For me it always depends on how much you want to get out of sps. I've started with what I thought was high end equipment and enough of it, only to find that every step I take to a better piece of equipment or more toys just helps it along that much more. I know that there are a lot of people that have exceptions but like I say, I started with one thing and then saw the improvement right in front of me when I upgraded to another or added something else. It seemed to me that going with softies or LPS, some things were important while others were not as important. With sps everything seems to be just as important if you want to get the most color, growth, and health out of your corals. Like I said, there are exceptions and you can get away with some things but if you want the best then getting the best definitely helps.
Dedication - I spend at least a half hour to an hour a night on my tank and its been running a year now. I'm not saying that's the standard but that's what I had to do to reach a comfortable point with my tank. In the beginning it was closer to two hours a night not including weekends which sometimes was all day because of the amount of setup and trial and error that was involved.
Stability - Kind of ties in to dedication. The more time I concentrated on adjusting things to keep everything stable at the appropriate levels so there were fewer fluctuations (Alk, Ca, pH, Temp, Salinity, Mg, etc) the more results I saw. The larger the tank you have, the less you have to concentrate on stability since fluctuations aren't as great with a larger water volume.
Lighting - 250W is good, 400W is better if your tank is 24" deep. Like I say, there are a lot of exceptions to this but I don't think there's any arguement that 400W is better and provides a more consistant result. My sps looked good under 250W but they looked even better and grew even faster under 400W. If you're keeping your sps mostly at the top then 250W should be fine.
Flow - The more chaotic flow you have that reaches all corners of the tank, the better more natural growth you'll have, the less algae growth you'll see, the whiter your sand will be if you decide to keep sand, and the more efficient your skimming will be since most waste won't have a chance to settle in the tank and your skimmer has a better chance to skim it out. Tunze's or Vortech's are definitely best for this since they provide such a wide,strong flow where it would usually take multiple flow devices to equal one vortech or tunze.
Water Quality - The more frequent smaller water changes you do will really help to maintain a good consistant water quality. This can vary and you can play with the percentage and the frequency of your water changes, but they usually recommend 10% every week if you can get away with it.
Patience - Be prepared to counter all kinds of problems. Equipment breaks down no matter how much you pay for it, algae will bloom at times no matter how on top of things you are, and it takes your system a long time to work out a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria.
Keep in mind that all of the above means more money and there are always compromises that can be made which usually means investing more time instead of more money, which we are all usually in favor of. Getting back though to what you want to get out of your sps, if you are looking to keep a tank like the pros out there, which were usually the tanks that attracted you to keeping sps in the first place, you'll notice the investment they've made in their equipment and they still spend an enormous amount of time maintaining their systems. For me, and this is just for me, the more time and money I invest in my system, the more rewarding it has become. If you do decide to invest the money in to your system then make sure you spend as much time as possible researching the equipment first so you don't end up wasting too much money on buying things you don't need. Unfortunately, you'll find that wasting money is almost inevitable in this hobby so the less you waste the better. Personally I love keeping sps; it keeps me on my toes every day and its amazing to watch the color transformations of a maturing system. Good luck.
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Jason
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