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Beginner to SPS (1 Viewer)

NAL

NAL

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
1,352
Location
Chippewa Falls, WI
I have accumlated some SPS frags, and want some advice on how people keep them healthy and growing. I have a 150w 14k phoenix over a 20L with a 15g sump. I have 2 koralia nanos, and am looking to upgrade to a koralia 1. I feed coral frenzy twice a week, and do big waterchanges weekly. I mainly have acros and 1 frag of monti digitata. Well I just placed these corals on my rockwork, they were on the sandbed till now. I was letting them get use to my system for a lil while before I put them up higher. I was just wondering if anyone has any advice for a novice. Thanks


Maybe tomorrow I will post some pics.
 
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Your welcome to swing by my place in Hudson. I'll show you my system and how I maintain it. That should help give you some ideas.
 
Sounds like you have good lighting and your water change schedule of once a week of at least 10% will go a long way towards keeping nutrient levels down therefore keeping Amoninia, Nitrites, and Nitrates nice and low. Beyond that the next step is keeping Calcium and Alkalinity at good levels, and keep them stable. This will help growth and overall health of your SPS. Along with that comes ph. These levels affect PH so you need to monitor PH along with Ca and Alk.

Next comes the skimmer. A good skimmer will help keep nutrient levels low without large water changes. You don't want to suppliment Ca and Alk and then change out 30% of your water weekly taking out these elements.

I guess if I were you those are the items I would focus on next. I personally use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part additives to maintain 430-440 Ca and Alk at about 10. Others use Calcium Reactors and Kalkwasser.
 
maintaining the stability of your aquarium is one of the biggest things you can do to ensure SPS health & growth.
 
Maintaining pest free is the biggest thing...........How did you treat the colors to be sure they are clean of acro eating flatworms, redbugs, montinudis, acro spiders etc.......

Maintaining CA/ALK/Magnesium at or above NSW levels, good quality skimmer.
 
gogregerson said:
Your welcome to swing by my place in Hudson. I'll show you my system and how I maintain it. That should help give you some ideas.
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I will have to do that someday soon. :) I got one of the frags from you at the swap

Adam G said:
Sounds like you have good lighting and your water change schedule of once a week of at least 10% will go a long way towards keeping nutrient levels down therefore keeping Amoninia, Nitrites, and Nitrates nice and low. Beyond that the next step is keeping Calcium and Alkalinity at good levels, and keep them stable. This will help growth and overall health of your SPS. Along with that comes ph. These levels affect PH so you need to monitor PH along with Ca and Alk.

Next comes the skimmer. A good skimmer will help keep nutrient levels low without large water changes. You don't want to suppliment Ca and Alk and then change out 30% of your water weekly taking out these elements.

I guess if I were you those are the items I would focus on next. I personally use Bulk Reef Supply 2 part additives to maintain 430-440 Ca and Alk at about 10. Others use Calcium Reactors and Kalkwasser.
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I should have listed that I'm running a Aqua C Remora, I am looking at going to a tunze 9010 though.

benihana said:
maintaining the stability of your aquarium is one of the biggest things you can do to ensure SPS health & growth.
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I will have to do more tests, and make sure everything is staying 100% stable

David Grigor said:
Maintaining pest free is the biggest thing...........How did you treat the colors to be sure they are clean of acro eating flatworms, redbugs, montinudis, acro spiders etc.......

Maintaining CA/ALK/Magnesium at or above NSW levels, good quality skimmer.
Click to expand...

I dipped everything using Kent Tech-D


Thanks for everyone's help. Is there a such thing as too much light for SPS? I have a clip on MH fixture, and it only sits 8" from the surface of the water. How long should I be running my light, I have been for 8 hours, but went to 9 hours.

I will take a pic later on, the light just turned on.
 
I also should add that I have a ocean runner 2500. After all the twists and turns, and the height, it's running about 300GPH. I have that hooked up to a SCWD.
 
fts2-4.jpg


sump-2.jpg


acro2.jpg


acro-1.jpg


clam-1.jpg



I have had the brown acro for awhile now, at first it was really starting to die, but it looks better now. That green tip acro I got from that yzreef guy at the swap, I won a gift certificate at the raffle. :) The clam I have had for probably 6 months now. The tank all together will be a year old come Feb.
 
Skip the coral frenzy.... I wouldn't worry about monitoring pH, it naturally fluctuates.... As far as water changes, what does "big" mean? 10%, 50%? If you are going 50% water changes weekly, you may not need to supplement alk, ca, etc...
 
The Aqua C is doing alright, I guess it's my first skimmer, so I have nothing to compare it too. It never fills the cup very high, it seems like once crud covers the collection tube, it stops working. So I basically have to clean it every other day. I want to get a tunze and try that out.


So don't feed coral frenzy huh? Well maybe I will stop since it will just jack up my nuetrient load.
 
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NAL said:
Is there a such thing as too much light for SPS? I have a clip on MH fixture, and it only sits 8" from the surface of the water. How long should I be running my light, I have been for 8 hours, but went to 9 hours.
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In your case, 14K 150W, that is on the lower end for suitable lighting so no too much light for SPS will not be an issue for you and depending on the livestock could be just the opposite.
 
a 9010 is a lot of skimmer for a 20long. your aqua-c should be plenty with a medium/low fish load. save the $ for a controller, one of the best investments for any reef system. With that, you'll be able to make a much more stable system. Add an ATO and you'd be able to do kalk in your top-off, which is a supplement of Ca and alk as well as having other benefits. With 20% w/c every week, I wouldn't worry about supplementing mg yet, but do monitor your Ca and alk closely.
 
Thanks David and wes. I noticed as soon as I moved some of them up higher, after waiting about 2 weeks, they started to bleach. Should I move them down or wait it out?

I do have an ATO, I have thought about putting kalk in there. How much should I put in there? I use about 1/2 gal/day I would say. Is this something I should do a little, test, do some more and so on?
 
Trust me, 9002 is too small. The 9005 ( I have one, the pump it comes with is just too underpowered and hardly any skimmate ). 9010 is the only one worth getting. I have 2 9010s. I'm going to order the 9010 pump to go on the 9005 becuase it just doesn't work very well with the stock pump. 9005 is on a 29g and just doesn't do much. Quite the disappointment.
 
I think a 9010 on a 20g would be a bit overkill. under 30g an aqua-c is a fine skimmer. Very easy to adjust, clean. If you want to make it a bit quieter, you can put a plastic baffle over the injector (just cut one out of a milk jug). You can also put a few rubber bands at the level where you've got it tuned in how you like it. That way you can take it off, clean it, and just drop it back on without guessing about retuning it.
 
NAL said:
Thanks David and wes. I noticed as soon as I moved some of them up higher, after waiting about 2 weeks, they started to bleach. Should I move them down or wait it out?

I do have an ATO, I have thought about putting kalk in there. How much should I put in there? I use about 1/2 gal/day I would say. Is this something I should do a little, test, do some more and so on?
Click to expand...

I would probably move them down a bit. some of the halide setups have hot-spots where the light is intense. move the coral up slowly.
 
If you go Tunze its the 9010 or nothing. 9005 just isn't adequate pump just not strong enough for hardly any skimmate to go over the top of the cup. I highly recommend not using the in-sump kit. It can be hard to get setup just right particularly when your not use to the skimmer. Best to use submerged which requires 11.5" height of water so might would need to rework the first baffle.

On a 150W 14k bulb there is no hot spot intense enough to cause any problems if acclimated properly.
 
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