The successful SPS tank
 

Is there a successful "minimalists" approach to keeping a vibrant and colorful SPS tank? What I mean is, can it be done without using a lot of additives and dosing etc.? Is having good water quality, appropriate flow and lighting enough?
I've been researching this to death and am no further ahead than when I started.

No I dont think so, not for sps. And besides a minimalist approach would be boring for most reefers I think. Are you researching for your first tank? go LPS you will enjoy it just as much or more because it can be more minimalist than an SPS tank

I think your dreaming lol:lol:

My tank has been running for 6 years and I already have some LPS and SPS, however the SPS is brown and I just added some more frags. Growth is not a problem, I just want to maintain the color of the new stuff.
Boring? You mean as in spend another wheelbarrow fu of cash for additives and dosing equipment? Not sure the missus would find that "exciting".

Frequent changes of water, gfo and carbon while keeping your calcium, alk and mag balanced can give you colourful sps in my opinion. perhaps not the most colourful but def not brown.

Already doing all of that, except I quit testing parameters. And I mix kalk in my ATO. Perhaps my alk is out of line.

You have to test alk and Ca. Keep them stable with lots of light, flow and a big skimmer to keep nitrates and PO4 down and that all you need with RO water for frequent h2o changes.

The less other stuff the better.

Boring as in less things to research about and discover, at least for me thats a big positive in the hobby. And its a money pit hobby so yeah throw in another barrel of money if you want those colours

personally i think one should get decent colours with a simple approach before experimenting with their wallet too much. if you can't get ok colouration with a simpler approach i don't think adding a ton of supplements etc is going to get you there.

If your tank is six years old and your SPS is brown, the reality of it is you're probably not going to be able to break that trend without some major surgery/renovations to the system. Do you run a substrate? How deep? When's the last time you changed it out? How's your flow? Etc, etc..