Why do SPS need "aged" tanks?

[Lebowski_]

I have a reef with softies, LPS and a few SPS, all are thriving. I was going to upgrade the tank, and then use the tank they are in to start a fresh, clean, dedicated SPS tank.

For live rock, I was considering going with some dry rock - maybe the Caribsea stuff. However, I've seen it referenced on various forums that you want to wait until your tank is X months old before you add SPS.

I am a bit confused why that matters when Nitrate and Phosphate can be tested and managed, and ammonia is a non-issue in a tank with just coral.

 

[griss]

IMO, that, "rule" is more for newer hobbyists. It's to make sure they have a firm grasp on tank maintenance, water parameters and, also, to ensure the cycle is complete.

In our old house, I had a 200 gallon SPS (mostly Acros and Montis) dominated reef. When we moved to our current house many years ago, I was fortunate. The seller agreed to let me hook up my RODI and fill a 300 gallon stock tank in the basement before we closed a week or two before we closed. So, on moving day, I had 300 gallons of recently mixed saltwater, heated and circulated ready to go. We only moved a mile so, all I did was take all the live rock and livestock from the 200 and moved it to the 300. No issues at all.

 

[Big E]

This is one of those reef myths. As long as you have some seasoned rock you can put acros in your tank within a week.

In this respect I'm talking about one or two pieces. The rest can be dry rock.

There is also no need to add bottled bacteria. A few fish are more important for ammonium and phosphate.

 

[Timfish]

It's considerably more accurate to say certain species/genotypes need specific, healthy microbiomes to survive. That is rarely possible to achieve in a day as pointed out in Delbeek and Sprung's first book since good quality wild live rock is pretty difficult to source nowadays. Maricultured rock is a decent substitue and I'll aboput a 50/50 mix with some water and sand from an established tank and add fiah and easy corals within 24 hours. It really has nothing to do with nitrates or phosphates and Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) is a much bigger player in providing healthy or unhealthy microbiomes. (And FWIW ammonia and urea from fish are corals favorite form of nitrogen and fish poop is an important part of the carbonate cycle.) The whole notion of using dry rock or rock with just basic nitrifying bacteria added is one of the major tragedies to happen to reefing. Another tragedy is using colloqial terms like "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies" to deliniate an animals husbandry requirements is another. Also unfortunate is hardly anyone noted the observations published in J. E. N. Veron's books (now incorporated into the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences database) within a genus there are species that are cosmoplitan and species that are only found in association with other species of their own genus, clearly indicating a species specific requirements.

In reality the immune systems of animals varies significantly at the genotype level, the less ideal or pathogenic conditions one genotype of a species will brush off can kill every specimen of a different genotype of the same species. Additionally, it's been demonstrated corals can have "memories" of environmental conditions which throws another variable into the equation. Aquabiomics has some informative articles of particular note is their article on establishing healthy microbiomes.

Here's some additional links:

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas " This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC (carbon dosing) in reef ecosystems and how it can alter coral microbiomes. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems

Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes

Microbial view of Coral Decline

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont

BActeria and Sponges

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)
Maintenance of Coral Reef Health

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching
Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching / Curr. Biol., May 21, 2020 (Vol. 30, Issue 13)

DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome
Aquabiomics: DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome

Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"
What's up with phosphate? by Richard Ross | MACNA 2014

 

[T Diddy]

Like others have said, there are a lot of factors to consider, but the main thing is stability…something that is hard to maintain in a new tank with little to no biodiversity, and constantly changing water chemistry. It can certainly be done though. I jumped back into the hobby on a whim after a ten year hiatus…literally ordered some coral frags online (including acropora) late last year and I didn’t even have water in the aquarium when I placed the order. All of them are still alive, but it’s not something I’d recommend for the inexperienced aquarist.

 

[shred5]

If you are talking new everything like dead rock and sand etc. It can be done but it is far harder especially without any losses.
I have been in the reef hobby around 35 years and my latest tank was set up with 100 percent dead rock and sand. I went through a nasty 5 months or so algae bloom that certainly would have made it hard to keep sps without them being smothered. Could I have done it ? probably, but it was far easier to use starter corals for the first 6-8 months. It meant far less work this way too. I didn't have to worry or remove algae from around the corals to keep them from getting smothered. I just sit back added some grazers and let nature do its thing and eventually it burned itself out. One thing I learned in all these years is patience.

Reef aquariums are not stable in the beginning and they are adapting to fish loads, they are building up bacteria and nitrification. Water chemistry can fluctuate. Rocks can be leeching stuff or binding stuff. Most SPS are just more sensitive and sensitive to environmental changes. They just require more attention than allot of the other corals.

I think the biggest issue I see is people panicking because their corals do not look good or are dying and you find out their tank is not even 6 months old.

Back in the day you did not have these issue with liverock because it came with all the bacteria already especially if it was already cured rock. If it was fresh live rock you had to cure it because of some die off..