Interesting advice on Keeping Sps

braincoral · December 4, 2011

Just to share on this article;

Enjoy!!

A lot of hobbyists enjoy the colors of sps corals. Some hobbyist might hesitate about the idea keeping sps corals due to the impression that in order to grow these corals you need expensive chemicals, supplements, and even certain equipment. In actuality, you can cut down on a lot of unnecessary cost that makes growing even the rarest acropora coral affordable. With the economy that we have been through in the recent years, more and more hobbyist are looking for ways to lower the cost of keeping acros. Here are a few guidelines that can help lower the overall cost of keeping delicate acropora corals.

-These guidelines are not intended to give the impression that this is going to give you maximum growth of your acros. It also is not stating that other items are not beneficial to a reef aquarium but mainly states that the marginal benefit of these items is not greater than or equal the marginal cost of these items.-

1) Lighting - Pick which ever lighting you wish to (MH, T5, or LED). As long as the lighting ha enough par, it will work out fine. I personally run 250w HQI MH lights but acros can grow fine under different lighting.

2) Flow - A common misimpression is that you have to alternating flow in order to grow sps corals. This leaves hobbyist having to buy expensive controllers and pumps, which are major fixed cost. SPS corals, especially acropora corals, survive best with turbulent flow. This type of flow can easily be accomplished with a variety of pumps that fits your budget and needs. As long as the pump does not have a stream line type of flow, it should work fine.

3) Nutrient Removal/Reduction - Ever since to evolution of the protein skimmer, hobbyist have been able to keep more delicate acropora corals in captivity. The protein skimmer should be the largest investment that you make in your system equipment budget. I cannot stress to value of a well-built protein skimmer. This does not mean that you have to buy the most expensive skimmer, just one that is adequate for your aquarium’s needs. Most hobbyists now believe that you have to run Carbon and GFO in order to be able to grow acros. However, this is not the case at all. Carbon and GFO are used to supplement the protein skimmer in order low the overall nutrient level of the reef system. A well-established system (6 months or longer) has enough beneficial bacteria in it so that as long as you keep up with your water changes, your system will do fine with keeping acros and will not get overgrown by algae.

4) Temperature, Salinity, pH - These two parameters, along with pH, are influenced due to the external environment that the system is in.

-Temperature stability is a critical factor with keeping healthy sps corals but most hobbyists has also found that these corals will live in different ranges. The main thing is to keep the temperature as stable as possible, not matter what the temperature reading is. Some systems can run without a chiller but this just depends on certain factors like water volume, lighting, pumps, external temp, and others.

-Salinity stability is simply achieved with an ATO system. A float valve with a cheap dosing pump works like a champ. I use a tom aquatics dosing pump and a float valve from here.

-Monitoring pH is more important vs actually trying to keep you pH stable. Your pH level is going to tell you that may have over dosed alkalinity or other supplements that you might have chosen to dose. You'll find a huge benefit in monitoring pH vs testing it. Often, a large pH swing will get recognized much earlier than with a manual test reading, potentially stopping a tank crash.

5) Test Kits - It is important that you understand why you are testing the parameters that you are testing for. New Reef Aquariums need to test for Nitrates, Nitrites, Ammonia, pH, and Salinity. These systems are too new for sps corals but should do fine for most LPS corals. SPS keeps should mainly test for Calcium, Alkalinity, and monitor pH. You can buy a phosphate test kit if you want to but if you keep up with your water changes and don't run gfo, there is no real urgent need to test for phosphates. Out of all of the parameters to test for, I test alkalinity much more than others with salinity next on the list.

6) Supplements - An old saying is that if you cannot test for it, you shouldn't dose it. It is easy to get the wrong impression with all of the uneccessary supplements that are available on the market today. Calcium and alkalinity are the only supplements that you need on a regular basis. This is usually achieved by dosing kalkwrasser in sps reef aquariums. Kalkwrasser is best used in a reactor with RO/DI water but can also be added via a drip bucket or even in your ato container. Part A and Part B supplements work in place of kalkwrasser or to be used along with kalk, depending in the system needs.

SPS systems do require an initial investment no matter which route you wish to take. If you follow the guidelines above, you can easily keep beautiful and colorful sps corals without wasting funds on unnecessary cost.

Feel free to post comments or methods that you take in order to keep growing sps corals affordable. Hopefully this thread will allow new sps hobbyist to keep the beautiful corals without spending too much.