My SPS experiences

[tippmann03]

I thought I’d share my Nano SPS experiences so that anyone that was wondering about whether or not they can keep SPS in their Nano tank can look at my tank as a reference.

 

Background: I have a 46 gal bow with PC, softies and LPS no SPS. and a 10 gal with softies, LPS and SPS.

 

10 gal Specs: PC lighting; Coralife Aqualight - 96 watts (48 watt 10,000K, 48 watt Actinic). It has a Whisper 10 Power Filter so I can add carbon and a Mini-Jet 404 Power Head for circulation. 13 Lbs of Live Rock does the filtering, and I do weekly 10% water changes.

 

I began my SPS endeavors five months ago on this forum by researching whether or not I would be able to keep SPS with my setup. The basic idea that I gathered was that it was risky and people argue that the SPS will survive but will not thrive. I decided to go ahead and try SPS anyways. Since then I have had 9 SPS corals (8 different types). I've lost 2(both were thriving), and in my opinion, of the other 7, four are surviving and three are thriving.

 

I'm going to try and detail what has happened to each of the corals, in so far as growth and coloration.

 

So five months ago in march I went to my local LFS looking for a montipora digitata, but they didn’t have one so I ended up getting a tan stylopora with green polyps. I had it for a month before it died. There were no coloration changes and it was showing growth at each tip, so it was thriving. But due to an anemone that I never should have had in the tank, the stylo got nuked. Here is a picture midway through its demise.

 

[i got rid of the pic cause it didnt load right]

[tippmann03]

My second attempt was a few days after the stylo got nuked when I got a small brown montipora digitata with a purple tip from a member of a local reef keeping club. Again I had it for a month before it died (don’t worry; it’s the only other loss). Within a week the purple tip turned brown like the rest of the frag, but it did show growth at the tip, so it was probably somewhere between surviving and thriving. A hermit crab managed to upturn the small rock that it was on and it fell into a frogspawn and got nuked. Here is a picture after it lost its purple tip.

[tippmann03]

Discouraged but determined, the next SPS came from my 46 gal where I attempted to keep a pinkish montipora digitata, but the lighting was inadequate and I moved it to the more powerful lit 10 gal to see if I could save it. It has lost its color at its tip and base and its polyps didn’t extent fully when it was taken out of the 46 gal. Here is a pic of it just after being placed in the 10 gal

[tippmann03]

And here it is again a week or so ago. The polyps fully extend now (thought not of them are out for some reason in this pic) and after a few months of recuperating the tips have gotten their color back and are growing. Thriving #1.

[tippmann03]

The next two SPS I got were a bluish acropora millipora and a brown pocillipora. The millipora lost its bluish color within the first couple of weeks, turning brownish, and hasn’t shown any noticeable growth in the three months I’ve had it, however the polyps are extending. Surviving #1. The pocillipora really hasn’t shown any difference since I bought it. Surviving #2.

 

The millipora shortly after purchase.

[tippmann03]

And a week ago

[tippmann03]

Here is the pocillipora a week ago; looking like it did three months ago

[tippmann03]

3 months ago I also got my 6th SPS was an orange montipora capricornus. When I picked it up it was partly bleached out and since then it has become a bright orange and has doubled its size. And even with being accidentally broken from its base and re-glued, twice, it is by far doing the best of all the SPS’s I have tried thus far. Thriving #2

 

When purchased…

[tippmann03]

And a week ago. You can see how it is growing over the part where it had snapped at the bottom, and about two thirds of the way up it you can make out a line where the growth had stopped before I got it.

[tippmann03]

The next SPS was a hitch hiker in that I bought a mushroom rock and an encrusting montipora was on the other side. I tried to split up the rock and ended up splitting the coral in half. (The rock itself(about football sized) looked as if it has been at one point a massive encrusting montipora and had been reduced to a small area of actual living coral.) I glued the two halves back together and hoped for the best. You can see in this picture how it was bleaching out in parts and wasn’t very healthy.

 

(this is the only picture I have of it, and I didn’t crop it because I kind of wanted to show off my blue coral banded shrimp)

[tippmann03]

And in this picture from a week ago you can see how much better it is doing. Thriving #3

[tippmann03]

The final two SPS’s I got about two weeks ago. An Acropora Tortuosa and a bright green Acropora Slimer (I think the actual name is Yugili or something). The tort was brown with a bluish hint and a blue/purple tip when I got it, but it is now mostly brown. No growth so far, but it really hasn’t been that long a time yet to tell if it will grow or not. Surviving #3

[tippmann03]

The bright green slimer is now not quite so bright anymore and as with the tort, No growth so far, but it really hasn’t been that long a time yet to tell if it will grow or not. Surviving #4

[tippmann03]

So now after having tried several different types of SPS, in my particular setup I think id be best to stick to montipora and other easy to keep corals, and try to keep away from acropora’s. However, if I could go back and do it different, I probably wouldn’t because I like and enjoy the acro’s all the same, even if they don’t hold their color very well. As for other SPS I think I’d like to try maybe a pink or yellow stylopora to see if colors at those ends of the spectrum will fair better then the blue’s have for me. I hope that my rambling on has helped give newcomers to the Nano world some idea of how SPS may fare, but every tank, setup and coral are different and therefore others may have completely different outcomes.

[Kidzag]

and then.......?? I'm on the edge of my seat here

[Kidzag]

sorry forgot to refresh

[EtOH_is_good]

so would you conclude that you don't have enough lights over the 10? couple of other questions. garf says tanks need at least 6 months before sps can do well in a tank. how old is the 10 g tank. calc and alk levels are very important for growth. how do you maintain the two? i think your keeping them alive, but they could definately use more light for growth and coloration. nice informative post btw.

[DRZL-sauras]

See this is what we need people telling of their experiences ( the contrasting pics for the easily bored like myself didnt hurt either) 8)

 

great post tippman

[tippmann03]

Originally posted by EtOH_is_good

so would you conclude that you don't have enough lights over the 10?  couple of other questions.  garf says tanks need at least 6 months before sps can do well in a tank.  how old is the 10 g tank.  calc and alk levels are very important for growth.  how do you maintain the two?  i think your keeping them alive, but they could definately use more light for growth and coloration.  nice informative post btw.

 

I dont think i would conclude that i dont have enough light. Probably more like the light is adequate to keep the SPS alive, but the corals wont really flurish under the lighting. That is kind of general though, since the acro havent done so well but the montipora have. I definitly think that MH is the way to go with SPS, however MH werent really an option for me with this tank so PC had to suffice.

 

garf is right about needing an extablished tank for the SPS as they are more needy then say green star polyps. The 10 was orriginally a quarentine tank(No i didnt use any copper) that i have later converted into a nano reef and was established in january of this year. In Feb. i broke it down and started over as a nano reef. usually it takes atleast a month to cycle, but i purchases some aquacultured LR at a premium price and there was no cycle. Nothing ever spiked, there was no die off, my water was great from day 1.

 

As for calcium and alkalinity, well to be honest this is an area i really need to improve apon. I want my calcium to be at about 440, but it is more often 370 -390. when i test it and it is low i use seachem reef advantage calcium to bring it up to where it needs to be. as for alkalinity, i've never really worried about it. And ya now that you mention it, the calcium levels could very well be part of the reason that they dont show much growth.

[EtOH_is_good]

skeletogenesis is the layering of calcium carbonate. carbonate makes up a great part of dkH. you may want to test your alk to see where you stand. i use oceanic salt, so i was never worried about my calc levels. before i added my sps corals and before i got a new batch of oceanic salt my alk levels were above 3 meq/l. don't know if it was causal, but i added a porite and acorpora and then measured alk levels that were low. started adding kent dKH buffer, to get reasonable levels and porite started filling on the margins (good growth). recently added a montipora digi frag and it is also growing and budding, while maintaining orange color. my current batch of oceanic salt has low alk levels, so am now using biosea salt, which has better alk levels but lower calc levels. im on the verge of getting b-ionic so i can maintain both a little better.

 

anyone else have experiences to share? this could turn into a pretty cool thread.

[pyrrhus]

in my nano with 96w pc i kept several acros, none grew very quickly and they lost color over several months, needless to say they are now in my 90 with 800w MH and growing like weeds, as well as starting to color back up, i have also kept a maxima for a little over six months in the nano with no apparent color loss, although the derasa i moved under the mh seems to be more colorful now. the only real problem i had in the nano was with one acro dying when i upgraded my lights from 51w to 96w it got kinda shocked and went into RTN, it was over in 3 days.

[matt the fiddler]

great post. i think if you ever up to more lighting- those sps woudl color out more. i kept some acros and montis under 130 watt of pc for about 7 months- then switched to 250W halide- and the improvment was remarkable with in 2 weeks!

[tippmann03]

calc level was 400 tonight, i added a bit more sea chem reef advantage calcium and i will test tomorrow night to see if it brings it up to 440. I also tested the alk level, it was 6.4 dkh, and it is soposed to be 8 right? I have the kent marine superbuffer that says it brings up dkh, however it also brings up the pH and that is the reason i have been using it for. My water comes out of my R/O system at about 6.9 or so for pH so i have to use the superbuffer to bring it up to 8.3. So if i add some of the kent superbuffer then the dkh might come up, but so will the pH and i dont want that happening. Does anyone use anything else to bring up the alk only?

 

i also use kent marine Essential Elements and Coral-Vite

 

what additives do all of you use?

 

o, by the way i use instant ocean salt...i always have a great salinity reading with it, is there really any advantage to any other type of salt?

[pyrrhus]

just about any other salt is better than IO. i personally like oceanic which is a very decent salt for the price, the alk is a tad low but everything else is good.

[Withers]

man i think this thread should be stickied. awesome post, i'm glad that someone finally posted a thorough experience. too many threads come out with a tank with PC's and they've just put some SPS in 2 days ago and want everybody to think they've kept their color under the PC's. great post!

 

i second the idea of waiting 6 months for SPS, or at least acropora. my tank is just a hair under 4 months, and i've got some montipora that is thriving, but i've lost both acro frags i've tried.

 

Jason