Marine planted/softies to full sps

[adamt]

Hi all! Been a while since I've posted anything but I am about to get back in to the hobby. I've got a 4' 150 gallon I'm setting up and wanted to run an idea by you guys:

My goal is to go full sps eventually, but having experienced the growing pains that come with a new tank before, I thought it might be a good idea to set the tank up initially as a marine planted/softie tank for the first year or two and then convert to sps. I am going to run triton/modified triton and will be using almost entirely dry rock.


I know that stability is key to any system but especially sps, and i know it can take many months to get dialed in and properly cycled. So I thought for the first year, I can run the triton system without stocking the fuge and could use the algae promoting elements in the base elements to fuel the macro growth in the display. My goal is to take advantage of algae's love of phosphate to take care of any leaching that occurs from the dry rock. During this time the tank would be very lightly stocked with a few threadfin or red tail spot cardinals. I would also like to include some true vascular plants like various sea grasses, but will plant them in miracle mud in pots so that I can go bare bottom and easily remove all the plants when I switch over to sps.


It's such a deep tank that I had always planned on keeping some Zoas, Lps, and softies toward the bottom and the first year would give them a good opportunity to grow in before the switch. Id love to hear from anyone who has switched from softies/Lps to sps especially your experience with using plants and these more forgiving corals to soak up any excess nutrients commonly found in new tanks.


Thanks!

 

[fritz]

I?m skeptical that this would work. I think your po4 to nitrate ratio would be off and lead to algae outbreaks / dinos /cyano, etc. Maybe just cook the rock for two or three months with po4 and heavy skimming then go for it. You?ll still have some new tank syndrome but it goes fast.

 

[adamt]

Dealing with excess phosphate is really only a small part of the equation. There are so many effective ways of controlling phosphates (lanthanum, ferric oxide, etc.), and easy ways to increase nitrates if need be that I am confident I can keep nutrients in check. Im more interested in how the tank matures after the initial cycle. Id like to grow a large pod population, maximize the biodiversity of microfauna, and establish a rock solid bio filter so that the ecosystem in the tank is as mature and stable as possible 6-12 months in. I wouldn't add acros to a system less than 6 months old anyway so I figured Id use that time to "season" the tank, and nothing does that better than plants/algae in my experience. I've also heard an argument that plants/algae release beneficial amino acids and other nutrients that are good for sps- I think it's even one of the basic tenants of the triton method. Since the method calls for the largest refugium possible, why not treat the entire system like a refugium initially when nutrient levels are spiking and let the plants and algae subsidize the bio filter until the rock is up to the task, and then scale back the macro in the display slowly and incrementally transfer it to refugium that's about 20% of the display and discard the rest and the excess nutrients along with it?

 

[homegrowncichlid]

If you start with softies, they'll over grown everything and will become pests. You'll spend so much time trying to get rid of them, they will annoy you. Start with easy SPS. if they dies out, so be it, I use them like canaries in a mine. Once those zooanthids grown in, they will take up all your real estate. Montipora, digitatas, capricornis, etc. Acros once the others start growing in.