sps requirements

[buddy08]

I want to start keeping sps corals in my tank, i've tried some in the past but i think it was mainly due to my lighting not being strong enough. since then, i have upgraded to led's and with optics, im pushing 600+ par at the top of my tank, mid 400is in the middle and 200s at the bottom. My alk is 10dkh, calcium is 400-440, mag is 1390. 0 nitrats, 0 phosphate and so forth. temp is 81 on average. I bought an ORA Mili sps and 2 caps the other day, caps look fine. the ORA was knocked over and half of it lost some of its color. i have reattached it and hopefully it will color back up but one thing i have noticed is the polyps arent fully extended. theyre about 1/4 of the way out (just enough for me to see them). is this normal? its at the top of my rocks in the 500-600 par range and about 4 inches away from direct stream of one powerhead. could it be to much flow? or not enough? what are the requirements of sps like acros and milis?

 

[Smitty]

Sounds like the perfect setup for sps's...just make sure you have lots of random flow (they love that). All your levels are spot on.

 

[Dana42078]

Steady params. Keep your hands out of your tank, and again STABILITY is huge! Just because you have good lighting doesnt mean you can grow sps.

Yes you can have to much flow. If its in direct flow it could stress it out and stunt its growth. Sure you want a high flow rate but if its being blasted 24/7 it can stress it. THis is from what ive read from others that only keep sps. GL

 

[Dana42078]

Also pix speak volumes as to your polyp extension and where its located acording to your flow and heighth Polyp extention.....what kind of milli is it...my rose milli isnt bushy, yet my green milli is extemely bushy....you sure it isnt fully extended? Handleing sps hurts the coral. Thats why when you transfer the sps to your LR you need to make it count. Ive lost a few pieces due to turbos knocking them down and me handling them multiple times. Also if you dont have gloves, Id get some.

 

[Jmck]

Now you have to learn how to dose. When you add in new sps it will drain calcium, alkalinity, magnesium and other elements. It comes down to you to find out how much they use in a 24 hour period and dose that daily to keep all parameters stable. That is the key with SPS .

It may be worth it to get a dosing pump but you have to be checking levels.

 

[Sir Alex]

Sounds like the perfect setup for sps's...just make sure you have lots of random flow (they love that). All your levels are spot on.

Is two 1600 GPH powerheads on a wavemaker + the 600-700 GPH return in a 75 gallon enough flow for sps?

 

[little_fish]

Adding SPS doesnt mean you must start dosing. You only dose if your tests show a need for it. So just start testing your calcium, alk and mag regularly. If you find your regular water change schedule doesnt keep your levels where you need them, then you dose.

 

[Smitty]

Is two 1600 GPH powerheads on a wavemaker + the 600-700 GPH return in a 75 gallon enough flow for sps?

It all depends on the positioning of the powerheads...but I would definetly think that's enough flow.

 

[Smitty]

Adding SPS doesnt mean you must start dosing. You only dose if your tests show a need for it. So just start testing your calcium, a lk and mag regularly. If you find your regular water change schedule doesnt keep your levels where you need them, then you dose.

True...having 1-2 sps corals probably won't need dosing, and weekly water changes will suffice, but you'd be surprised how fast a tank of a few sps's can drain your alkalinity and calcium. I dose alkalinity once a day and calcium once a week.

 

[buddy08]

Well, heres the best I can describe its journey to my tank. I bought it Tuesday and it looked fine in the store (well enough for me to buy it) and I took it home.Of course I handled it to glue it to a rock with superglue. The lady said she dips all her corals and acros because she doesn't want to lose her stock to red bugs so I trusted her and didn't dip it (shame on me). The glue didn't hold very well and came undone so I had to handle it a second time to reapply more glue. Everything seemed fine and to make sure my lighting was sufficient enough, I turned the leds up in brightness. I added the optics last week and it made such an increase in par levels that I had to turn the lights down to reacclimate the corals. I turned them down to 50% power but bumped them up to 75% to ensure the sps's are ok. I figured it may piss some lps corals off but they're healthy enough to adjust (so far so good). Came home yesterday and the mili was on its side and the side that was faced down lost some color. I think its a rose mili based on google searches, the lady called it an ORA Mili. It's a magenta pink with a maroon red at the openings where the polyps come out. I rushed to the cvs and bought more glue because I ran out attaching the monticaps. So I had to handle it a 4th time.The glue I got said it was gel, but it came out runny and made a mess of things on my hands and coral.. I was able to remove stray glue from the coral and sat it aside in the tank so I could go buy more glue (within a 10 minute period) Bought the second thing of glue... same issue (dont buy glue from CVS) So I handled the sps for a 5th time. Finally got it attached in the tank and it sat overnight. Lights came on this morning and it began to extend its polyps maybe 1mm out and within a few hours, the backside that had faded in color began to perk up. We did the thanksgiving thing today and of course I was gone for a few hours but when I returned, the polyps weren't extended at all and the coral looked a little washed out but not as faded as it was when it fell over the first time. The very top of it is a little whitish but most sps pictures I see are like that. The caps are doing great (I suppose), No color loss but then again I don't see any polyps on these. I also have an encrusting monti in the tank that the polyps look retracted but based on yalls guidence, handling them is bad and it has been handled ALLLLLOT... my turbos love knocking it over; its on a small tile so its easy to do so. The new caps were just glued down and I haven't handled them much which could explain them looking better than the others. I know its a lot to read and appreciate your time. To sum it all up

1. Is there a chance this milli will pull through and be okay?

2. are the teacup monticaps supposed to show polyps?

3. should I remove the encrusting monti off of its tile and glue it down with super glue?

4. it's still considered safe to use super glue right? :shock: ....or should I use something else, especially with sps?

5. I have 2x powerheads pushing roughly 1500 gph and a return pushing maybe 450gph
-One powerhead is mounted on the left side of the tank 3 inches away from the surface of the water pointed to the opposite end of the tank at a very slight angle towards the surface of the water
-the other is mounted on the right side of the tank nearly 3 inches from the surface as well and also pointed to the other side of the tank but more at a downward angle aiming the flow towards the middle level of the tank
-and the return pipe is a regular 1" elbow hanging over the back nearly 1 inch from the surface of the water and is pointed towards the front of the glass.

all my corals seem to be fine with the flow as everything looks perky and happy excluding the torch which is off in its own world (still working with that one)

Is my flow okay for sps? I have considered adding a flow accelerator on the return pipe to split the flow in different directions... Would that work or should I add another powerhead (Im hoping to upgrade all of them soon to vortechs) or should I do both(flow accelerators and a 3rd powerhead)?

I will try and get a picture of the new corals and maybe one of the tank with arrows representing the water flow to better help you guys understand. Thanks in advance

 

[Smitty]

It is possible for the coral to pull thru, just need stable tlc

Monti's do show polyps, but very small ones.

For right now, I'd leave it on and allow it to adjust to the tank more and settle in before stressing it more.

Yep, super glue gel is most commonly used...and it's all I use for my corals.

I believe you have enough flow...it's all about positioning.

 

[Dana42078]

I'm at work on my lunch break on my iPhone so ima keep this short until I have time to answer your questions. You handled it way more than u should. And from it laying in the substrate explains alot too. Sps especially acro's, Millie's ect are very sensitive. Yes they can pull through. Give it time and just keep an eye on it. The encrusting monti's you can take off if they haven't grown onto the plug.

 

[Dana42078]

One more thing....superglue attracts algae I've noticed and am going to start using epoxy on sps...

 

[buddy08]

Forgot to add as for dosing, I add a small portion of 2 part on occasion. My levels really dont move much surprisingly. My alk fluctuates between 8-10 and when I adjust that, of course my calc changes within 20ppm but nothing drastic. My mag has been in the high 1300s as long as I've been testing so I hardly dose magnesium.

Heres the pictures as promise, I dont have a great camera like some of you so its hard to take good photos but maybe these help. I took a picture with all lights on and with whites only in hopes to remove the blue glare.

Flow

New Caps

you can see the mili in this one with the polyps somewhat (not in focus of course)

side shot of the mili with whites (not much color there)

encrusting monti

now when you guys say stable, how stable do you mean? I try to keep my levels at 10dkh alk, and 440 calc. The lady (shop owner in pensacola fl) said she keeps her tanks at 1.026 salinity, Mine is at 1.024... Is this a factor since the coral is only 2 days old in my tank? I do not have an auto top off in my tank and am trying to figure out a solution to install one but am limited in my apartment with space. I top off manually every 3 to 5 days so I lose maybe an inch of water within that time frame. I honestly havent checked salinity levels when its low to compare it but with that being said, I doubt it changes enough to make a difference (or can it?)

Edit: lights went off in the tank, I turned them back on to take photos and when I did, the polyps were extended more when the lights came back on. Any ideas why? The shop had these corals in a shallow frag tank maybe 30 inches away from a MH bulb (rather small bulbs so Its hard to guess the power of these lights)

 

[Smitty]

One more thing....superglue attracts algae I've noticed and am going to start using epoxy on sps...

I didn't know that...thanks for the heads up.

 

[Smitty]

Hey Buddy, your sps's don't look that bad to me...so they should pull thru hopefully. And it's normal for calcium to change accordingly with the alkalinity. Try to pay more attention to top offs daily, because that does make a difference.

 

[buddy08]

alright, appreciate the information. It sounds like I need to work on a top off system. I think I will buy an table and hide a system under it with a tablecloth or something in that nature.

 

[ccCapt]

One more thing....superglue attracts algae I've noticed and am going to start using epoxy on sps...

I've been using superglue gel for years to attach frags and I have never come across that issue.


You should top off more often than every 3-5 days. Any reason you can't do it every day? I also recommend keeping your salinity at 1.026 since that is what the salinity is on the reefs where the corals in our tanks come from.

 

[fastrd400]

+1 Capt.

I would also add that when you get new corals, give them time to acclimate to both your lighting, and your water before to start pulling them off the plugs and trying to remount them.

 

[Dana42078]

Ok well that might be in your clean system Larry, but i assure you i can take pictures of all my frags ive glued and they are dingy brown or damn near black until the glue gets covered by the coral. But now that Larry has chimed in ima shut up.