Looking to try SPS out

[FinalPhaze987]

So i finally grew the cajones to switch over to SPS... my water quality is finally where i want it, and i traded in all my leathers...

Does anyone have any tips before converting the tank to a SPS dominated system?

i already have a few easy ones (hydnophora, super girl monti, moni cap, and a birdsnest) but im looking into getting some acros and others

can i keep my euphyllias and my elegance or do those have to go as well?

 

[brandonberry]

You'll be fine with your other corals. I have over 100 different species of coral in the same system, including leathers Euphyllias, gorgonians, etc, and all my acros still gro like crazy. My best advice would be to run carbon, skim heavy, use granular ferric hydroxide media, and keep all water parameters stable (temp, salinity, calcium, alk, etc). If you just follow the known facts and don't go adding all kinds of weird stuff to the tank, you'll be surprised how easy they are to keep. Spend some time reading Randy Holmes Farley's articles on chemistry and Sanjay Joshi's articles on lighting.

 

[FinalPhaze987]

Thanks for the input! ive been doing extensive reading in the husbandry of most sps, but thought that theres nothing better than asking the people who keep them themselves...

 

[brandonberry]

Reading is definitely the key word. I'd have to make an educated guess that most people who fail at it, fail to read enough about it first.

 

[SnowManSnow]

imo dont think of it as SWITCHING over to an sps system. sps frags can be expensive, and unless you drop thousands of dollars you aren't going to have a SUDDEN change.

I keep sps AND all sorts of other corals in my tank with success. I would start out with a montipora digita or somthing simple like that and just see how it goes. keep in mind it take a lot of patience, just like everything else in the hobby, and sps corals tend to be a little picker about water quality and so forth.

Good luck.

b

 

[FinalPhaze987]

Thanks for the info everyone...Yea its going to have to be a gradual change...as my budget permits...im sure by sneaking in a frag at a time my girlfriend wont notice..

on the otherhand ive been doing alot of reading on allelopathy and other factors i have to consider while running a mixed system...

Do any of you guys run carbon on a consistent basis? i tend to use it about 4 days a month right before a major waterchange but never ran it 24/7 for longer than that.

 

[brandonberry]

I mix it with GFO media and run it constantly in a phosban reactor. I'm sure the usefulness wears off after about a week or so andI only change it about once a month unless I see a sign that I need to such as cyano growth.

 

[SnowManSnow]

<-- has never used carbon on my tank. i do, however run phosban in a reactor from my sump. If you don't change carbon regularly, it can actually leech stuff back into your water (if it isn't quality carbon).

b