SPS coral?

smoney

smoney

Active Member
Well, I am starting to get into corals, and I came across so many SPS corals like Acropora Coral, Montipora Coral, Horn Coral, Cup coral, Leaf Plate, and Wrinkle Leptoseris Coral. I was wondering what they generally require as far as light and other things? Are they hard to take care of? Do they grow fast? ***)
 
xhappyx

xhappyx

Member
Originally Posted by SMoney
Well, I am starting to get into corals, and I came across so many SPS corals like Acropora Coral, Montipora Coral, Horn Coral, Cup coral, Leaf Plate, and Wrinkle Leptoseris Coral. I was wondering what they generally require as far as light and other things? Are they hard to take care of? Do they grow fast? ***)
from what i know.. and i've lost a few already. .. good water quality is a must, mh lights, and they are slow growers...
 
jjlittle

jjlittle

Member
They have high lighting needs you would want MH lighting soem grow very slow some grow very fast. You do need awesome water quality which you shoudl have any ways in my opinion. Some are hardier then others just like any other coral. Monti are genrally easy and faster growers and you can also get by with lesser lighting on them as for the others listed would go with MH for sure and there are so many verieties some slow some fast grower and some have hard time in tanks and can die with no fault of yours there are many studies showing that for some will show little sign of bleachign and be fully die by the end of the day for no reason.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
The only thing not yet mentioned is water flow... sps corals also required strong random current.
I'd start with soft corals or LPS corals...
 
smoney

smoney

Active Member
Yeah, I was just curious about these. I think with SPS you would have to have a tank just for SPS. They look really cool and plus they are expensive.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Originally Posted by Oceanists
what does SPS stand for and what does LPS stand for
SPS= Small Polyp Stony
LPS= Large Polyp Stony
 
tom b.

tom b.

New Member
I have a new 500 gallon tank that is made of acylic 1 1/4" thick and it is bulging at the middle. The length is 60" and it is bulging about 3/8". The builder of the tank claims this is normal.
The reason that I am concerned is that this same tank maker sold my supplier a tank and had installed (that I posted here on tuesday of this week) that exploded on me 24 hours after it was filled with saltwater, live rock, sand, coral and fish. We had 500 gallons of this mess to clean up. I wouldn't wish this on anyone!
The new tank that he supplied to me was reinforced at all the bottom seams with a 1 1/2" x 1 1/4" strip of acylic. The new tank is filled with live rock and coral. It looks beautiful but I am worried this bulging may not be normal. I going out of the country for a week Sunday and I will find it necessary to call home every day just to check on the Mess I might be facing when I get back home.
Can anyone out there make me feel better!!!!
Tom B.
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
i have about 10 pieces of sps in my tank along with a large colt a large devils finger a large toadstool some clams and other softies zoo etc and some LPS corals too
they seem to be moderate growers given the right condtions they take a few months to get situated in the tank then they start to grow.... u need very good water good flow i have about 25X's in my 100 gallon and strong light i have about 700W over my tank so i run a chiller too
once u start with sps they are rewarding because many people dont get into them and they are more challenging.... i havent experienced any ill side eefects from having a mixed coral tank but i run carbon 24/7
u also need to be very aware of your alkalinity and calcium readings its best to have a reactor when u have a lot of calcium demanding corals
heres a shot of some of my sps corals
 
smoney

smoney

Active Member
Nice tank Murph! Yeah I am going to wait until I get like a carbon system thingy and have a wavemaster and many other things to improve water conditions.
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
hey murph. what sort of lights do you use. thre does not seem to be any penetration into your sand bed. we run 1200 on our 140 and even under the tank glows when you look in the stand. sand is about 4-6 inches depending on location, maybe the pics are actinic only or something. just curious
BTW we also run a mixed system with no problems at all
 
murph145

murph145

Active Member
hey oceana
i adjust the brightness on the camera cuz it overwhelms the camera lol
i run 20K's on the tank so it gives off the blue hue but i run the other 200W of 10K PC to kinda take away from the blue
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
Originally Posted by murph145
hey oceana
i adjust the brightness on the camera cuz it overwhelms the camera lol
i run 20K's on the tank so it gives off the blue hue but i run the other 200W of 10K PC to kinda take away from the blue

ahh i see. same for me i also run the radiums and dang tis hard to get a clean pic. i have to set up remote flashes on the sides of the tanks to get the shot above. which kind of stinks because it washes out alot of color
 
sschell

sschell

New Member
I am new to Reef tanks and I keep seeing everyone recommending MH lighting for Corals. I am in the process of setting up a 90 gal tank w/ 20 gal sump tank (still in the design stage) and wanted to use VHO lighting, my intent was to use 440 watts of VHO. Can anyone tell me if this is going to work, or do I need to rethink my design.
 
oceana

oceana

Active Member
Originally Posted by sschell
I am new to Reef tanks and I keep seeing everyone recommending MH lighting for Corals. I am in the process of setting up a 90 gal tank w/ 20 gal sump tank (still in the design stage) and wanted to use VHO lighting, my intent was to use 440 watts of VHO. Can anyone tell me if this is going to work, or do I need to rethink my design.

thats will work for most soft corals and a few LPS. no SPS and no clams or anemones oterh then MAYBE a condi
 
sschell

sschell

New Member
Originally Posted by oceana
thats will work for most soft corals and a few LPS. no SPS and no clams or anemones oterh then MAYBE a condi
Thanks, this is a new adventure for me. Mostly I would like to have soft corals, but I would like to have anemones as well.
Any ideas where a person could get into a HQI at a good price?
 
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