SPS checklist? (from your own experience and stories)

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by christyf5

My tank went through half a 64oz container in about 3 weeks so combined with having to dose it every day, I just wasn't interested in maintaining Ca without a reactor.

I've been using DIY two part mix. I bought 10 lbs (4.54kg) of solid form, food grade calcium for $50 from littlesilvermax. When mixed up, that's 40L of calcium mix . My current dosing for my softie/lps tank is 7.5g calcium/b.b.soda (baked baking soda) per day (two tablespoons of each mix). I'm assuming if my calcium demands were double for an SPS tank, I'd go through 15g per day, which would last just about a year.

Even if it was double again (30g calcium a day), using a dosing pump to supply the two part wouldn't be a problem. I'm thinking of a litermeter III, because of their reliability and programability. With this kind of usage, I'd be going through $100 a year in calcium, and probably $10 a year in baking soda. I'd just have to do my regular water changes to restore the magnesium.

Just considering various options. Myself, I'm planning on getting some sort of "automatic" calcium maintenance system this summer, so next year when school gets crazy, it'll be one less thing to worry about.

Ok, so back to lighting...What kind of lighting has everyone noticed good colour/growth in their sps? any certain MH bulbs, or certain bulb combinations in T5? What are the benefits of supplementing actinic to a MH setup?

What about the risks of bleaching? From your experiences, what's caused your SPS to bleach? Lighting? Flow? Water Parameters? Any stories to tell?

I like how this has been going, so far, btw. Good to hear of people's experiences. Already, the general husbandry requirements of SPS has been explained better than I've seen in any book