The successful SPS tank

[Treebeard]

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".

Originally Posted by Pike

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

[lastlight]

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.

[Treebeard]

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

Originally Posted by lastlight

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.

[Werbo]

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.

[albert_dao]

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..

[Treebeard]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

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.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Treebeard

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.

do you test your water?


colors by its self are almost always lighting or nutrient related

growth would be more towards supplements and flow

[reefwars]

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

[lemon604]

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.

[Pike]

^ 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