2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

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Author Topic: Advice to grow SPS  (Read 1117 times)

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Offline SaltLife

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Advice to grow SPS
« on: August 04, 2020, 15:23:30 »
I need some advice to grow sps. I can grow softies and sea anemones like nobody's business, but I fail miserably with hard coral sps. Any advice as to what I need to add/subtract/modify to start growing these in a decent manner? Lights? I have new LEDs and I have a calcium reactor. What parameter should I look at to see if I am capable of growing hard corals? I've had mixed success in the past, but I recently tried again and failed.

Thanks
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Offline Fishfreak

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2020, 19:33:16 »
I've been working very hard to successfully keep SPS alive and well. The biggest thing imo is lots of flow and keep it simple and stable. Pick a alk and stick with it. I run mine at 8.5, calcium at 420-450 and mag at 1350-1440. My nitrates are kind of high at 25 but have never been an issue, I would like them to be closer to 5-10 but I dont stress over it since the corals look good. My phosphates are around .05 on a hanna checker. I also run LEDs (Radions G4 Pro) on my tank with T5s.

Offline Keith92

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2020, 21:21:21 »
Keeping nitrates and phosphates low is crucial. The toughest thing about a mixed reef is that the soft stuff will thrive in what we would call dirtier water than the SPS like to live in. Since adding more eps and lowering nitrates and phosphates the LPS are not thriving like they were but the spa is doing well.

Offline andys1982

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2020, 14:57:07 »
Find the balance between light, alk, and nutrient.  Once you find it, do everything you can to keep all 3 pegged.

Offline SaltLife

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2020, 08:02:11 »
Thanks for the tips, please keep them coming. I want to start some sps corals soon, anyone have a suggestion for a hardy one(s) to start?
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Offline andys1982

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2020, 14:43:44 »
Usually the hardy ones are the cheap ones.  Birdsnest, pocillipora, and stylophora are all pretty easy.  Plenty of hardier montipora out there as well

Offline SaltLife

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2020, 16:23:30 »
What about lighting, is there a PAR range that do better for these types of coral?
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Offline Agame43

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Re: Advice to grow SPS
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2020, 23:16:41 »
Usually the hardy ones are the cheap ones.  Birdsnest, pocillipora, and stylophora are all pretty easy.  Plenty of hardier montipora out there as well

Andy , agree, I tell alot of new sps reefers to go with Bnest, Stylo, Pocillipora and one of my favorites is Tubbs Blue Steletta branching monti  - if you can figure this group out and keep them consistently then other SPS tend to fall in place, if you struggle with this group stay at it, figure out what is wrong and correct it or make changes and try again.  SaltLife If you need a piece of Pocilli or Tubbs I have plenty of both, let me know

 SaltLife: you ask about PAR, I can do 180 up to 450 depending on the SPS piece, I have one grow out rack at about 270 = 310 PAR and the other at 230 - 260 PAR in my frag tank. All of the advice listed above my post is true, start off with some easy pieces, you can spend money later on better stuff, monitor what folks have talked about NO3 PO4 ALK CAL Flow Light coverage/PAR, how old is the tank, new tanks do not do well with SPS.
 Cheers Rick

 

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