1st SPS.
 

A few questions RE SPS. I finally managed to get my Ca into the 400's and started dripping kalk..etc.. and know wanted to get a few SPS.

1. Any suggested good 1st SPS - caps, acros, and birdsnests look awesome.. LoL, I know the latter's a bit more fragile...

2. What type of epoxy or glue do you use.. and do you put the glue on the frag first or the rock?

3. Will it stick to my LR if the rock is densely covered with algae?

JT

I'd probably go with digitata first, as it's not too pricey and easy to keep. I'm sure someone in town will sell you a frag for cheap. I would use a 2 part epoxy that you can get at your LFS. HD sels some too, but I'm not sure of the brand.
If the digitata does well, move into some cap. What type of lights do you have again?

Now that Ocean Aquatics is open Saturday you could take advantage of all the great Frags Wendel and Jack have and bend their ears on some of the question you have!!

Jason

I have a bit of experience with the epoxy and I would recommend removing algae from the desired location and finding a nice little cleft or hole in the rock. If the frag isn't already on a rock I normally place the epoxy on the rock, smooth the edges onto the rock, and then position the frag in the epoxy. If the frag is already on a piece of rubble, it seems to work well the other way. Whatever the case, you want to make sure you have something for the epoxy to grab onto, a little patch of roughness or whatnot. Otherwise I find that the hold is rather tenuous. I would also use the least amount of epoxy possible, for the average frag, a piece a bit smaller than a marble seems to work well. I've had problems with my skimmer going nuts when I put frags down in the past as well. I find that crazy glue is a better fixative agent but is a bit tougher to work with. I have used it in the past for small pieces of M. capricornis, as it will hold anything whereas the epoxy, as noted, requires a rough bonding surface.

Thanks J,

Ya I don't mind answering any questions :mrgreen: We'll be open tommorow and sunday from 10-4. We can get you some starter frags if you'd like too.

Thx for the info all... much appreciated!

My lights are 250W MH + 40W NOs.

Any other suggestions of good starter SPS?

JT

You have decent lighting, so if you're tank is mature enough (say older than 6 months) you might want to try a birdsnest frag. Wendell may have some soon I heard.

Yep, I'm in my 6th month now.

JT