Ok, share with me folks...

[Cujo#31]

There are so many "experts" on line but there are a ton of folks out here that have such beautiful systems. I'd rather pick your brains. I'm looking at taking a serious run at moving my tank from mixed reef to predominately branching SPS dominant with a mix of LPS. What varieties have you had the most success with, which ones have you had the most challenges with, what's ur opinion on dosers, and so on. Share some shots with me. I'm no good at the pic download thing, but a great guy in the valley here, Nick aka "Slyguy" (who has a SWEET setup) is gonna post a shot of my tank on Brad's "FTS 2014" thread and u can see the canvas I have to work with.
I will try to attach pic but......

[Slyguy00]

Thanks for the kind words Gary! Your setup is pretty Sweet to!

[Cujo#31]

Ur too kind Nick, thank you

[Reef Pilot]

Looks good, Gary, and nothing wrong with a mixed reef. Good way to start with slowly moving into some SPS.

I have definitely found some SPS much more tolerant and easier than others. Montis, Birdnests, Orange Digis, and some Validas (not all though) are good starters.

Big thing is keeping your water parameters pristine (very low nutrients) and totally stable (especially KH). Hope you have a good skimmer.

[The Guy]

Hey Gary:
You got a great looking base starting with your live rock arrangement I guess I don't have much SPS but I believe that keeping your water pristine with a good skimmer is important too. I finally got a couple of BRS 1.1 dosers for CA & ALK but still dose MAG manually.
This is what I started with in Dec. /2012

Here's a shot from a few months back July / 2014

And a not so great shot from this morning during my AI lighting sun rise.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Cujo#31

What varieties have you had the most success with, which ones have you had the most challenges with, what's ur opinion on dosers, and so on. Share some shots with me.

You're asking for a book!

The first place to start, is what are the current parameters of your setup? Mainly PO4 and NO3. Do you have any SPS yet? How are they doing?

You don't need a "sweet" setup to produce awesome SPS. It has more to do with knowledge than equipment.

[asylumdown]

I've found most montis (at least the ones I've grown) to be practically bullet proof. Even when most of my expensive acros were dying, my montiporas doubled or tripled in size.

I've also found that the faster the growth rate of the acropora, the faster they are damaged by unfavorable swings in parameters. My slowest growers have all survived my year of tank hell relatively unscathed.

As others have said, stable alk is absolutely critical. How you do that doesn't matter, but if you dose by hand you would need to have the diligence and attention of a robot to keep up with it with even one or two good sized colonies in the tank. A few days of neglect can cause damage that takes from a few months to a year to fully recover from. A doser or calcium reactor is critical IMO.

As a general rule - the more expensive the specimen, the faster it will die if something bad happens. Probably the main reason there's still a difference between "designer" acros and the more common things everyone has.

Finally - I think you're better off going straight to the things you know you want than filling your tank with "learner" pieces. Montipora capricornis is a great testing coral, but it can become as weedy and annoying as the ugliest of mushrooms, and it's next to impossible to remove. At the least, don't put tiny frags of it everywhere in your tank because you can't bear to throw the pieces you accidentally break off out. Be ruthless.

[Cujo#31]

[quote=The Guy;919028]Hey Gary:
You got a great looking base starting with your live rock arrangement I guess I don't have much SPS but I believe that keeping your water pristine with a good skimmer is important too. I finally got a couple of BRS 1.1 dosers for CA & ALK but still dose MAG manually.
This is what I started with in Dec. /2012

Here's a shot from a few months back July / 2014

And a not so great shot from this morning during my AI lighting sun rise.

Thanks for the input and sharing a few pics. Love what you have done to ur tank

[Cujo#31]

Thanks Myka.

A book is actually what I'm trying to avoid!!!Lmmfao. I am just fishing for "stay away from these.....These are a great addition" and so on. I know there are full blown books on keeping SPS, and after reading the whole book which is quite dry material. I still preferr personal accounts from fellow reefers than piling through a bunch of information put together by a guy with more initials behind his name than letters in my name.
As far as perams (Elos test kits) nitrate at near undetectable, if u have to look close to see any hint of color, PO3/PO4 both hovering at around .005
KH sitting at 8-9 ca at 425 mg.....gotta swing by LFS and get a new kit....
Thank god a guy doesn't need a sexy outfit to grow SPS. Mine ain't sexy....how about if we say it's functional and effective

[asylumdown]

There's not really many "stay away from..." Sps corals. If you have conditions that an acropora valida or lokani will grow in, you can grow just about any of them.

A great way to test how good your tank is for them is to buy a frag from a tank where the colours are stable and awesome, and see what it does in your tank over 3 months. If it bleaches out, you might have too much light (but it might just need to adjust), if it browns out and loses all its pop, you might have too little light or a nutrient issue. It can take up to 6 months for a coral to figure out what it's going to look like in your tank and really take off, especially if it's fresh off the plane from one of the big aquaculture facilities in the Pacific. I had some Walt Smith pieces that barely grew and shifted colours every two months for a year before they decided what they were and started growing fast.