How to transition between a softie to LPS to SPS tank?

SanguinesDream · #1 01-07-2016, 07:45 PM

As I master....hahahahahaha, who am I kidding? Err, as I improve my humble reef keeping skills, I set my sights onto the next level of critters and their increasingly difficult challenges that come with keeping them alive and eventually thriving.

Lately, those pretty sticks that vendors charge mucho bueno donaros for, aren't dying or staying that lovely hue of oatmeal that brownapora assumes in a tank without the required environment. Much to my surprise, they are growing and even more surprising, coloring up into beautiful blues, purples and greens. Cool!

Now I need to start phasing out my softies lest they poison the pretty sticks. What softies and LPS can coexist with the pretty sticks? I have some beautiful mushroom covered rocks, xenia that I can't kill (go figure), a gorgeous favia brain, aussie duncans, a couple of maxi minis, several zoa colonies and a trachy but have sold off anything that has long sweeper tentacles as the sps out compete the others for real estate.

What do you keep and what do you sell off as you transition to a sps dominant tank?

Animal-Chin · #2 01-07-2016, 08:45 PM

I think its personal preference really. I have everything from mushrooms to acro in my tank, they call all live together. I have high flow up top where my sps are and lower flow down low for my LPS. I have the lights high enough to keep my sps happy but not so high that my LPS wont come out. This all took time to figure out though.

The biggest challenge with sps dominant tanks are keeping your levels right. SPS unlike your other coral devour calcium, alk and magnesium so you have to replace it. If you have 1 sps, no biggie, have 10 and you'll find your levels can drop in a day or two and this is where dosing comes in. Plus remember the more you add the more you tank needs so if you start a routeen it will change over time as your tank requires more. Softies don't really care because they don't build skeletons but those sps are crazy when it comes to depletion.

Light, flow and nutrients, those are the 3 main factors. I have a big zoa garden beside my hammer coral under my cali tort acro, they can all co exist if they are happy...

Reef Pilot · #3 01-07-2016, 08:53 PM

Well, for starters get rid of anything that resembles a mushroom. I made the mistake of letting a few "pretty" ones grow here and there. Now they are choking out my SPS,... and I can't get rid of them. And believe me, have tried everything... I will take a tank full of aiptasia, valonia, almost anything except these scourges.

Animal-Chin · #4 01-07-2016, 09:01 PM

Have you tried injecting the mouths with lemon juice? I watched apastia melt to nothing with lemon juice, maybe it'll kill mushrooms too?

Reef Pilot · #5 01-07-2016, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

Have you tried injecting the mouths with lemon juice? I watched apastia melt to nothing with lemon juice, maybe it'll kill mushrooms too?

Aiptasia were easy to get rid of (Pearscales), but have not been able to kill (permanently) the mushrooms. Have injected them with various potions (incl lemon juice, Aiptasia X, you name it). Disappear for a while (couple weeks even), but eventually reappear again out of their holes.

Problem now is they are all over, and impossible to even get at 90% of them.

If there are only a few here and there, can be removed by taking out the live rock and chipping out that piece of it. Only thing that worked for me. But now it is too late.

Only solution might be some predator, but have not found one.

whatcaneyedo · #6 01-07-2016, 09:47 PM

Sort of off topic, but its a common misconception that softies don't produce skeletons. They do in fact create little rice grain looking bits of skeleton within their tissue called sclerites that help to give them structure. So a soft coral dominated system still requires calcium carbonate, how much is relative to the size and species of the colonies.

That being said I too tried to get rid of all of the aggressive/invasive softies like mushrooms, anthelia, kenya tree, green star polyps etc when I transitioned to SPS and LPS dominated. In most cases I sold off the rocks that were colonized and replaced them with new rocks. I am okay with zoanthids and certain leathery coral like Sarcophyton that don't drop clones every other day.

Reefer Rob · #7 01-07-2016, 10:53 PM

Aaarrrrg, ricordea, aggressive little beasties. The only way to get rid of them is to carve them off the rocks. Once they get under your Acropora it's almost impossible.

Also, every tank I start I say no encrusting Monties this time *sigh* If you haven't done it already try to avoid them. They slowly creep across the tank killing everything in their path.

SanguinesDream · #8 01-07-2016, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Well, for starters get rid of anything that resembles a mushroom. I made the mistake of letting a few "pretty" ones grow here and there. Now they are choking out my SPS,... and I can't get rid of them. And believe me, have tried everything... I will take a tank full of aiptasia, valonia, almost anything except these scourges.

It's funny that you say that because I have a beautiful, true blue mushroom right at the base of one of my acros and no matter how I irritate it (squirt a turkey baster, poke sharp items at it, try and cut it off), it will not move.

SanguinesDream · #9 01-07-2016, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

Also, every tank I start I say no encrusting Monties this time *sigh* If you haven't done it already try to avoid them. They slowly creep across the tank killing everything in their path.

But, but, but they're so puurrty! I hear ya, though. I have a green w/purple tipped monti bulldozing through one acro atm so much so that I broke my tank apart last weekend to isolate that rock.