Suggestions on husbandry for SPS

[howdy20012002]

Just wondering what books people would recommend for the most indepth information about chemicals, additives, husbandry etc for SPS.
I am looking at trying SPS again and will admit I am totally clueless when it comes to SPS.
as well, where are the best locations to get the necessary chemicals that I will need.
if anyone has any suggestions as to what they do for their SPS it would be greatly appreciated as well.

there are some awesome SPS tanks out their and all I can seem to do with mine is turn it into a nice bright white piece of calcium.

thanks for the info
Neal

[IceTurf]

welcome to the club, I think my SPS turned to a nice white block-o-calcium a week or two ago.

[michika]

Borneman's Corals book is a good starter. It gives you an overview of corals in the wild, as well as a little more specific information on particular species.

I here good things about this one, but I haven't read it yet, Book of Coral Propagation: Reef Gardening for Aquarists by Anthony Calfo.

There are also some good articles out there if you are interested in those.

[howdy20012002]

i hope it is a good book.....lol....
Book of Coral Propagation: Reef Gardening for Aquarists by Anthony Calfo is 199.00 on amazon.com
thanks for the info though...
keep it up.
I am sure I am not the only one that is turning SPS into expensive trinkets.

[mr_alberta]

The most important things about keeping SPS are water stability, water flow and light. If you are lacking in any one of these areas, you'll have a tough time with keeping SPS colorful and happy. The latter two are the easy ones.

Keeping Salinity, Phosphates, nitrate, nitrites and ammonia in check are the first step. Then keeping up Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity demand is the next. Don't forget about Temperture and pH as well...

[howdy20012002]

what are you suggestions for them?
salinity?
alkalinit?
magnesium?
calcium?
temperature?
ph? do u actually try to control Ph after the tank is stable?

this is all based on a SPS dominant tank.
thanks again
Neal

I am looking at setting up a very large tank with a very lite bio load of fish in it..so I am not all that concerned about the nitrates, nitrites, ammonia etc.
for coral propogation, would you suggest having no fish in the tank for best case scenario for corals?

[michika]

what are you suggestions for them?
salinity?
alkalinit?
magnesium?
calcium?
temperature?
ph? do u actually try to control Ph after the tank is stable?

this is all based on a SPS dominant tank.
thanks again
Neal

I am looking at setting up a very large tank with a very lite bio load of fish in it..so I am not all that concerned about the nitrates, nitrites, ammonia etc.
for coral propogation, would you suggest having no fish in the tank for best case scenario for corals?

Here is what I find works for me, lots of other people find other parameters work for them. What I did to select my goal parameters was to read up on tanks that I liked, and to see what they were aiming for.

SG 1.025-1.026
Alkalinity 8-9dKH
magnesium (4x that of Calcium) so I aim for 1600, but I find everything thrives at around 1300-1400 in my system
calcium 420ppm
temperature 78-83
pH 8.0-8.4 I don't try to control for it.

Some people find a high fish bioload feeds their corals. I personally don't subscribe to low-bioload SPS tanks, but its personal choice. I don't do it because I like the look of the fish, and I find that the high bioload (to a point) gives me good colors in my SPS.

[howdy20012002]

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

[saltynuts]

i have anthony calfo,s book of coral proagation.
i could bring it to you.
and i have a book called reef secrets too

[howdy20012002]

from the looks of the reviews, the book is definitely a good buy.
if you are around my part of town and remember it Ed, it would be great to peruse it.
thanks
Neal

[untamed]

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

I venture to guess that this is likely the #1 reason that you've had a problem with SPS in the past. SPS need Ca/Alk in order to survive. In an aquarium, they will inevitably use up the available Ca/Alk and die unless you have some sort of Ca/Alk replacement scheme.

[howdy20012002]

I now have a calcium reactor up and running.
will that help with the alkalinity? or better question would be how do u control the alkalinity.
I am sure some people are shaking their head at my ignorance...but whatever.
Once again, thanks for the info.
Neal

[michika]

I currently use both a kalk, and calcium reactors. Before I used to dose by hand, and wow was that a pain!

For the most part you have to boost Alkalinity. What do you mean about controlling it? As in with what products?

[howdy20012002]

yes.
how do I boost the alkalinity?
thanks

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Neal:

I was under the impression that a calcium reactor would maintain both calcium and alkalinity. Perhaps I was wrong, having never used one.

I dose manually, but like Catherine said, it's a PITA. I use Kent Turbo Calcium and Kent Superbuffer dKH every evening. It's a bit of a pain figuring out the rate of consumption for your system at first, as you have to test daily to see how much is being used....and then adjust your dosing accordingly.

Good luck! Did you just get your calcium reactor? How do you have it set up?

[skylord]

I had to have a look at Amazon to see this price for myself....wow

I will sell you my copy for $100 or you could call J&L and get it for $45 like I did. :twised:

The book is well worth the $45

Scott

i hope it is a good book.....lol....
Book of Coral Propagation: Reef Gardening for Aquarists by Anthony Calfo is 199.00 on amazon.com
thanks for the info though...
keep it up.
I am sure I am not the only one that is turning SPS into expensive trinkets.

[Joe Reefer]

Calcium reactors dose alk and ca evenly, sometimes they can become unbalanced. Then dosing for alk or ca is necessary until everything is balanced again. Here (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-05/sh/feature/index.php) is a little info about using calcium reactors.

[Chowder]

As the others stated Alkalinity is very important. The one thing that is the same when I loose a colony or piece is low alkalinity. I my self control it by testing it weekly trying to keep it in a range of 8-10 . If it is low I buff with Salifert Alk PH boost. I find If I don't keep my calcium above 400 and my Magnesium above 1400 the Sps start lacking in growth and some color. I learned alot of stuff off of the SPS forum on RC.

[michika]

You can also buy Book of Coral Propagation: Reef Gardening for Aquarists by Anthony Calfo from his website, I think its readingtrees.com or something like that. With the canadian dollar being so nice right now, its a pretty sweet buy!

Calcium reactor = works on alk. levels
Kalk reactor = works on Calcium levels.

I've always find the easiest way to get everything calibrated is to start with your calcium reactor, get your alk. where you want it. Then add on your kalk reactor (if you plan to). I've done it the other way, and it was really dificult to get everything dialed in correctly.

Just an FYI when your calcium reactor disolves its media it releases phosphates. You may want to keep an eye on that.

[Joe Reefer]

I always thought people ran kalk reactors with their calcium reactors to mainly keep the PH higher due to the calcium reactor driving down the PH. I dont find any benefit from my kalk reactor so it tends to get refilled with kalk rarely.

[untamed]

I always thought people ran kalk reactors with their calcium reactors to mainly keep the PH higher due to the calcium reactor driving down the PH. I dont find any benefit from my kalk reactor so it tends to get refilled with kalk rarely.

There is no doubt that Kalk can be used effectively to supplement Ca/Alk. A Ca Reactor can also do this on it's own, but the combination of both methods has less impact on the tank pH than either method alone. I'm right now bringing my Kalk reactor online and I'll be able to share with everyone actual affects it has on pH.

Neal asks...
"I now have a calcium reactor up and running.
will that help with the alkalinity? or better question would be how do u control the alkalinity."

Joe Reefer has provided a good link to learning how to run your reactor. I'll just add that the reactor can be adjusted to supply more or less Ca/Alk. The only way you are going to know how much Ca/Alk your tank needs is to get Ca and Alk test kits and use them. Then you will know if your reactor is set correctly or not. WAG is no way to setup a Ca reactor!

[michika]

Wag?

[mr_alberta]

Kalk seems to raise Alkalinity and maintains it quite well but not so much for Calcium levels. Calcium reactors raise Calcium levels and maintains them well but do not maintain Alkalinity as well as Kalk. Run both and its the best of both worlds! :mrgreen:

[Delphinus]

to be honest, I have never tested my alkalinity in any of my tanks..is it something that actually has to be controlled after the tank is settled?
thanks again for the great responses.
Neal

Hi Neal,

Alkalinity is (IMO) one of the most important parameters to track if you want corals to grow.

Ca and Alk have a bit of a see-saw effect. You need alkalinity in order for calcification to occur. If Ca is the raw materials corals need to use up to grow, Alkalinity is how they can pay for those raw materials. Ie, if you don't got the cash all you can do in the shop is look at what is for sale.

Beyond that, as stated already, things like NO3 and PO4 need to be as low as possible as they interfere with calcification; Mg is important for maintaining Alk, and of course Ca and Alk.

You'd be surprised how quickly Ca can be used up when Alk is good. In my ritteri tank which has no SPS, the only real consumers of Ca and Alk are two clams, and if I keep my Alk at 3.5 meq/l (note - to convert from meq/l to dKH, multiply by 2.8) then the calcium draw is 10ppm per day. Ie, without adding any Ca additives every day, the Ca reading decrements by 10.

Add a few SPS into the equation and they will suck up that Ca and Alk like crazy. This is where the convenience of a calcium reactor comes in. However by no means is a reactor mandatory of course, but not much compares to the convenience factor of a dialed-in reactor.

Bear in mind though that it's a bit of art as well as a science. (Hi Wendell! I'm stealing your quote.) You can have nearly perfect parameters and not maintain SPS. (Welcome to my world, BTW.) There's a lot more than meets the eye, pests, predators, pathogens, allelopathy .. and so on and et cetera.

Actually, allelopathy is a big one that is easily overlooked. Allelopathy is the ability of one organism to impede the growth of another competing organism. And there's a LOT of it going on in the reef. Have caulerpa? Guess what, it impedes the growth of SPS. Have softeys? Anemones? Etc. etc. Basically a "mixed garden" approach (ie. a little bit of everything - soteys, LPS, SPS, .. etc.) is sure to have a lot of it going on. Short of maintaining systems that are designed to favour one thing (ie. softeys tank, SPS tank, no overlapping) there's not a whole lot I think you can do. Water changes, carbons, maybe resins .. It's not a perfectly understood phenomenon among even the more advanced aquarists (again IMO - hope I'm not insulting anyone).

Anyhow all I really intended was to say "Alkalinity is important" and it seems I branched out a bit. So I'll stop yakking for now. Anyhow, good luck. I'll tell you it sure is a great feeling having a nice SPS tank. It's been a while since I was there but I remember the good old days:
http://members.shaw.ca/hobiesailor/aquaria/tankshots/75g.jpg
(My 75g as it was in 2004 before I moved. One day I hope I'll be back there again..)

[Delphinus]

Ok, there were 2 pages of posts past the part that I was responding to. So that part where I said I'll stop talking? Yeah, um .. ok, I'll stop talking after THIS post.

A calcium reactor will add Ca and Alk in a balanced manner. Ie. for every 10 ppm Ca, you get 0.1 meq/l.

Kalk impacts Alk more directly than Ca.

Running both is, as Harvey said, really the best of both worlds. It's not just pH control, for one it helps maintain Alk, but also kalk also helps precipitate PO4. Also, I'm not sure about this 100%, but I think dripping kalk helps your skimmers skim better.

There! Now I've said my piece and I'll stop now. One thing to bear in mind that with my comments, I'm a blind man telling you what an elephant looks like. I haven't had a decent SPS tank in years. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. So don't listen to a word I have to say!

[michika]

I'm a blind man telling you what an elephant looks like. I haven't had a decent SPS tank in years. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. So don't listen to a word I have to say!

I just giggled in class...oops...you are too funny Tony :lol:

[mark]

Also recommend the books by Calfo and Borneman (and actually had them both out this morning looking into Elegance).

Had my reactor for a while now and biggest thing I can say on it is it will maintain the levels but not really raise them very well. When I first set it up tried driving my Ca up with it but just ended up raising my Alk at a higher rate, though could be was low on Mg. My pH is on the lower side (8.1) but don't think I'll be trying the kalk to compensate.

Good cost on Ca and Mg supplements from littlesilvermax.

[howdy20012002]

so besides the chemicals and such...
what are people's opinions on bio loads?
would it be better to have no fish in a tank with SPS??
thanks again
Neal

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I think it's beneficial to have SOME sort of bioload. It's my understanding that corals use fish waste as a food source. It's when the waste is left to accumulate, producing nitrates, etc., that it becomes a problem.

[Delphinus]

I agree with Drew. It's more about managing and balancing the nutrient intake/output rates. Sure, a smaller bioload means you have less to take out, but I wouldn't say it makes things any easier or harder either way. It just depends on the situation and equipment available and maintenance routines. Some of the nicest SPS tanks out there have a LOT of fish.

[howdy20012002]

so the main issue from the fish is Nitrates and phosphates correct?
so waterchanges and Phosban?
thanks
Neal

[mr_alberta]

Tony! You lied! You said you'd stop a few posts up! FOR SHAME :lol:

As for bioload, as long as you can manage waste removal efficiently, there isn't anything to worry about.

I agree with Drew. It's more about managing and balancing the nutrient intake/output rates. Sure, a smaller bioload means you have less to take out, but I wouldn't say it makes things any easier or harder either way. It just depends on the situation and equipment available and maintenance routines. Some of the nicest SPS tanks out there have a LOT of fish.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

so the main issue from the fish is Nitrates and phosphates correct?
so waterchanges and Phosban?
thanks
Neal

Hmm. I think phosphates are more likely introduced to any system through the foods we feed our fish. Flake, pellets, and seafood-based foods. Fish eat the food, digest, poop. Then we're talking about nitrates.

Water changes obviously help reduce the accumulation of waste. Phosban is dealing with the results of too much phosphates, but nonetheless seems to be relatively effective. I think it's probably more beneficial to tackle the source of the phosphates instead. Over-feeding, not rinsing seafood (mysis) foods, etc. As well, tap water or poorly-filtered water can/will introduce phosphates.

[mark]

Some of the nicest Reef tanks I've seen have been loaded with fish.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Neal, this (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/rhf/index.php) is an excellent article.

[michika]

Phosphates can also come for disolved reactor media.

Nice article Drew!