Frustrated With SPS

BigH55

BigH55

I'm that guy
Hey guys, this will be my fourth attempt at keeping SPS corals. Ive had pretty bad luck in the past, but im going to give it another try. I do weekly water changes, 20 gal in my 110, keep calcium at 480-500ppm and keep the ALk @ 9-10. I seems like the only thing I can get to grow is a damn Monti. Any tips? Also, im running GFO and Carbon and have a Octo 200 extreme with the Red Demon needle Wheel. For flow, im running a K7, 2-K4's and 2 MJ1200's hidden in the rockwork. The return is a mag 9.5. For lighting, im running 2-250 MH 14k Pheonix bulbs. I think im covering all the bases but, i never seem to make acros live.
 
Some people really know what they are doing, my last go around, i kept a neon birdsnest and an acro for about 6 months and then it went to crap. When my big purple monti colony bit it, I called it quits.
 
HMMM

Whats your PH,salinity,and temp?
How often are you having to dose to keep the calcium and alkalinity where its at?
Magnesium level?

The key to acros is stability.
If your having to dose for calcium and alkalinity,figure out what you need to dose daily to keep it stable.
 
thats tough man. If anyone should be killing sps, it's me! Your equip is great, sounds like your calc and alk is good. My alk is never over 8, and have very few deaths. I noticed that buying colonies seems to be less successful than starting with just a frag, which I think is due to the frag growing into your flow conditions, where the colony grew under probably totally different flow than yours. Keep at it, you'll get it eventually.
Hows your phosphates? that was my biggest acro killer last year, 0.5ppm
 
My test kit reads 0 but i know there are some. Ive got the daily dosing about right now so ill see how it goes. It seems like SPS require daily attention unlike LPS. Now that i am committed to it, we'll see how it goes from here. I have managed to keep a 3 in acro alive for a month now. It has brown some, but it is alive. The Montis are coming back,but the older parts are UGLY. Im thinking of fragging the tips and starting them from there. It may be the dimensions of the tank. I have a 110 tall and getting the flow set up right is a complete pain in the butt.
 
this is where i can finnialy help someone. first here are some quick tips, sps growth and health is highest at salanity 1.024 and 1.025. your aklalinity is good but i would recoment possably bringing youre calcium below 450. 450 to 400 is purfect. temp can not be allowed to change more than a maximum of 2 degrese f in 24 hours. between 78 and 80 is purfect temp for acros plus they need to be fed zooplankton. what makes the sps so hard is most corals need good conditions and a relativitly stable water conditons...acros need really good conditons and really stable water conditions. great healthy acros dont come over night it takes time and compasion, the reason most hobbiest stick to soft corals and lps corals. i wish you the best of luck and rember... it dosent come over night. i spent 2 months correcting a calcium and aklinity problem for my sps's keepsake. trust me that got frustrating too. and i spend 2 hours a day on my acros, thats how much i love em. hopfully u will too.
 
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SPS = Stability Promotes Success
That ^^^ is the hardest part. You need to figure out how much of what you need to dose, if anything, to keep your parameters from jumping around. Your calcium is a little high, but it won't hurt anything at that level...won't help anything either. I would suggest letting it drop to around 400-420 and try to keep it there. What brand salt do you use? Your alk looks good. I keep mine right around 9 dKH. How often do you change out your GFO? Have you tested magnesium?
 
I have been able to keep SPS in my nano but not in my main tank. I have a 75 w hqi on my 10 gallong nano. And I do a 20 percent water change every week. But dose very rarely with calc and dkh during the week. But stability is the key to keeping sps.
 
Big I'm in the same boat as you. I have one little piece 1" long that grew out of a dead piece. I've had it about 6 months now, and that is the last SPS I have tried.

I went to a LFS last night and the owner told me that everyone was keeping SPS now without any problems at all. He said I shouldn't be afraid that they weren't hard to keep at all. I left feeling like a complete loser. :(
 
I have the 110 tall also, Big. I have 2 modded K4's, a rio 2600, and a k2. Still not enough flow. Like Yote always says, you don't have too much flow til your sand is in suspension. ;)
I think flow is almost equally important to SPS health as calcium/dkh/mag levels and stable salinity. If the gunk doesn't get blown off them regularly, they die quickly.
 
Im adding a modded MJ1200 tonight. Im thinking of sucking all my sand out and going bare bottom so I can get ALOT of flow thru the bottom without making a storm.
 
dcantucson said:
Big I'm in the same boat as you. I have one little piece 1" long that grew out of a dead piece. I've had it about 6 months now, and that is the last SPS I have tried.

I went to a LFS last night and the owner told me that everyone was keeping SPS now without any problems at all. He said I shouldn't be afraid that they weren't hard to keep at all. I left feeling like a complete loser. :(
Click to expand...

Well not everyone, I sure dont. People may be able to keep them alive, but I wont settle for a tank full of brown sticks. I have an image in my head and want to get there. Remember, the LFS guys are sales people.
 
Yeah any LFS owner that tells you anyone can keep sps is looking for a sale.
If you go BB, will you set up a fuge with a DSB to help reproduce the benefits of a sand bed but out of the display?
 
The sand bad in my tank is only enough to cover the bottom glass, maybe an 1" thick. I doubt there are many denitrifying effects.
 
Think of the microscopic animals they live in the sand though.
I may be way out in left field here,but I think that those microscopic bugs that live in the sand,help feed the SPS by reproducing.
Yeah,SPS likes a lot of light and non-nutrient rich water.But they also like to munch down on extremely small zooplankton.So IMO,getting rid of the sand bed,aint gonna help that much.Even a 1/2 inch deep sandbed will give zooplankton a place to live and breed.
 
I will always say that try and buy tank raised sps only they will take allot more punishment and have much nicer color.Wild colonies are allot harder to keep and as sps growers all know they tend to have much less color.I personally think this is why so many people cant keep sps Ive seen it time and time again.Wild sps in my opinion always seems to hold up for about 6 months to a year and then death.One thing to always remember is we are raising water not sps so of course you still have to keep your water levels correct.Just tank raised sps wont die off as easy when water parameters change.


Yes you pay more for tank raised{it will pay for itself in the long run} I cant even tell you the last time I actually payed for something for my reef tank my sps pays for it all.

Good luck and stay with it!!!!!!!
 

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