how to maintain sps in your tank tips

[winsbxnyc]

im starting a new tank in a few weeks im doing alot of research on sps and what it takes to have sps i would appreciate everyone's input and advice cause i know about softies but sps is a whole different ball game thanks in advance

 

[piranhapat]

Good to see your doing a SPS tank. My favorite is keeping SPS. A few things that is important to SPS tank. One stability keeping water par in range all the time. Alkalinity is the most important. Any big change or a fast change will cause tissue lost. Bleaching or browning in SPS. Calcium is next along Magnesium. Lighting and current too. Other than that test and test Alk in beginning. You will have to dose or use calcium rector. Must watch your phosphate levels to. Sps like it low between .06- .02. That's where I like it.. One more thing start with aquaculture SPS. Frags are great and the best way to go...good luck..

 

[winsbxnyc]

thank you brother that means a sps tank is like another full time job

 

[piranhapat]

You might need a little more attention to make sure things are running right. But basically once you have everything in range it's like everything else. The challenge is there but reward is beautiful. At times you will lose SPS. That's why its best to get frags which are Aquaculture which I find more hardy. And a lot cheaper. Don't fall for small $25 colony's unless your tank is really mature. You can find $5 - $25 frags mostly from people here.

 

[Aquadicted]

keep water super clean + have ample amounts on alk = ez sps tank

 

[JBNY]

Ha there is a lot to keeping SPS. The main thing that you should remember is the tank needs to be stable. Stable means that every time you test the parameters, day, week, month, they are exactly the same. The big 3 alk/Ca/Mg should all test the same every time, alk should vary no more than 0.2 if it does vary at all.

All the rest, lights, flow, supplements are important but not nearly as important as keeping things stable.

 

[winsbxnyc]

lol im in for a mission

 

[jcdeng]

3 channel doser, ato, heater and chiller. That should keep things stable. But most importantly, get aquacultured frags, never get wild colonies. 1, they don't do well adjusting to captivity, 2, they can have sps wiping bugs/eggs on them. GL

 

[winsbxnyc]

yea ima need help serring up the dosers looks xomplicated

 

[Mattl22]

Best advice I could give is take ur time start with few easy sps b4 spending a lot of $ on sps frags
Ime a tank will have issues over first yr or so

 

[ijvasquetelles]

taging along

 

[winsbxnyc]

im makeing notes now im dredding filling a tank with ro water its gonna take forever

 

[lrasser]

My suggestion to keeping things stable and dialed it is to test the same time every day. This will help you not chase numbers as often. Think about how your consumption of alk/cal/mag is used. During lights on they are being depleted but at night your levels will build up a little. This fluctuation should be slight but it will give you a better idea of your usage. I've been dialing in a calcium reactor. If I test at 6am (my crazy time for starting my day) my alk is 8.4 exact every morning. For the sake of this article I just tested alk at 8.56. So over 2.5 hrs of no consumption i went up about .01. Like Joe stated .02 would be about an average daily swing. SPS is not scary it just requires more discipline. The risk is well worth the reward!