Where to get basic info on NPS?

[lotusstar]

Hey everyone, I've kept mostly soft corals but am looking at setting up a new tank in the future and trying to do some research. I know very little of NPS other than amazing pictures of dedicated NPS tanks I've seen. I was wondering if there are any other sites, books, articles or readings I can be directed to for more information on the basics of these tanks. Lighting requirements, fish compatibilities, skimmer needs, dosings? (just food? or cal / alk also?) water change necessities. I don't jump into things quickly, more of a methodical researcher so I'm at the beginning stages and would like to absorb as much info as I can as to make the right decisions the first time in product purchases and if these are the types of tanks I'd really like to care for, or just keep looking at pics online and go for a different type of ecosystem. Thanks!

 

[CuttleKid]

Unfortunately there are not any books on these corals and very few articles. I was in the same spot you are in 2 years ago while I was setting up my very own non photosynthetic coral tank. I would highly recommend reading over aquabacs tank build as well as uhuru's build thread. I am not currently keeping any nps corals now but have plans in the near future. I used to have a nps reef. It was by far my favorite tank as well as the most frustrating. I had a 34 gallon solana that I used for it. It was a great tank but I made the mistake of not uprgrading the skimmer. My tank eventually crashed but I am certain it would still be running today if I just inversted in a better skimmer. What I did for feeding was purchase a couple auto fish feeders from petco and filled them with
Fauna Marin gorgonian, ultra clam and another one I cant think of right now but will get back to you. I timed them so they would feed throughout the day and it worked just fine for all my gorgonians. It did not work with my dendronephthyas and scleronephthyas. I would highly recommend this method if you want to keep gorgonians, crinoids, chili corals, and any azoox
Lps corals. Forfurther reading I would check out uhuru's TOTM and NTOTM. As well as PanNatans TOTM. If toy have any questions we are all her to help.

Good luck!

 

[lotusstar]

Awesome James thanks for the advice. I think I remember seeing Uhuru's NTOTM at one point. I will look up the build threads you mentioned, I'm sure they will afford me with lots of answers and even more questions. But as a kick off point, thanks very much!

 

[smsreefer]

search "Azoox "
that will bring up what you are looking for...

 

[velvetelvis]

You might also want to check out the "sticky" threads at the top of this forum. There's one that identifies the most commonly kept NPS corals and their care here.