Suggestions on husbandry for SPS

mr_alberta · #1 10-18-2007, 03:17 PM

The most important things about keeping SPS are water stability, water flow and light. If you are lacking in any one of these areas, you'll have a tough time with keeping SPS colorful and happy. The latter two are the easy ones.

Keeping Salinity, Phosphates, nitrate, nitrites and ammonia in check are the first step. Then keeping up Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity demand is the next. Don't forget about Temperture and pH as well...

howdy20012002 · #2 10-18-2007, 03:28 PM

what are you suggestions for them?
salinity?
alkalinit?
magnesium?
calcium?
temperature?
ph? do u actually try to control Ph after the tank is stable?

this is all based on a SPS dominant tank.
thanks again
Neal

I am looking at setting up a very large tank with a very lite bio load of fish in it..so I am not all that concerned about the nitrates, nitrites, ammonia etc.
for coral propogation, would you suggest having no fish in the tank for best case scenario for corals?

michika · #3 10-18-2007, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

what are you suggestions for them?
salinity?
alkalinit?
magnesium?
calcium?
temperature?
ph? do u actually try to control Ph after the tank is stable?

this is all based on a SPS dominant tank.
thanks again
Neal

I am looking at setting up a very large tank with a very lite bio load of fish in it..so I am not all that concerned about the nitrates, nitrites, ammonia etc.
for coral propogation, would you suggest having no fish in the tank for best case scenario for corals?

Here is what I find works for me, lots of other people find other parameters work for them. What I did to select my goal parameters was to read up on tanks that I liked, and to see what they were aiming for.

SG 1.025-1.026
Alkalinity 8-9dKH
magnesium (4x that of Calcium) so I aim for 1600, but I find everything thrives at around 1300-1400 in my system
calcium 420ppm
temperature 78-83
pH 8.0-8.4 I don't try to control for it.

Some people find a high fish bioload feeds their corals. I personally don't subscribe to low-bioload SPS tanks, but its personal choice. I don't do it because I like the look of the fish, and I find that the high bioload (to a point) gives me good colors in my SPS.

howdy20012002 · #4 10-18-2007, 03:53 PM

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

saltynuts · #5 10-18-2007, 04:55 PM

i have anthony calfo,s book of coral proagation.
i could bring it to you.
and i have a book called reef secrets too

howdy20012002 · #6 10-18-2007, 04:59 PM

from the looks of the reviews, the book is definitely a good buy.
if you are around my part of town and remember it Ed, it would be great to peruse it.
thanks
Neal

untamed · #7 10-18-2007, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

I venture to guess that this is likely the #1 reason that you've had a problem with SPS in the past. SPS need Ca/Alk in order to survive. In an aquarium, they will inevitably use up the available Ca/Alk and die unless you have some sort of Ca/Alk replacement scheme.

howdy20012002 · #8 10-18-2007, 05:10 PM

I now have a calcium reactor up and running.
will that help with the alkalinity? or better question would be how do u control the alkalinity.
I am sure some people are shaking their head at my ignorance...but whatever.
Once again, thanks for the info.
Neal

michika · #9 10-18-2007, 06:30 PM

I currently use both a kalk, and calcium reactors. Before I used to dose by hand, and wow was that a pain!

For the most part you have to boost Alkalinity. What do you mean about controlling it? As in with what products?

Delphinus · #10 10-18-2007, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

Hi Neal,

Alkalinity is (IMO) one of the most important parameters to track if you want corals to grow.

Ca and Alk have a bit of a see-saw effect. You need alkalinity in order for calcification to occur. If Ca is the raw materials corals need to use up to grow, Alkalinity is how they can pay for those raw materials. Ie, if you don't got the cash all you can do in the shop is look at what is for sale.

Beyond that, as stated already, things like NO3 and PO4 need to be as low as possible as they interfere with calcification; Mg is important for maintaining Alk, and of course Ca and Alk.

You'd be surprised how quickly Ca can be used up when Alk is good. In my ritteri tank which has no SPS, the only real consumers of Ca and Alk are two clams, and if I keep my Alk at 3.5 meq/l (note - to convert from meq/l to dKH, multiply by 2.8) then the calcium draw is 10ppm per day. Ie, without adding any Ca additives every day, the Ca reading decrements by 10.

Add a few SPS into the equation and they will suck up that Ca and Alk like crazy. This is where the convenience of a calcium reactor comes in. However by no means is a reactor mandatory of course, but not much compares to the convenience factor of a dialed-in reactor.

Bear in mind though that it's a bit of art as well as a science. (Hi Wendell! I'm stealing your quote.) You can have nearly perfect parameters and not maintain SPS. (Welcome to my world, BTW.) There's a lot more than meets the eye, pests, predators, pathogens, allelopathy .. and so on and et cetera.

Actually, allelopathy is a big one that is easily overlooked. Allelopathy is the ability of one organism to impede the growth of another competing organism. And there's a LOT of it going on in the reef. Have caulerpa? Guess what, it impedes the growth of SPS. Have softeys? Anemones? Etc. etc. Basically a "mixed garden" approach (ie. a little bit of everything - soteys, LPS, SPS, .. etc.) is sure to have a lot of it going on. Short of maintaining systems that are designed to favour one thing (ie. softeys tank, SPS tank, no overlapping) there's not a whole lot I think you can do. Water changes, carbons, maybe resins .. It's not a perfectly understood phenomenon among even the more advanced aquarists (again IMO - hope I'm not insulting anyone).

Anyhow all I really intended was to say "Alkalinity is important" and it seems I branched out a bit. So I'll stop yakking for now. Anyhow, good luck. I'll tell you it sure is a great feeling having a nice SPS tank. It's been a while since I was there but I remember the good old days:

(My 75g as it was in 2004 before I moved. One day I hope I'll be back there again..)