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Tank suitable for Sps...

Terryz_

By Terryz_,
in SPS and Advanced Reefkeepers Forum

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tuan Newbie

tuan

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IMHO, it's not the tank that needs 'maturing' but the reef keeper. A seasoned keeper can pretty much keep SPS from day one (after cycling & all the algae phases) - give a matured tank to a newbie and we're talking white skeletons!

It's all about understanding the requirements of the corals, and being able to maintain a stable environment matching those requirements. If you know how to maintain a tank with enough flow, enough light and very stable temp, SG, pH, Calcium & Alkalinity then you can start.

If you don't it doesn't matter if the tank is 6 wks or 5yrs old, it's not ready.

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IanJ Newbie

IanJ

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Don't want to be contaversial, but you don't need to wait 2/3 years to stock sps corals. It depends more i would say on your level of experience with marine tanks. I added some to my tank after 1 week, but i think i know what iam doing, started with well seeded live rock, large skimmer, Ca reactor etc and having some 15 years experience, i knew what my mythology for keeping them was going to be.

Suggest you read up some of the topics pinned on this topic regarding lights/equipment and what you need to keep sps. Start with a few large polyp hard corals, see how they fare, do they grow, do you understand the requirements in terms of placement, flow etc.

Once you have read up on the subject, are happy with you tanks water quality and you have the necessary lighting, flow etc, start out with a frag and see how it goes, learn from there. I am still learning.

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Achilles Tang Newbie

Achilles Tang

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In theory, if you have a tank that has excellent water parameters, excellent lighting & you have good husbandry skills, you can keep SPS corals.

In practice, a new tank is a highly unstable environment, with a young bio filtration capability that still struggling and needing time to reach maturation and stability which should arrive around the 1 year mark.

In that one year, you WILL go through nuisance algae phases like diatoms, cyano, hair algae or other nuisance macro algae outbreaks that will annoy and even kill your SPS corals. These algae will colonise every bare patch on your corals... and cause further irritation and possibly death to your SPS corals.

I have one large colony that has bryopsis algae anchored at the base of its coral branches that are impossible to remove to this day. :(

I moved my liverock, water and livestock from my old tank into my current tank. My sandbed had to start maturation from scratch. In that one year period, I had ALL the ABOVE problems and lost a few corals due to nuisance algae.

Thank goodness today, we have very good phosphate removers like Rowaphos, and very good skimmers to help alleviate the situation as new tanks' biofiltration like the sandbed and LR will DEFINITELY struggle to cope with the tank's bioload.

My 2 cents,

AT

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Achilles Tang Newbie

Achilles Tang

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To add on the above statement.

An experienced SPS reefer may possibly have great success with setting up a new tank with SPS corals.

One who lacks knowledge, how-how, skills, the right setup can still try but will face a lot more problems.

I suggest you invest first in a good setup because that will help as an 'insurance policy' or 'safety net' to make up for the new SPS reefer's shortcomings. ;)

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Terryz_ Newbie

Terryz_

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Still in planning process... The skimmer would be either a diy dual beckett skimmer or MR-1... Lighting would be 2x250w and 4x55w actinic PL... Wavemaker would be 2x 6060 tunze stream... enough flow??? Thkz... For all the comments... Will read up more first...

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nutx Newbie

nutx

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Still in planning process... The skimmer would be either a diy dual beckett skimmer or MR-1... Lighting would be 2x250w and 4x55w actinic PL... Wavemaker would be 2x 6060 tunze stream... enough flow??? Thkz... For all the comments... Will read up more first...

Hi...tho I dun have lots of experience in keeping SPS, but I think the general concept is to maintain constant and good tank parameter

I think having good equipment is one aspect, but to know and familiar with operating it is important too.

e.g.

- Spend 1-2 weeks to decide on the final position for the skimmer and determine where the output will be.

- I take abt 2 mths to fine tune my Ca reactor (maybe a bit dumb here! :P )

- increase hrs for my MH and see the coral reacted.

so maybe you have to decide all your equipment, and play around till you can operate the equipment by 'feel' to maintain the parameter first. :D

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