The successful SPS tank
 

Is there a successful "minimalists" approach to keeping a vibrant and colorful SPS tank? What I mean is, can it be done without using a lot of additives and dosing etc.? Is having good water quality, appropriate flow and lighting enough?
I've been researching this to death and am no further ahead than when I started.

No I dont think so, not for sps. And besides a minimalist approach would be boring for most reefers I think. Are you researching for your first tank? go LPS you will enjoy it just as much or more because it can be more minimalist than an SPS tank

I think your dreaming lol:lol:

My tank has been running for 6 years and I already have some LPS and SPS, however the SPS is brown and I just added some more frags. Growth is not a problem, I just want to maintain the color of the new stuff.
Boring? You mean as in spend another wheelbarrow fu of cash for additives and dosing equipment? Not sure the missus would find that "exciting".

Frequent changes of water, gfo and carbon while keeping your calcium, alk and mag balanced can give you colourful sps in my opinion. perhaps not the most colourful but def not brown.

Already doing all of that, except I quit testing parameters. And I mix kalk in my ATO. Perhaps my alk is out of line.

You have to test alk and Ca. Keep them stable with lots of light, flow and a big skimmer to keep nitrates and PO4 down and that all you need with RO water for frequent h2o changes.

The less other stuff the better.

Boring as in less things to research about and discover, at least for me thats a big positive in the hobby. And its a money pit hobby so yeah throw in another barrel of money if you want those colours

personally i think one should get decent colours with a simple approach before experimenting with their wallet too much. if you can't get ok colouration with a simpler approach i don't think adding a ton of supplements etc is going to get you there.

If your tank is six years old and your SPS is brown, the reality of it is you're probably not going to be able to break that trend without some major surgery/renovations to the system. Do you run a substrate? How deep? When's the last time you changed it out? How's your flow? Etc, etc..

I have no substrate and tons of flow. Its a 90 gallon tank with a Jebao WP-40 on one end, an RW20 on the other end, and a RW-15 on the back pointed down to move detritus off the bottom from behind the rock work.
I am also running biopellets, carbon and skimming heavy.

go sps dominant if you want to focus on colors and then focus on their needs only , keeping a mixed reef or traditional reef colorful is tough for sure while not impossible:) its alot easiewr to deal with one type or species of corals and their needs rather than make everyone happy;)

i do the same thing for zoanthids , when trying to keep numerous acros and lps in there i usually have to give a little to get a little , which means not everyone is as happy as they can be , by doing one species i focus on the species as a whole :)

coral species and whether or not it does anything plays a role too :)

welcome to the game big guy:P

do you test your water?


colors by its self are almost always lighting or nutrient related:)

growth would be more towards supplements and flow:)

Not often. Nitrates have been negligible and phosphates zero according to my Hanna tester. Sometimes I have my doubts with the accuracy of the Hanna, however I do not have any issues with algae so I assume phosphates are in check.

Then it's your lighting. Get a PAR meter and check out what your acros are getting...

You will need to dose to keep alk cal and mg stable. Besides that I would say it's absolutely possible to maintain a "minimalist" sps dominated system in regards to all the "extra" stuff. Water quality, stability, flow and lighting... What more do you need?
However, If you are bent on running a mini sewage treatment plant in addition to a coral tank then sorry, you will need all the bells and wistels.

I got 65 gallons, got different mixtures of corals, I don't have sump, doser or protein skimmers. I got a jebao wave maker, one power head, 2 filters (Tunze Nano Cleaner 3165 and fluval underwater filter. I change water once every 2-3 weeks and clean the filters every week. I dose manually once a week if lucky with calcium, mg, iodine and strontium. I check my water once a month for parameters.

^ Nice looking there for a no sump no skimmer system. Those two blue hippos are gonna out grow your 65g tank though , good excuse to upgrade right :wink:

What kind of lighting do you have? If you have T5 or halides, I doubt it's your lighting causing the brown SPS. If you have LEDs it may be the settings.

Yes, you can do a minimalist approach, but in order to do so you really need to have a SPS-only tank. You need to pick enough fish to provide a bit of food for the SPS, but not so many that they impede water quality. You also need to pick the right fish. All the fish should be chosen for a job, not because you like how they look. Then you need to provide really good flow, in my opinion this is thee most important factor (assuming everything else is good, the flow still needs to be really good). SPS want to have their skin clean, and if you don't give them enough flow they will drown in their own mucous (so to say). Add good lighting; several T5 tubes, or 250W halides, or one of the better LED fixtures. Use an over-sized skimmer, use carbon, use GFO when needed (not always needed).

And THEN...keep water parameters VERY stable! Keep alkalinity within 0.5 dKH all the time. Keep calcium within 20 ppm. Don't let salinity fluctuate. Don't let temp fluctuate. Be dedicated to waterchanges. Keep everything on a schedule.

So that's simple, right? :lol:

All I have is a calcium reactor, skimmer, water change every 6 weeks, have no idea where any of my parameters are system. I'd say it's pretty successful. Not the greatest colours, but certainly maintenance free and simple. It's been running for 5.5 years. http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...10f6cfc579.jpg
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15...ae8b1a52cf.jpg

There's that too. :D If a tank has been maintained well through its life, it needs less maintenance as it ages.

Yes ^this.

Also, the longer you keep your tank the better you get at discovering how it really ticks. We all know that every single set up is different. What I've learned over the years is that it really takes some time before you get into a groove where you truly know how your tank operates. How it reacts to various bioloads. How it does with skimming, water changes, trace element depletion, etc. Mind you, Murphy will occasionally throw you curve balls in the form of equipment failures, power failures due to blizzards or city flooding torrential rains, etc. Good times :-)

that's terrifying where does the time go!?

but yes the proof is in the pictures for sure.

etc includes other hobby distractions!