its reactors ie- calcium,kalk,po4 and carbon. Lighting schedule needs to be the same all the time and salinity so a ATO may be a must. Patience,QT,knowing you will lose some on the way so dont be discouraged and a kick arse skimmer

 

[ebushrow]

following along on this one!

 

[alfcanes01]

1 more pic

 

[Reef_Knight]

I'm on the ride for this one. Today I was looking at my tank and I was thinking whether my sps have grown much in the last 6 months. Most are healthy other's have gone through their tough time. See what gets me is my water params are good. No nitrates, nitrites, no phosphates, ph 8.2, amonia 0.5 first time i see this fluctuate, and sal at 1.021-24 along with MH's 14k and ATI T5. I just wonder what else for that growth that people get sometimes in 3 months or in new tanks...I will be following along with this thread to hear different inputs of experience.:reading:

 

[dunk373]

Stability!!

most important!!

 

[Felixc395]

I think knowing your own system. Aquariums differ so much that only a few things apply for all tanks.

 

[Reefer1225]

An unhealthy obsession with sticks...

 

[Sosa29Reef]

^ lmao... Lots of good info in subscribed

 

[Whisperer]

Stability!!

Dedication.:spin3:

 

[javimarino]

tagging along.

plus:
I have about a dozen new frag of sps from trades and except for two, all of them color up and seems like growing. Saw two a bite bleach today, check calcium and found out it was way low 380 ppm. I added brigthwell's calcium, I'm going to wait to check again. I dose kalkwrasser about two times a week. what would be the ideal calcium level to have for sps? (I usually have about 420ppm) how much kalkwasser do you dose?

 

[javimarino]

An unhealthy obsession with sticks...

lol, very funny and probably true.

 

[BillyC]

Secret to sps you ask?

If I tell you I have to kill you.

 

[sweet ride]

Learn from your mistakes!!! This is why I have a successful SPS system, at least from my point of view.

 

[ShaunMonahan]

+1 patience, stable and consistent water param's, low nutrients, high flow and quality light.

It's not really a secret, but the above is a requirement and not the exception for sps corals