SpS owners: I need advice

[krazekajin]

I have a 29g tank that has been set up for over a year and I have had wild sucess with it. I love it. It has 175w MH 10K and 2 65w Atintic PCs. My turnover is probaly around 400gph. I do 10g waterchanges about every two weeks. I test monthly and all are in normal range although calcium can be a little low. I did try some SPS frags around christmas but I believe it was my carelessness and newbie mistakes that killed them.
1. I did not acclimate them well.
2. My Metal Halide lamp was a year old and had lost all of its intensity. (i know have a 1 month old lamp)
3. my maroon clown knocked them around like crazy and destoyed at least two of the frags.
most succumbed to a RTN.
Here is my question.
Should I try again. I have learned my lessons. Mainly keep nitrates down. My nitrates were around 20 so I emptied my canister filter and for several months they have been at 0. I know now to firmly attach my frags so they won't get knocked over. So I think I am ready to try again.
I have to frag some of my GSP, and button polpys. My LFS is willing to give me in trade a large 8in purple with green polpys montipora. Do you think I can try this.
I am interested in people who have sucess keeping montis without a calcium reactor.
I am going to get a maxijet 1200 for more flow if I get this monti.

 

[kzoo]

For you to have sucess with sps you need to get your water stable and keep your nitrates very low. This is hard with a canister filter unless you are very good about cleaning it. Do you have a skimmer? Water quality is key to keeping them.Also you need to test for alk and cal. they will need to be maintained with water changes and or additives. ALK around 8 to 15 and cal around 400 to 480. Flow is important to growth so you need a good amount and needs to be random not direct. As for light you have a good about and should be fine. Also be carful about adding any thing to your tank, without qarintine or at least dipping there are alot of pests that eat sps.

 

[teen]

Originally Posted by KrazeKajin
I have a 29g tank that has been set up for over a year and I have had wild sucess with it. I love it. It has 175w MH 10K and 2 65w Atintic PCs. My turnover is probaly around 400gph. I do 10g waterchanges about every two weeks. I test monthly and all are in normal range although calcium can be a little low. I did try some SPS frags around christmas but I believe it was my carelessness and newbie mistakes that killed them.
1. I did not acclimate them well.
2. My Metal Halide lamp was a year old and had lost all of its intensity. (i know have a 1 month old lamp)
3. my maroon clown knocked them around like crazy and destoyed at least two of the frags.
most succumbed to a RTN.
Here is my question.
Should I try again. I have learned my lessons. Mainly keep nitrates down. My nitrates were around 20 so I emptied my canister filter and for several months they have been at 0. I know now to firmly attach my frags so they won't get knocked over. So I think I am ready to try again.
I have to frag some of my GSP, and button polpys. My LFS is willing to give me in trade a large 8in purple with green polpys montipora. Do you think I can try this.
I am interested in people who have sucess keeping montis without a calcium reactor.
I am going to get a maxijet 1200 for more flow if I get this monti.
get your nitrates to zero first.
add the maxi jet.
change your bulbs if they still need to be changed.
then trade the button polyps and gsp for the cap.
and just some fyi, i dont acclimate my sps. i temp acclimate them, pull them out of the bag, let them slime up for like 2 or 3 minutes, put them in an iodine dip, then they go straight onto the bottom of the tank. in a week or two, they get moved up a little, or to there final position, depending on how helathy they look.

 

[krazekajin]

thanks for the replies,
1. I now have 0 nitrates. I emptied out all of the media in my canister and I am only using it as a water mover. Thus I have been nitrate free for almost two months.
2. bulb was changed to a brand new 10K a month ago.
3. I used Teen's acclimation method on the first frags but they RTN, I believe now that it might have not been the acclimation process, but rather the high nitrates and the abuse of being kicked around by my clown. They were small 1-2in frags. Also the one digitata that I had that was doing good was thrown into my paly colony by my clown. This next frag will be securly fastened and away from any other corals taht can sting or sweep.
I am assuming that ya'll have SPS.
1. How often do you test Calcium and ALk?
2. How do you fix them if they are high or low?
3. Any other advice for me.
Thanks

 

[teen]

losing frags is part of the game. they WILL get knocked around by fish, shrimp, hermits, snails, your hands, water movement, etc... so dont get discouraged by that.
try getting some LR rubble and gluing the frags to that once you get them. use big pieces and glue the frga at the very top, then dig the rock into the sand. this should keep them from falling over a lot.
i test my clacium/ alk every few days. i add a little kalk mix to a container everynight and mix it with some tank water then dump it in the sump near the return pump. dkh stays at 9, and my clacium is around 420ish, but thats because my magnesium is low. i havent been to the store to pick up magnesium additives yet.

 

[krazekajin]

This monti frag/colony will be around 6-9 inches. it is cool and large. So hopefully it is big enough that as long as I have it resting securly on my live rock it can be just bumped off.
Also, I have another thread on kalk drippers. I would like to know more about them and how exactly they work and what is needed. I do have a frogspawn and hammer coral that is doing very well, so I know my calcium is okay, but I konw that calcium is more important when it comes to SPS.

 

[kzoo]

You might what to run carbon in your canister if you keep softies, some release toxins in the water and can harm sps.

 

[krazekajin]

I do run carbon in my canister. I forgot that I do run that media. Sorry for the misinformation.

 

[teen]

how often do you replace it? should be replaced every week imo or it could start causing problems.

 

[krazekajin]

really, I did not know that. I thought carbon was good for several months. Might need to change mine though. I was going to change it anyway before I put the new coral in the tank. But thanks for the info.

 

[krazekajin]

Well, I scored. two large 5in x 4in montis. One purple/brown with green polpys and a brown monti that seems to really want to be a purple monti.
I need more flow so I am trying to get a powerhead closer to them and also invest in a maxijet 1200.
But keep advice coming.