sps question

debbie

debbie

Active Member
I have a very established 3 gal pic that I would like to know if I could add an sps coral too. I don't have any fish only inverts. I do have soft corals in there and for critters there is 2 sexy shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 hermist crab, 1 algae eating cowrie, 1 nassarius snail.
my lights are 18 watts of 10,000 9 watts and 9 watts of actinic lighting on a coralife fixture, 6 watts per gal
my filter is a hob filter that i have been using all this time
the tank depth is 8" and the light sits 1 1/2" above the water surface.
i would like to know if a Birdnest or Acro would be best
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
Debbie

as of now i have a orange monti, and 2 types of birds nest. So far things look ok. I will be updating weekly on their status and taking pics as welll. my tank is sitting on also 18 watts but i also have the 9 watt on as well for a total of 24 watts.
IMO i think a monti might do great. but i would place it very high. if it does great then i would add a acro and a bird nest.
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Hey thanks for the reply. There is a guy close to me that has lots of birdsnest and i just texted him to see if there are any acros left. He just wants a donation of anykind for them. I would love to try one for sure but which of the two is the easier??
I really don't care for moni's plus they get huge and the only color he has is the regular red color. but they don't do anything for me really.
do you think either the birds nets or acro would live in my tank Carlos?
I have read that birdsnest are really hard but hey i don't know much about sps and just going to read some in my coral book by borneo
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
Debbie,
the birdsnest are known to be an easy beginning SPS for any tank. But for some odd reason they dont last for me. so i place them in the 3g to see if i have any luck.
anyway IMO i would do an acro. if you dont mind try an acro. or if you can do both an acro and birdsnest. by doing both you can see which one can work for you.
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Originally Posted by nissan577
http:///forum/post/3209534
Debbie,
the birdsnest are known to be an easy beginning SPS for any tank. But for some odd reason they dont last for me. so i place them in the 3g to see if i have any luck.
anyway IMO i would do an acro. if you dont mind try an acro. or if you can do both an acro and birdsnest. by doing both you can see which one can work for you.
I just recieved a text from this guy, I need to know if he has any monti caps yet. But he has lots of birds nest, 1 green acro and 1 green milli
Now you say the birds nest are easy, everything i read says they are very difficult to maintain in an aquarium. However I do like the look of them and if they are pink in color all the better

I will see if he has montis first though.
Debbie
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
IMO the birdnest Seriatopora sp., for a "small donation" would be okay to try a small frag of in this tanklighting. Just be aware that the lighting is on the low side and if the coral does survive it may not keep the color and just turn into a brown.
The Montipora capricornus would probably do well here and keep its color. As it grows it can always be trimmed back to keep it to a size you want and the trimming sold or traded into a LFS for store credit.
You might also want to try a small pc of Montipora digitata it may also do well in your tank. It is a branching type of monti.
Stay away from the Millepora sp. as they will not do well in your tank.
The real challange, besides the lighting, is going to be to maintain parameters in this small amount of water. Evaporation will ocuur and the slalinity of the water will increase quickly if you don't have a way to keep the tank topped off. The other consideration will be the usage of calcium and alkalinity by the SPS coral if in fact they do grow. Water changes will be a must to maintain correct levels.
Just some thought here.
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Hey thanks for all the info. I just left the guy a message so see if he gets back to me. I have to ask though why would he have alot of birdsnets and only a few of the others left. I guess this shows how hard they are to keep. Ifo the birdsnets won't keep its color then I don't want to try it.
I will see if he has any monticaps though as he did have some a while back.
So may i ask, how do you trim these corals??
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Use something like a bone cutter, or just break a branch off on the branching types.
On the monti's us a pair of side cutters or heavy scissors etc., or just bread a hunk off.
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Okay going to try a frag for free of a montipora, he thinks is the confusa one. It has blue polyps but he has had tank issues in the past and lost all his sps except for a few. This frag he is willing to give me for free. He said the polyps are blue but the rest of it is white and should be a light yellow. Any thoughts on this??
I am going to pick it up later on today.
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
well debbie here is an update on the sps i have in my 3g pico.
the monti 2nd day:

green birdsnest

the bird of paradise died.
both birdsnest i have here died. so i gave up on those. ima add a monti digi i have and an acro
idk why but neither in my 95g i was able to keep birdsnest but acros, milli, and monti i can keep growing and they are thriving as we speak. birds i cant.
i guess they are hard to keep. sorry for the false fact.
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Thats okay, this is how we all learn I guess in this hobby. What works for one does not always work for another. But the first fellow that I told you about is really eager for me to try a birdsnest, he says the color is not great being a drab brown color. I have not gone to his place as it out of town a bit but last night a fellow reefer up the road from me gave me what he calls a half dead monipora confusa he thinks its that.
Now, I am not expert on these things in the first place so here we go. He had a huge I mean huge assortment of sps as that is what he likes best. Upon moving here from another province and reseting everything up he had an outbreak of algae that killed all but 4 of his sps corals. So he told me to take this little frag and give it a shot I have nothing to loose.
He says the main color should be a pale yellow with blue polyps. Now my question to you is I can see the blue hue on the white background of this frag. I am going to post the best picture of it I can and I need you to tell me if this thing is going to live, there is white for sure, not a complete white like your birdsnest.
I would like a proper ID to just incase this is not what its suppose to be but I am sure he knows his sps. Oh and by the way, the setup this guy has, oh my lord i have never seen such a thing as this. You are talking to a nano person who does not need all this stuff but wow, we are talking like thousands and thousands of dollars here let me tell ya. Holly crap its quite the thing. A 300 gal in the wall system now all he needs is some corals to make that puppy pop with color. Anyhow, got off track here I was just in awe over it all.
So going to post you a pic in a short while.
Debbie
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
Where you see the white there is faint blue hues there but the pic does not pick that up. The rest of the frag has like a hard algae on it, i took a stick to see if some comes off and it does. Do you ever use a soft tooth brush on these kinds of corals to remove stuff from them or just leave them alone.
 
nissan577

nissan577

Active Member
well i never had any algae on these corals so idk what to tell you. i can hardly see the polyps like you said. but maybe someone else can help you im sorry. anyway like you said all we can do is wait and see. are the polyps coming out or anythng????
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
no there were none last night as i just placed it into the tank but through a magnifying glass you can see blue for sure
 
debbie

debbie

Active Member
well i guess time will tell, do you think it should be placed higher in the tank??
It is on the bottom 8" from the light source.
I have a hob filter on this little tank and the our fow is where i have this frag sitting so it has good flow there for sure but is it to much or not enough??
 
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