Whats your favorite method of SPS Husbandry?

[JB NY]

Good Thread Here;

but I dont like one thing. Alk 8-12 dKH. I'm sure most of us here understand that you can run a healthy tank within those parameters, but you might find a guy that posts, "my DKH is 8.3" and someone tells him to raise it to 11-12 DKH.

That's why I put 8-12dKH, if you tank is at 8 don't bother raising it, rather keep it stable.

Personally I believe that keeping alk closer to 8 dKH results in less problems in ones tank. But I know many, many people who kep it closer to 12 and have great results. With that in mind, I'm hard pressed to say that everyone should keep their alk at 8 dKH. I also find it almost impossible to keep that number when running a ca reactor. My alk runs between 9.6 and 10.2 dKH and I feel, for me, this is fine. I'm happy with it as long as I have it under 11.

Again stability is the key.

 

[Bomber]

Joe, while I'm thinking of it. Halimeda crashes too and has the same effect as Caulerpa when it does. When you harvest it, take the old part from the middle out. That seems to help.

 

[my2girls]

Joefish- excellent thread.

IMO stable water parameters are very important. Reducing nutrients help to improve color of corals and keep algae under control.

IMO lighting is the most important. Whether that means finding the right bulbs, or the right placement of corals as to receive the proper amount of light.

FWIW- I switched from XM 20K to Coralvue 14K and within 2 weeks a brown acro is turning purple and other acros are coloring up more. (I suspect it is due to the increase in PAR.)

 

[chwattscaw]

JB NY, I notice you use XM10K's, are these DE's?

I am thinking about upgrading my 250 Hamilton 14K's DE's to XM 10K DE's.

 

[mrpet]

thanks jb will ditch the caulerpa and dsb in the sump i think im going to try all the other zeo products and see how that goes.
what about the spaghetti macro keep it? also i had my sump custom made so that the flow runs slow through it guess i could throw a power head in there. should i leave the live rock in the sump as well or yank it? thanks jb

scott

 

[matt the fiddler]

Rock= good. jsut make sure it can be cleaned out at times to get the xtra poop and junk that falls below it in the sump


matt

 

[64Ivy]

Another long time BB proponent here. In addition to the already stated, (aggresive skimming, good flow, water changes and stability) I'm becoming a huge believer in simply leaving things alone. By this, I don't mean we shouldn't try to address an obvious problem, just that it's okay to NOT put your hands in the tank everyday.

Oh, and if you think doing less isn't husbandry, ask any wife.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Oh, and if you think doing less isn't husbandry, ask any wife.

:eek1: :lolspin:
Priceless. Thanks for the belly laugh, and tonight's smirk.

 

[tstone]

Oh, and if you think doing less isn't husbandry, ask any wife.

I wondered why I have had a successful reef AND a successful divorce.

:smokin:

 

[olemos]

Wouldn't it be a negative thing for pods making the refuge BB ?

 

[joefish]

Wouldn't it be a negative thing for pods making the refuge BB ?

Hey Octavio,

With no refugium and no sand in the tank , I have plenty of Pods .

 

[AcroSteve]

Some pictures from my tank.

Pretty hard to argue with these reults.

Great thread.

One thing I have not noticed is to double check your test kits with a different brand. I found my old alk test kit(seachem) was showing low readings when i recently switched to a Salifert kit. It was not a large difference, but I think it is significant and worth noting.

 

[JB NY]

Joe, while I'm thinking of it. Halimeda crashes too and has the same effect as Caulerpa when it does. When you harvest it, take the old part from the middle out. That seems to help.

Thanks, I'll do that. I've always tried to get as close to the root as I can when pulling it out.

Now if someone could find a way to get that stuff to grow I'd be interested.

 

[JB NY]

Joefish- excellent thread.

IMO stable water parameters are very important. Reducing nutrients help to improve color of corals and keep algae under control.

IMO lighting is the most important. Whether that means finding the right bulbs, or the right placement of corals as to receive the proper amount of light.

FWIW- I switched from XM 20K to Coralvue 14K and within 2 weeks a brown acro is turning purple and other acros are coloring up more. (I suspect it is due to the increase in PAR.)

I don't agree with the lighting statement. Lighting is important, but not nearly as important as people try to make it out to be. Water quality is the biggest factor IMO. You can get crazy coloration with a variety of lamps, anything from 10K to 20K (I've even see some nice colors form people with 6500K Iwasakis).

Get the water quality down and the rest will come.

JB NY, I notice you use XM10K's, are these DE's?

I am thinking about upgrading my 250 Hamilton 14K's DE's to XM 10K DE's.

I'm using SE lamps. I don't like the spread of the DE reflectors.

thanks jb
<snip>
should i leave the live rock in the sump as well or yank it? thanks jb

scott

Personally I don't like having the rock in there. Unless you are going to blow it off weekly it will collect lots of detritus. I had LR in the past in my refugium, I removed it for those reasons.

Not saying you can't, but I think it collects more junk that will cause problems (PO4) than the rock is worth.

AcroSteveI agree with you. Having one or more test kit is nice to have, I have both Ca and Mg kits from Salifert and Seachem that I use to periodically check to make sure they are in sync.

 

[Bomber]

Personally I don't like having the rock in there. Unless you are going to blow it off weekly it will collect lots of detritus. I had LR in the past in my refugium, I removed it for those reasons.

That was the main reason that people abandoned wet/drys. It's a nitrate factory.

 

[Bomber]

Whats your favorite method of SPS Husbandry?

Now that I actually have a minute.

My favorite method is the one that puts me in the drivers seat and puts me in control of what goes on in the system. One that does not rely on things that I do not have control over.

That's running what the hobby is calling barebottom.

 

[Tom Berry]

Bomber,

from previous statements, I gather that keeping Technicolor acros is not the focus of your current tank. If it were, would you do anything differently?

Tom:fish2:

 

[Bomber]

Tom

I have colors in the corals that I keep that are unheard of, and most have never been seen before in these colors.

No, I would not change a thing.

 

[Tom Berry]

Bomber,

It would be great to see your tank in person. I wasn't trying to say that you don't have any color, just that I don't see any neon blue, purple, pink etc. acros in your pics. I assume this is by choice.

I also recall you saying something about not starving the zooanthella (sp?) to get intense colors?

I believe the acros you keep are Atlantic species? Are they generally available, or do you need a permit or something to get them?

Tom:fish2:

 

[my2girls]

JB NY- You definitely have insane crazy coloration in your corals. That is my goal too. Right now my coloration is good, but not crazy. IMO my water is stable, but I will give it time.