What SPS require less pristine water quality? Which ones go well in tank with softies and LPS?

[duganderson]

Curious what SPS are easiest from a water quality standpoint.  

 

I would like a tanK with mostly softies and LPS.  Looking to add 2-3 SPS to my 34 G Red Sea in the appropriate PAR light areas of the tank? 

 

Is it accurate to think that the softies needs water that is slightly less pristine?  

 

Thank you in advance!  Doug

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

pavona ime doesn't give a f#ck and grows like a weed so long as the lighting is right 

 

Also it's true of some softies but not all. some high end zoas can be quite fussy about water quality and flow....just not to the degree that, say, acropora is!

[mcarroll]

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules other than Acro's being the most picky.  IMO this relates to their build, which is thin-skinned, and arborescent.  To the extent that's true from species to species, they will be more or less sensitive.  Having said that, I don't think they are sensitive to nutrients (ie "too much nutrients") as they are to alkalinity swings.

 

Check out what @jservedio has grown in his tank. (<- ..it goes on to another thread after a tank upgrade.)  He takes "pristine" photos, but I don't think he keeps his system "pristine" (ie hyper clean/low nutritent) and everything seems to look consistently pretty damn happy.  I'll bet a nickel that his alk is stable and his flow is good though.

[duganderson]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules other than Acro's being the most picky.  IMO this relates to their build, which is thin-skinned, and arborescent.  To the extent that's true from species to species, they will be more or less sensitive.  Having said that, I don't think they are sensitive to nutrients (ie "too much nutrients") as they are to alkalinity swings.

 

Check out what @jservedio has grown in his tank. (<- ..it goes on to another thread after a tank upgrade.)  He takes "pristine" photos, but I don't think he keeps his system "pristine" (ie hyper clean/low nutritent) and everything seems to look consistently pretty damn happy.  I'll bet a nickel that his alk is stable and his flow is good though.

I appreciate your thoughts.  Love the aquassape on this tank.  @jersvido

[Tired]

Montiporas are generally fairly tolerant, with, I believe, the encrusting montis being the most hardy. Can confirm they don't mind high nutrients. They won't have perfect coloration, but they will have perfectly good coloration, and they'll grow well.

 

But, yes, stability is the most important factor in just about all corals.

 

Softies definitely need nutrients. All corals do, but softies react far worse to low nutrients than other corals do. Bare minimum of 0.03ppm phosphate (ideally higher) and anywhere from 5-20ppm nitrate is a range that should work at least reasonably well for most setups and most corals, with softies generally preferring to not be at the low end.

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules other than Acro's being the most picky.  IMO this relates to their build, which is thin-skinned, and arborescent.  To the extent that's true from species to species, they will be more or less sensitive.  Having said that, I don't think they are sensitive to nutrients (ie "too much nutrients") as they are to alkalinity swings.

 

Check out what @jservedio has grown in his tank. (<- ..it goes on to another thread after a tank upgrade.)  He takes "pristine" photos, but I don't think he keeps his system "pristine" (ie hyper clean/low nutritent) and everything seems to look consistently pretty damn happy.  I'll bet a nickel that his alk is stable and his flow is good though.

out of interest why does being arborescent make them more sensitive? It's not the case with other similarly shaped corals (eg gorgonians, montipora digitata, kenya trees.....) or is it the arborescent shape in combination with the thin skin?

[TheKleinReef]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules other than Acro's being the most picky.  IMO this relates to their build, which is thin-skinned, and arborescent.  To the extent that's true from species to species, they will be more or less sensitive.  Having said that, I don't think they are sensitive to nutrients (ie "too much nutrients") as they are to alkalinity swings.

 

Check out what @jservedio has grown in his tank. (<- ..it goes on to another thread after a tank upgrade.)  He takes "pristine" photos, but I don't think he keeps his system "pristine" (ie hyper clean/low nutritent) and everything seems to look consistently pretty damn happy.  I'll bet a nickel that his alk is stable and his flow is good though.

what acros can you even grow? please hush. 

 

3 hours ago, duganderson said:

Curious what SPS are easiest from a water quality standpoint.  

OP, green slimer is a relatively bullet proof acro. give it enough flow and it will grow. despite the "easy entry" of birdsnest, i'd avoide them. newer strains are so delicate. 

you could also look at anacropora as well. anacro survived a crash in my system. 

[Sprinter70]

If you want to give an Acro a try, I’d suggest the Tricolor Valida. Acropora valida seems to be more tolerant of high nutrient and parameter swings from my experience.

[mcarroll]

12 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

out of interest why does being arborescent make them more sensitive?

In a nutshell...  Thin-skinned and arborescent is their build, and their build relates to their lifestyle.  They're built this way to withstand their "preferred" environment which generally has too much light and too much wave energy and massive water changes (wild reefs experience water changes too!)...thicker skin on a different shape would be ripped to shreds in the flow and over-cooked with light.  (Arborescent shapes are efficient at diffusing energy, generally speaking.)  Our tanks just aren't inherently very much like their environment (tho we try!  folks like Rich Ross at the Steinhart Aquarium have gotten Acro's to spawn in captivity.) which makes Acro's "sensitive" from our perspective.  It's also generally true that the more specialized a critter is, the less adaptable to change it is.....I think this applies to Acro's as well.

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, Tired said:

montis being the most hardy.

I daresay that more folks have started out with red plating Monti. than perhaps any other stony coral.  (Almost certainly if you include the other colors too....green, grape.)  

 

Just so fast growing, so forgiving (for a stony coral), and SO easy to frag.

(photo from our Sponsor, cultivated reef....they sell it as "orange"....same coral tho.)

 

They are one of the most impressive when grown out to massive proportions too, if you have the tank space to dedicate.

 

I always thought the encrusting Monti's were a lot more sensitive and slow-growing, but I never got to try that many.    Are there any specific encrusters you'd categorize "as easy as" these plating monti's?  (Do any you know of grow as fast?)

[Tired]

I haven't actually kept plating montis to compare, truthfully. They probably do win out, actually, judging by the number of posts I've seen about tank disasters that left a plating monti alive. I should probably get myself a plating monti- they're fun, and might make a good barrier against other corals growing up from below, given the shade they provide.

 

I can say that the Mystic Sunset encrusting monti will grow quite happily in nutrient levels that'd make one of those ultra-sterile acro tanks explode in horror, including from tiny little broken-off pieces. It also has charming little half-blue polyps, and is usually pretty inexpensive. It does not like if you nuke half your tank with palytoxin, though. I suspect it grows slower, which might actually be an asset, given that it does try to cover your whole rockwork. I kept mine on a wide, thin piece of frag putty hung on the back wall so I could cut the edges back as needed.